What can I do for the climate as a student?

Not all emissions are avoidable. However, they can be compensated for, for example, by preserving intact natural areas. In these areas, large quantities of CO2 are bound in living biomass. The CO₂  storage capacity of areas in ecosystems can be calculated. This makes it possible to directly link compensation volumes and natural areas. For example, the temperate rainforest is the world champion of CO₂ sequestration. Wilderness International has researched how much CO₂ is absorbed by the huge rainforest trees: In an area of 100 m2, the temperate rainforest in our protected areas binds 6 tons of CO₂. This corresponds to the average annual consumption of a European.

The word "compensation" implies that the CO₂ emitted is absorbed somewhere else. This is the case with our forests, but still to an unknown extent, as we have still not been able to satisfactorily record the growth. Therefore, we can only quantify how much carbon is already sequestered and will remain sequestered as a result of protection.

The same applies to many other projects: Solar stoves do not bind CO₂ either, but merely prevent wood from being burned for cooking and thus further CO₂ being emitted. In addition, we have no production costs, energy and raw material consumption for the forest.

More importantly, the aim of compensation should not only be to offset CO₂ and thus stop global warming, but to halt climate change as a whole and preserve life on Earth itself. We can only achieve this with the help of the many important functions that the forest has for a stable climate, the biodiversity it harbors and the livelihood it provides, and which we can only preserve by protecting existing, intact forests. You can read more about this in question 15. How does the rainforest offset my CO₂ emissions?

Our calculator and offsetting project is about CO₂, because CO₂ is the most tangible and most accurately calculable part of our ecological footprint to date. However, we must not forget that this is only one part of the calculation and that our climate as a whole and therefore life on our planet are in danger. Global warming is just one consequence of our interventions in the ecological balance, but droughts, floods, storms and other extreme weather events are also part of climate change.

So it is not enough just to reduce CO₂ in the atmosphere. Even if we stopped burning fossil fuels, we could not stop climate change if we continue to destroy carbon-rich ecosystems and important habitats. We need a real savior of the climate and biodiversity. The best part - we already have it. And we can't afford to lose it: The forest.

Currently, 30 % of the earth's surface is forested. Standing forests have many important functions for the climate and the environment. They prevent the erosion of nutrient-rich soils. From a global perspective, trees produce the majority of the oxygen that is vital for us humans, so they secure the basis of our existence. Forests also filter particulate matter such as heavy metals, nitrogen oxides and soot particles from industrial and car exhaust fumes from the atmosphere and clean the water in streams and rivers.

Through the constant evaporation of the vegetation and the release of aerosols by the trees, the forest itself also ensures the typically frequent precipitation. Therefore, forests are also responsible for a moist, cool microclimate and storing huge amounts of water; therefore they act as our most important buffer against extreme weather and climate change. So they really are the "green lungs" of our planet. And last but not least, they are places of peace and relaxation.

Above all, however, these forests bind more CO₂ in their biomass, soils and forest bogs than is present in the entire atmosphere. If the forest is cut down, the carbon reserves stored in it are released through the use of the wood and the rotting of the branches, leaves and roots and are released back into the atmosphere as CO₂. There, the CO₂ acts as a greenhouse gas and accelerates global warming. Biodiversity is lost and it becomes significantly drier and hotter due to the lack of tree vegetation. When carbon-rich ecosystems such as forests and moors are destroyed, they release more CO₂ than it would ever be possible to bind again in a period of time relevant to humans.

For this reason, forests, especially old primeval forests, are our most important buffer against human-induced climate change worldwide. However, 13 million hectares of forest disappear every year, an area equivalent to the size of Greece.

Without the forest, our air would be too polluted to breathe, there would not be enough reliable rain, our soils would be washed out and depleted of nutrients, our water sources would dry up, and drought and heat would plague us. That's why we think it's time to say thank you to nature for all the free services it provides us with every day and without which life would be impossible. If we want to save the climate as a whole and life on our planet, it is not enough to bind CO₂ in new plantings at some point in the future or to reduce it through innovative technologies.

We must say thank you and preserve all the remaining, intact, high-carbon ecosystems that "give us gifts" every day.