Giving back…
For as much as we take out of this world, giving back is our duty.
By travelling a lot and living our “big family” life we are taking way more from earth then we should. We know this… and we feel guilty about this, we already took some positive actions: green energy, we recycle, we upcycle, we buy second hand or sustainable, we avoid single use plastics, we eat organic food and less meat,… But still we feel hypocrite..
We console ourselves with the arguments that governments fail to help us:
We would fly with hydro-powered planes to Portugal if they would exist
We would buy an electric van if the range would be more than 500 kms.
We would waste less plastic, if governments would forbid companies to produce it.. etc…
In the meantime, we do what we can and we give back.
For this new project, this house, we decided to give part of the profit of the rentals to a whale rescue program. And every time we fly to Portugal, we will at least compensate that same flight by investing in the same whale protection program.
We invite all of you to do the same.
Why Whales? Some time ago we read an interesting article about the positive effect of whales on combating climate change.
Did you know that the uptake of CO2 by a sperm whale is comparable to the uptake by about 3,000 trees??? So not only are whales such beautiful, mystic creatures, they also play a very important role in CO2 regulations!
To reverse the climate crisis, we need urgent and drastic reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Protecting whales and enhancing the whale population will have this effect!
Recently, the plight of whales has also been linked to climate change mitigation. Most notably, whales are seen as important regulators of carbon levels in our atmosphere and living examples of the effectiveness of nature based solutions, which can ensure both human well-being and environmental benefits at the same time.
According to Steven Lutz, director of Blue Climate Solutions, which produced a 2017 report that addresses the role of whales in carbon sequestration, “the main takeaway here is that whales eat carbon, not fish.” The report highlights how the ocean is a fundamental buffer for climate change: it has absorbed around one-third of all carbon dioxide emitted by human activities and most of the 0.6°C global temperature increase experienced over the last 30 years, whilst demonstrating how whales play an important role in this process.
Due to both their size and swimming patterns, whales both increase the ocean’s ability to absorb CO2 and at the same time actually act as living carbon sinks that store CO2 in their bodies (the carbon captured by ocean and coastal organisms is known as “blue carbon”).
Whales store carbon in their bodies both during their lifetime and when they die. Their carcasses sink to the bottom of the ocean trapping carbon which is unlikely to re-emerge for millennia.
Not only do they store carbon in their bodies passively, whales also increase the ocean ecosystem’s ability to store additional carbon. Through the very process of swimming and diving as well as excreting faeces, whales increase the level of nutrients on the ocean surface, notably iron and nitrogen, which in turn boosts the growth of phytoplankton and marine plants that generate energy through photosynthesis, and in the process remove carbon from the atmosphere.
Source: www.climateforesight.eu
