The Environment

Top 5 questions about climate change

1. Why is climate change happening and is it not too late to fix?
Climate change is probably the biggest challenge the world is facing, but its not too late
to fix it.
First of all, it is important to clarify that climate change is happening because of human
interference. This fact that has been confirmed by the Nobel Peace Price-winning
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
If you dont believe us, take a look at this and see if we can convince you.
Each year we release almost 30 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, mainly as a result
of burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas.
The main sectors responsible for fossil fuel consumption and climate polluting CO2
emissions are:
energy generation
transport
industry
households
This means that we need political action to make changes happen. One of the most
important steps is a global agreement once the current Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
We need to ask our leaders to agree on a more ambitious post-Kyoto regime, with CO2
emission reduction targets in the order of 80% by the middle of the century.
But this does not only rely on politics and leaders, theres also a lot we can do to fight
climate change on our daily lives.

2. Sure, but how serious do governments really take the Kyoto Protocol and how will
any new agreement help stop climate change?
First, we need to go back in history a little bit. In 1992 the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was established and, to date, 189 countries
have ratified it, giving it legal force at the national level. A couple of years later, in 1997,
the convetion led to the creation of the Kyoto Protocol.
The famous protocol is the main mechanism by which the UNFCCC plans to reach its
aim to: stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would
prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.
In plain English, this means that the Kyoto Protocol tries to minimize the human impact on
climate change. The protocol entered into force in 2005 as the only mandatory and legally
binding global treaty for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
A few countries have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol. These countries, such as the United
States, demand more effective mechanisms, but fail to present an environmentally
effective and economically feasible alternative.

Governments of developed countries that have ratified the protocol are referred to as
Annex I countries. These countries have agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions
by a collective average of 5% below their 1990 levels.
Developing countries, known as Non-Annex I countries, have no greenhouse gas emission
reduction obligations.
But much deeper cuts in CO2 emissions are necessary in order to keep global warming
below the danger threshold of 2C.

3. If climate change is unavoidable, could we not adapt to it?

WWFs main priority is mitigating climate change.
And we are optimistic that if we manage to achieve deep cuts in CO2 emissions to keep
global warming below 2C, we might also be able to keep the impacts of climate change
within tolerable limits.
However, climate change is already happening and affecting people and nature all over
the world. Extreme weather events, rainstorms and heat waves are affecting biodiversity
and threatening precious ecosystems, thus putting decades of hard work and massive
investments in nature conservation and sustainable development at risk.
The poor usually suffer most because they often live in heavily exposed regions, have
limited ways to protect their livelihoods and face brutal challenges in the wake of natural
disasters.
This is why, apart from mitigation to prevent things from getting worse, WWF also
promotes adaptation and resilience.
From tropical forests to arctic glaciers and coral reefs, WWF focuses on understanding
climate change impacts and developing solutions and strategies to build resistance and
resilience in highly exposed ecosystems and communities.
Building resistance and resilience are management tools to help limit pollution, prevent
habitat loss or invasive species, and establish protected areas.
But, again, only swift action to reduce CO2 emissions will bring about a long-term solution
to the problems caused by climate change.

4. How can carbon offsets meaningfully contribute to solve climate change?

Offsetting emissions is only the second option. The best is always to avoid emissions
altogether.
Offsetting through financing clean energy projects has become popular and gaining
support from small and large emitting companies. A company avoids net carbon emissions
through five important steps:
Assess current emissions (from production, heating, lighting or travel.
Avoid CO2 emissions by identifying all carbon-intensive activities which are not necessary
(e.g. replace some business travel by video conferencing).
Improve energy-saving measures and ensure the efficient use of energy to stop the
energy waste (e.g. replace inefficient office appliances).
Offset unavoidable emissions through investment in clean energy projects that are
certified with the Gold Standard, initiated and supported by WWF.

Review the strategy annually to avoid more emissions and become more efficient every
year, and decrease the amount of CO2 emissions that need to be offset step by step. The
target should be to reduce offset to zero over time.

5. What else can realistically be done by WWF, companies, communities and you?
We can all help in different ways to tackle this global problem. Here youll find some ideas
on what you can do to help.
As an organizaion, WWF works to keep global warming well below 2C. This is the danger
threshold beyond which climate change is predicted to become uncontrollable.
WWF offers Climate Solutions, an energy vision for 2050 that shows how we can meet a
global demand for energy while achieving the necessary drop of about 80% in global CO2
emissions to stay below 2C.
The Climate Solutions report identifies six key solutions to the challenge of meeting global
energy demand without damaging the global climate:
Improving energy efficiency
Stopping forest loss
Accelerating the development of low-emissions technologies
Developing flexible fuels
Replacing high-carbon coal with low-carbon gas
Equipping fossil fuel plants with carbon capture and storage technology

