What Do We Do?

What have my attempts to obtain a deeper understanding of our ocean and climate systems led me to believe? After a term of trying to tackle and discuss a range of environmental issues and concerns, I am still stumped. There is an array of issues that I am most definitely oblivious to, let alone been able to write about.

As I have implied in previous blog posts, this sudden exposure to the realities of climate change have transmitted various warning signals into my head which got me questioning the status quo of our society. I am not exaggerating when I say that I have never had so much conflict in my mind about the ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ of the world we live in. It is driving me crazy that there are multiple grey areas when it comes to things like sustainable development and efforts to ‘save the planet’.

I remember rushing home after our COP21 simulation session to text my mother and tell her that we needed to do everything in our power to reduce CO₂ emissions. Over the Christmas holidays, I recall getting into a tiff with my older brother who was simply expressing his desire to own a sports car (he is a car enthusiast). I told him he should only own one and I even jokingly threatened to never speak to him if he ever broke that ultimatum. I later realised how extremist I made myself sound on my part and I felt bad. However, I have since been continuously thinking about the possibility of our capitalist system being a hindrance to achieving certain environmental targets. Idealistic, I know, but I cannot help it sometimes.

The truth is, I keep going back and forth in terms of whether reaching these different goals and aspirations for the preservation of our Earth for the future generation is plausible. I do not know what to say to people when they ask me if the Earth is beyond repair. After deciding on this blog topic after the first lecture of the module, I went into this believing that oceans and climate systems are in fact serious business, now more so than ever. My opinion has not altered.

My mother sent me a video regarding our planet and how it is changing and there was a line in that video that hit a raw nerve – ‘nature does not need us, but we need nature’. The Earth will keep on evolving, but can we keep up? While we may be able to entertain the thought of a possible mass extinction (based on track record), it is only instinctual to want to be capable of guaranteeing a future for our successors. Ignorance, in my opinion, is a disservice to these successors.

The Tropical Peat Controversy

This blog post has less to do with oceans and more to do with the climate. I found it to be an interesting topic after I had some work experience two summers ago back home in Malaysia. My three-week stint required me to travel across the sea to Sarawak, one of the two Malaysian states on the Island of Borneo to work in a palm oil plantation. The palm oil industry is inevitably of high economic importance to countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, being the two largest producers of palm oil in the world. While palm oil production itself has certain controversies of its own, I will attempt to reason with an important factor in agriculture – the soil.

To put simply, as the agricultural industry in Malaysia grew, the availability of fertile mineral soil declined. The use of tropical peatlands, which happens to be quite abundant in states like Sarawak, proved to be quite successful. However, eyebrows were raised due to concerns about CO₂ emissions from the soil, and parallels were being drawn to temperate peat soil. This prompted the launch of numerous studies to evaluate the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) released from the various types of tropical peat soils. One of these studies was being conducted at the palm oil plantation that I was sent to.

I worked and helped out with data collection, literally lodging gas chambers on top of gas collars in different plots throughout the plantation every day. These gas chambers were connected to these machines that operated on electronic gas measurement (EGM) data. Soil moisture and temperature were also measured using digital devices, along with the pressure and depth of the groundwater using a piezometer. It was physically tough having to cross over streams with logs as bridges, praying that I would not fall in and embarrass myself, or more importantly destroy the machinery that each of us was assigned to carry around. I also managed to familiarise myself with how easily compressible peat is, having plunged thigh-deep into the soil on my second day. Feeling the entire ground shake whenever one of those load-carrying trucks drove by simply reinforced this characteristic as well.  

I only contributed a minute proportion to the entire study; however, I was made aware that the parallels drawn between tropical and temperate peat soil are still being called into question. Do tropical and temperate peat soil have the same properties when in comes to CO₂ emissions? Is it reasonable to make deductions based on what has been investigated on temperate peat soil?

As we know, peat soil comprises of a lot of partially decayed organic matter, which inevitably labels peat soil as a carbon sink. The main argument is that CO₂ emissions from tropical peat soil will differ from that of temperate peat soil simply due to the different types of organic matter contained in each soil type. Research conducted on tropical peat soil is not as vast and widespread compared to what has been done on temperate peat soil, so many think this method of comparison is unjust.

Here are some points put forward to illustrate a possible disparity in GHG emissions from these two types of soils:

1.              It is stated that the majority of drained tropical peat soil in Southeast Asia are sapric, which means that the organic matter in the soil is quite highly decomposed. This could correlate with the amount of CO₂ emissions being relatively lower since not much further decomposition would occur when the peat is drained.

2.              Soil subsidence plays a role in the release of CO₂. Stephens (1984) states that the type of peat soil, water table depth and temperature of the soil affect soil subsidence. These are factors that vary with different regions and climate conditions.

3.              While moss may be a common contributor to organic matter in temperate peat soil, tropical peat soil consists of more woody material from peat forests and swamps. This woody material may not decompose quite as easily when tropical peat is drained, and hence may not necessarily emit the predicted, extrapolated value of GHGs.

4.              The amount of release of GHGs are linked to the depth of the drainage of peat soil. In plantations such as oil palm, the roots are said to occupy approximately a 50cm depth of the tropical peat soil.

These are the components being evaluated with greater scrutiny. The reality of it all is surely more complex. For instance, a study by Furukawa et al. done in Indonesia state that groundwater levels are inversely related to CO₂ emissions but positively affects CH₄ emissions. Does that mean while less CO₂ is being released, more CH₄ is emitted?

While there is so much to be taken into account before drawing conclusions, economic and social aspects of a certain country come into play. Page et al. (2011) give figures that show how ample tropical peatlands are in Southeast Asia in terms of area and volume, claiming 56% and 77% of all tropical peat respectively. Many of these countries would naturally have the desire to continue with fruitful extraction of these lands; therefore, evaluation of means of sustainable usage should become more vital.

Here is the link to a paper published by Hooijer et al. in 2010 regarding CO₂ emissions from tropical peatlands in Southeast Asia:

http://www.biogeosciences.net/7/1505/2010/bg-7-1505-2010.pdf

Vanishing Islands

Relating back to the effects of climate change on developing nations, I came across this video a while ago. This 7.5 minute-long clip with the same title as this blog post provides an insight on sea level rise in these atolls consisting of the Federated States of Micronesia. We are able to put into context some of the different implications of sea level rise mentioned in my 4^th blog post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFsZm0ddAL8

I found it quite mind-boggling how for some nations, the consequences of sea level rise have become a vital, increasingly urgent issue to tackle. Will the inhabitants of these islands have enough time to adapt to a potentially adverse scenario? The phrase ‘climate refugees’ mentioned in the video at approximately 5:20, really got to me.