Wetland

• View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230831082418/en/
  Sun Hung Kai Properties Hong Kong Cyclothon (Photo: Hong Kong Tourism Board)
  As a global city, Hong Kong hosts a number of international sporting events each year.
• Many are open for overseas enrollment, allowing visitors to challenge themselves while taking in spectacular front-row views of Victoria Harbour and beyond.
• On 17 December, over 20,000 runners are expected to race in the HONG KONG STREETATHON.
• Alternatively, enthusiastic runners can hit the streets in Hong Kong on 21 January 2024 for one of the region’s most significant running events: the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon.

• These ecosystems support fisheries and wildlife, absorb the impact of crashing waves and clean up pollutants.
• But these vital services are threatened by global warming and rising sea levels.
• Growing recognition of the potential for this “blue” carbon sequestration is driving mangrove and tidal marsh restoration projects.

What we did

We pulled together all the available evidence on how mangroves, tidal marshes and coral islands respond to sea level rise. That included:
Altogether, our international team assessed 190 mangroves, 477 tidal marshes and 872 coral reef islands around the world. We then used computer modelling to work out how much these coastal ecosystems would be exposed to rapid sea level rise under projected warming scenarios.

What we found

• We found most tidal marshes and mangroves are keeping pace with current rates of sea level rise, around 2–4mm per year.
• In some locations, land is sinking, so the relative rate of sea level rise is greater.
• In these situations, we found marshes failing to keep up with sea level rise.
• What’s more, these are the same rates of sea level rise under which marshes and mangrove drown in the geological record.

Let’s give coastal ecosystems a fighting chance

• But this time, they will be competing with other land uses and increasingly trapped behind coastal levees and hard barriers such as roads and buildings.
• If the global temperature rise is limited to 2℃, coastal ecosystems have a fighting chance.
• There is a role for governments in designating retreat pathways, controlling coastal development, and expanding coastal nature reserves into higher ground.

• These ecosystems support fisheries and wildlife, absorb the impact of crashing waves and clean up pollutants.
• But these vital services are threatened by global warming and rising sea levels.
• Growing recognition of the potential for this “blue” carbon sequestration is driving mangrove and tidal marsh restoration projects.

What we did

We pulled together all the available evidence on how mangroves, tidal marshes and coral islands respond to sea level rise. That included:
Altogether, our international team assessed 190 mangroves, 477 tidal marshes and 872 coral reef islands around the world. We then used computer modelling to work out how much these coastal ecosystems would be exposed to rapid sea level rise under projected warming scenarios.

What we found

• We found most tidal marshes and mangroves are keeping pace with current rates of sea level rise, around 2–4mm per year.
• In some locations, land is sinking, so the relative rate of sea level rise is greater.
• In these situations, we found marshes failing to keep up with sea level rise.
• What’s more, these are the same rates of sea level rise under which marshes and mangrove drown in the geological record.

Let’s give coastal ecosystems a fighting chance

• But this time, they will be competing with other land uses and increasingly trapped behind coastal levees and hard barriers such as roads and buildings.
• If the global temperature rise is limited to 2℃, coastal ecosystems have a fighting chance.
• There is a role for governments in designating retreat pathways, controlling coastal development, and expanding coastal nature reserves into higher ground.

• Over the past century, participation has declined in some activities, such as hunting, and increased in others, like bird-watching.
• As scholars who think about organizational theory, management and entrepreneurship, we are interested in understanding effective ways to promote social change.
• We found that since its founding in 1959, Trout Unlimited has pursued a unique type of social change.
• In our view, this strategy offers a powerful example of energizing social change through care, rather than disruptive strategies that emphasize power, anger and fearmongering.

A sport that inspires devotion

• Trout Unlimited was founded in 1959 on the banks of Michigan’s Au Sable River with the aim of building a strong conservation ethic among anglers.
• Today, the group has more than 300,000 members spanning hundreds of local chapters across the U.S.
• It’s a sport that combines deep knowledge of a specific location with time-honored techniques.

Fly-fishing and stewardship

• For Trout Unlimited, that meant subtly removing harvesting practice from images of fly fishing, while simultaneously reinforcing anglers’ deep connections to rivers.
• Editors of “Trout” scrubbed away images of harvesting gear, such as creels, stringers and spears.
• Instead, they featured photos of trout being safely released and of caught fish remaining underwater in their environment.
• Editors included poetry and sermonettes in the magazine that modeled normative values of conservation and catch and release practices.

Caring for fishing grounds

• Americans were recognizing that industrial development was harming precious natural resources, including fishing grounds.
• Dam construction, particularly in Western states, was blocking fish passage, preventing trout and salmon from swimming upstream to their spawning grounds.
• Trout Unlimited framed these efforts as supporting fly fishing through positive change.

An inclusive message

• We see the organization as an important model in a world driven by social media algorithms that amplify negative emotions.
• In our view, driving change through actions that represent love and care, rather than anger and shame, could engage more people in tackling major social challenges.
• Nonetheless, the key takeaway for us from Trout Unlimited’s work is that social change doesn’t have to vilify in order to succeed.