Well, well, well, What do you know. Amazon is partnering with the Nature Conservancy on the Right Now Climate Fund to the tune of 100,000,000 dollars for natural climate solutions including forests, peatlands and wetlands. (I guess if you never pay taxes you have a lot of spare change to toss around.) The laudable part is that it will make Amazon carbon neutral 10 years ahead of the Paris accord schedule.
The Nature Conservancy and Amazon Partner to Bring Natural Climate Solutions to Scale
Today, The Nature Conservancy is announcing a $100 million commitment from Amazon to restore and protect forests, wetlands, grasslands, and peatlands around the world. Amazon is partnering with The Nature Conservancy – an organization with a proven track record of using the best-available science for conservation – to identify, design, and implement natural climate solutions initiatives.
The two organizations have entered into an exploratory phase to assess carbon reduction programs and to identify, design, and implement natural climate solutions, which will be supported by the Right Now Climate Fund. The fund is one part of the company’s efforts to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across its business by 2040 – 10 years ahead of the 2050 target outlined in the Paris climate agreement.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking? 100,000,000 is a lot of money. 2 million per state. It is enough money to put BDA’s in every 10 miles in all the headwater streams in the contiguous united states. If you invested all that money in beavers they would make sure your investment paid off.
We know that TNC has done great things for beavers, and terrible things for beavers in its history. The acting director now of The Nature Conservancy is Sally Jewell, the former Secretary of the Interior under Obama. She’s a Washington-State outdoor loving former oil engineer so we have to assume she knows a thing or two about beavers.
I hope she remembers this article written in their own magazine not too long ago.
Beaver Mimicry Projects Could Be Key to Restoring Wetlands
Left to their own devices, streams are messy. They wander and wind, pushing up against one bank before turning to swirl around another. In the spring, they pour over the top of the walls created to contain them, flooding wetlands and bringing water and life to everything from willows to deer.
Recent research is beginning to show that if humans create dams to mimic those built by beavers, the final result can lure beavers back and ultimately result in the same positive effects for fish, wildlife and vegetation.
Let me just repeat again. You can build an awful lot of BDA’s with 100,000,000 dollars. And after you do beavers will move in and do the rest for you, saving water, trapping carbon, enriching biodiversity, improving habitat for hative plants.. The Nature Company knows this and has told Jeff Bezos, right?
Just to make sure I sent them both a note yesterday. Maybe you should too.
“Now is the time to think big and work toward innovative solutions to climate change,” said Kara Hurst, worldwide director of sustainability, Amazon. “We need a partner like TNC to ensure we apply the best conservation science and develop strategic programs to reach our goals.”
We couldn’t agree more, Kara.