Top 5 questions about forests

1. What is deforestation?
Deforestation is the action or process of clearing of forests (Merriam-Webster). In other
words, it is a general term that refers to the destruction of our forests.
2. So how much of a problem is deforestation?
Well, here are some interesting facts and figures:
we have already lost nearly 50% of the worlds original forests
each year, we lose 13 million hectares of forests, the equivalent of 36 football fields per
minute
deforestation is the source of 15-20% of global carbon emissions
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that at least 1/3 of the
worlds remaining forests may be affected by climate change
3. What are the main causes for the destruction of our forests?
Forests around the globe are being destroyed mainly by:
clearing of land for agriculture and other land use
illegal logging

forest fires
climate change
The World Bank estimates that governments lose US$5 billion a year in tax revenue from
illegal logging. This is money that could be used for economic and social development,
such as building schools and hospitals.
Taking so many trees out of the forest contributes to climate change. That, in turn, causes
extreme weather patterns such as drought and frequent fires that destroy forests.
So you see, this is a cycle of destruction that is damaging beautiful places where many
endangered species live.
Forests are also home to some of the most culturally rich indigenous communities in the
world, whose livelihood depends on the sustainability of the environment around them.
4. Thats a lot of problems, but can we do something to stop the destruction?
Of course!
We still have a lot to save and a lot do, but we must start now.
One of the first things you can do to help protect our forests is to use your power as a
consumer. Simple actions such as choosing FSC-certified wood products and saving paper
is already a great start.
5. What is WWF doing to address these threats?
Besides relying on the support of people like you, WWF is also working with
governements, business and industry in a joint effort to protect our forests.
To date, WWF has helped establish nearly 80 million hectares of forest protected areas.
And through projects such as the Global Forest and Trade Network (GFTN), we are
helping to bring together over 300 companies that sell more than US$44.6 billion worth of
responsible forestry products per year and employ over 1.3 million people.

Top 5 questions about oceans

1. Oceans are so big and vast, can they really be threatened by human action?
True, we once considered our oceans inexhaustible. But there was also a time when people
thought you could sail the seas and fall off the edges of the world.
The truth today is that we cannot fall off the edges of our planet, but our oceans are in a
state of global crisis.
And the main cause for this is ... guess what? Humans and our destructive fishing
techniques, or more simply put, a result of overfishing.
Todays industrialized fishing practices exceed natures ability to replenish the oceans fish
stocks. As a result, more than 70% of the worlds commercial marine fish stocks are either
fully exploited, overfished or recovering from overfishing.
Scientists have recently discovered that 90% of the big predatory fish are already
lost species like bluefin tuna, swordfish and sharks all stripped from our oceans by
industrialized fishing.
This is the single biggest threat to our marine waters. Unless the current situation

improves, scientists predict that stocks of all species currently fished for food will collapse
by 2048.
2. But overfishing is just about fish. Isnt it going too far to say that it is devastating our
oceans?
Well, not really.
The problem is not at all just about the fish that we eat, but how it was caught.
Some of the worst fishing techniques threaten not only the fish we target for food. Other
species such as marine mammals and seabirds are caught incidentally in fishing gear
and then discarded overboard dead or dying.
This ruthless process of non-target species is called bycatch and occurs wherever there
is fishing.
Here are some facts and figures about it:
over 300,000 small whales, dolphins and porpoises die from entanglement in fishing nets
each year
more then 250,000 endangered loggerhead turtles and critically endangered leatherback
turtles drown annually on longlines set for tuna, swordfish and other fish
around 40 tonnes of cold-water corals are destroyed by fishing boats every year
100 million sharks are caught in hooks
as much as 150,000 tonnes of invertebrates are discarded annually in North Sea fisheries
alone
3. How about if we eat only farmed fish? Is that a better option?
Farmed fish, or aquaculture, has the potential to provide food security, revenue and an
alternative food source to that derived from wild caught fish. But we have to be extremely
cautious with this option.
Why? Well, fish farming can cause other undesirable side effects to the environment and
be economically unsustainable.
The main concerns about the impacts of farmed fish are:
intrusion of fish farms into vulnerable marine and coastal areas
increased pressure on species exploited on wild caught species used as fish feed
diseases which can infect wild stocks
interbreeding of escaped fish with wild stock
So, before any aquaculture development takes place, we have to be extremely careful!
4. Are you saying that fishing should be stopped? Wont fishermen lose their jobs?
We are not at all saying that we should stop fishing altogether. By no means!
But we must have better practices and management of how we fish. In fact, fishermen
and coastal communities are the first to feel the impacts of depleting fish stock.

Newfoundland in Canada provides a sobering example of what happens to communities

when fish populations are fished to commercial extinction.
For centuries cod stocks of the Grand Banks seemed inexhaustible. In the early 1990s,
110,000 people were employed in the fishing and fish processing industry. But in 1992,
the cod fishery collapsed and some 40,000 people lost their jobs overnight, including
10,000 fishermen.
More than 10 years later, the cod have still not recovered. And the latest science indicates
that the ecosystem has now substantially changed, meaning that the cod may never make
a comeback.
Similarly, in Senegal fishermen no longer catch prized barracudas and red carp. Instead
they must go after smaller and less appetizing kobos (a small coastal pelagic fish) because
most of the time there is nothing else.
This means that the jobs and livelihoods of thousands and thousands of people around the
world depend on the maintenance of fish stocks worldwide.
5. Is there something we can do to help solve this probem? Or is it too late?
The good news is that, yes, theres still a lot we can do if we start to act now!
WWFs marine conservation work focuses on finding solutions to:
make fishing sustainable
improve marine habitats
mitigate effects of climate change
promote sustainable use of marine areas
promote sustainable seafood choices
Helping marine life is also one of the challenges where our power as a consumer and our
every day choices can make the greatest impact!

