According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) we have until 2030 to limit climate change catastrophe.
The 2018 Report and every report since, confirm that urgent changes are needed to cut the risk of extreme heat, drought, floods and poverty. The world’s leading climate scientists warned there is only a few years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C (2.7F). Strengthening nature can deliver up to one third of the emission reductions needed by 2030.
Countdown to 2030
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In 2018 in response to this timeline and call to action, ReScape established the Climate Change Consortium, which evolved into our Partnership Program.
We convene, engage and partner with the wider community- those groups and organizations who are addressing, researching and demonstrating remediation and mitigation.
The timeline has shortened.
In March 2023 the UN IPCC in their, “Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report” stated that temperatures have already risen to 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a consequence of more than a century of burning fossil fuels, as well as unequal and unsustainable energy and land use.
As the planet heats up, adverse impacts from human-caused climate change will continue to intensify in water availability, food production, health and well-being, in cities, settlements and infrastructure, and biodiversity and ecosystems.
The urgent need is for more immediate joined action, including on adaptation, loss and damage.
The ReScape Partnership Program brings together scientists, public agencies, utility districts, organizations, citizens groups, businesses, individuals, landscape industry experts, and others who are tackling, researching, and demonstrating remediation and mitigation to find viable solutions to climate change using ReScape regenerative landscaping principles.
With current warming, it appears there is neither a best-case scenario nor a worse-case one.
Each of us has a place in positive climate action.
ReScape’s goal is to establish Demonstration Projects that will address an issue, provide training, and research emerging best practices. Projects will tackle policy matters, support compliance, and influence legislation at the governmental and civic levels to move all toward whole systems living.
ReScape Demonstration Projects include ReScape qualification trainings. The Projects will collect data, monitor and track the results of our activities through 2030. It will be a means of coming together and moving forward in the same direction to provide practical information about how individuals and communities can participate in the solution.
We know that urgent changes are needed to reduce climate change risk, and that the quick and powerful action of large groups make an important difference. We will track what works and what doesn’t, and continually improve best practices and efforts to draw down carbon, decrease toxic pollution, save water and protect biodiversity.
Nature-based climate solutions offer an opportunity to address both climate and nature crises and generate significant additional environmental, social and economic benefits.
ReScape Board of Directors—Climate Action Resolution
The ReScape Board of Directors, addressing the current climate emergency, voted on this 18th day of October 2021 to affirm and accelerate our work in climate action.
Natural and urban landscapes sequester nearly 5% of all US greenhouse gas emissions, and when protected and managed through regenerative practices provide multiple benefits in fighting climate change and supporting long-term climate adaptation for humans and the environment.
Nature-based solutions are central to addressing climate change: using whole systems, regenerative practices that reduce emissions, increase carbon sequestration, and build resilience.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN IPCC) in August 2021 published the first part of its sixth assessment report, AR6. Climate impacts are occurring on scales greater than anything the Earth has experienced in hundreds, possibly thousands of years. Human activity is unequivocally causing climate change, and some of the changes are irreversible.
Among the most sobering findings is that the 1.5°C target will be out of reach without rapid, dramatic emissions reductions. From droughts, flooding and devastating wildfires, extreme weather events will become more frequent as the planet warms.
The Report confirms that the most important step we can take to limit the worst impacts from climate change is to reduce GHG emissions, most importantly by eliminating CO2 emissions followed by strong, rapid, sustained reductions in methane. These steps would also limit the warming effect resulting from declining pollution and improve air quality.
The IPCC report states that there are still pathways that would lead us to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, but they require deep, rapid cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Our collective actions are our only course for change.
We affirm ReScape’s three areas of focus in regenerative landscaping and land use: expanding diversity in workforce training, climate equity, driving policy and advocacy.
ReScape will continue to push for rapid, radical action and collaboration between government, business and civil society to keep the temperature from rising. We urge you to join us.
Mindy Craig, President
Sarah Gronquist, Secretary
Remington Jones
Oscar Lucario
Katy Rich
Brian Rowley
Cielo Sichi
Ryan Stroupe
Bradley Waldrop
ReScape Board of Directors, 18 October 2021