Freshwater wetlands capture and store 30% of global carbon emissions, despite the fact that approximately half of American wetlands have been lost already due to human activity. That shows how crucial the protection and restoration of freshwater wetlands are to solving the climate crisis. 

A newly released study from Sweden reviews this connection. 

That study is not the first time this wetlands-climate connection has been laid out for review. In 2018, the United Nation’s first Global Wetlands Outlook report not only noted the critical climate connection, but reported that these freshwater wetlands were being lost even more rapidly than the world’s forests—three times as fast in fact. 

Conservationists have long emphasized the essential role of wetlands in maintaining fisheries, protecting biological diversity, and keeping drinking water supplies clean. Now we know one more way in which wetlands conservation is essential to a livable future.