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Converting wetlands to other uses result in large emissions of carbon and methane

To help avoid extreme climate change, existing wetlands should be enhanced and new wetlands created so they could capture more carbon.  Wetlands hold about 20% of all terrestrial carbon stock.  However, wetlands, including peatlands, continue to be convered to other uses around the world, resulting in large emission of carbon and methane.  Besides capturing and holding carbon, wetlands are hotspots of biodiversity, crucial components in flood control, and in providing clean water.
Without substantial reductions in emissions of fossil fuels, up to 85 percent of wetlands will be lost in the future.  It would also release enough carbon and methane to almost certainly tip the climate into an era of extreme and rapid change.
Wetlands, including marshes, peat bogs, swamps, river deltas, mangroves, tundra, lagoon, and river floodplains, are covering just 6% of the earth land surface.  It contain an estimated 771 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases, both CO2 and more potent methane.  Some 60% of wetlands worldwide, and up to 90% in Europe, have been destroyed in the past 100 years, principally due to drainage for agriculture, and also through pollution, dams, canals, groundwater pumping, urban development, and peat extraction.
More information, please visit http://www.wetlands.org/

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