Top 5 questions about species

1. Why should I be concerned about the extinction of species? Is it not all part of a natural
process?
Our planet is in a state of constant change in which species evolve; some disappear.
But this process is something that happens over hundreds of thousands and even millions
of years.
The current speed at which species are disappearing, however, is directly connected to the
way we are over-exploiting our planet. This is leading to what scientists call: the 6th wave
of extinction.
The rapid loss of species that we are witnessing today is estimated by some experts to be
between 100 and 1,000 times higher than the expected natural extinction rate!
And this is even a conservative estimate. Some studies estimate current extinction rates
as 1,00011,000 times higher than what would happen naturally.
Unlike mass extinction events, which involve major geological events, the current
extinction phenomenon is caused by a single species: humans.

2. But why and how are we causing species to decline so fast?

The greatest threats to species and the places where they live are:
habitat loss
human-animal conflict
unsustainable trade
climate change
bycatch
invasive species
pollution
Some species are impacted by only one of these factors, while others are hit by a
combination of them.
3. What species are most endangered?
We get asked this a lot. And we sometimes answer: the one that just went extinct while
you were reading this text.
And we say this because species conservation is not just about saving a single individual
species. It is about thinking about the broader context.
For example, when we seek your help to save marine turtles, we need to:
secure the beaches where they lay eggs
protect the oceans where they feed
guarantee the livelihood of people who depend on them
All of WWFs work on species focus on the bigger picture - their habitat, local
communities, populations and reducing threats.
Everything in nature is connected and so are the solutions to environmental problems.
4. Is there any good news about species?
In fact, yes! WWFs field experience has proven that many species can rebound if provided
adequate protection and habitat.
Some major success examples are:
Pandas in China
African rhinos
We can also list tigers in the Russian Far East, the bald eagle in North America and many
others.
Some whale populations, such as the blue whale, nearly hunted to extinction at the turn of
the 20th century, are slowly rebounding after the global hunting ban in 1986.
5. How can I help save species?

The examples above demonstrate how we can work together to find alternative and more
sustainable ways of living.
This is how WWF works and we believe that a global effort where everyone has a role to
play is the best approach on how we can protect and recover species and their habitats.

Top 5 questions about water

1. How bad is the global water crisis?
1.1 billion people lack access to water and 2.6 billion lack adequate sanitation; most of
these populations are in developing countries
Over 50% of the worlds wetlands have been lost in the last century alone
Most of the worlds largest rivers are losing their connection to the sea and nearly a
quarter of those left risk being disconnected in the next 15 years
Only one-third of the worlds 177 large rivers (1,000km and longer) remain free-flowing,
unimpeded by dams or other barriers
There has been more than a 50% decline in freshwater species populations over the last
30 years, making species loss in freshwater ecosystems faster than any other biome
2. Where is the water crisis the most serious?
Most developing countries face serious problems. In Africa, almost half of the population
suffers from one of the six major water-related diseases, such as diarrhoea, which kills
millions of children worldwide millions every year.
But many developed nations such as Spain and Australia are also having water problems
due to pollution, overuse or mismanagement.
3. What are some of the major factors contributing to the water crisis?
Unchecked dam building and excessive irrigation are among the main reasons. On
average, agriculture uses up to 70% of all water diverted from river basins.
Dams have already fragmented 60% of major rivers worldwide and displaced up to 80
million people.
Hundreds of dams are under construction worldwide and even more are being planned.
4. Ok, this is a lot of bad news, but is there anything we can do to fix the problem?
Yes, theres still a lot we can do. If we work hard to conserve our wetlands and rivers - the
source of our drinking water - theres hope for a brighter future.
Important actions include:
saving water currently wasted in irrigation
fixing leaking pipes
improving existing infrastructure
stopping the construction of massive dams
Another important step is to work with local communities to help them value and defend
their water resources by:

establishing river basin committees to manage shared resources where rivers cross
borders
channelling aid to the countries in greatest need
5. What is WWF doing?
In the last eight years, WWF has helped conserve up to 92 million hectares of wetlands
critical to water, food and aquatic life throughout the world.
WWF is pioneering integrated river basin management (IRBM) or conserving nature from
source to sea. along the Yangtze and Danube rivers. This means taking the whole river
basin into account and involving stakeholders from countries who share a river basin.
WWF brings together local and national government officials to suport river management
groups, such as the Lake Chad River Basin Commission for the benefit of five African
countries.
WWF assists local and indigenous communities in building their capacity to establish
watershed management projects. In South Africa, for example, the Working for Wetlands
programme employs thousands of people to rehabilitate the countrys remaining wetlands.
Other water-saving projects are being developed to improve the way we grow cotton,
sugar and rice - three of the worlds thirstiest crops.

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