The climate impacts tab shows we have a lot of work to do to fix the damage caused by global human activities. It is no help to say that we only have a few people on our atoll (it's true, we have about 150 here), and that we cause very few impacts ourselves (again true!).
The problem is the activities of the other 7.4 billion people living on our planet Earth. That is a lot of people using energy, gobbling up resources, and polluting like crazy. Most consumers don't even know they are polluting: sooner or later a lot of stuff ends up in the ocean,and alot reaches our remote place here.
Repairing the forest takes a long time: about 10 years for a coconut tree to mature, and 30-40 years for the tropical hardwoods. We have begun replanting: the rest is up to Nature.
We have three approaches: restoration, remediation and enhancement.
Restoration: basically the forest has failed. We cut down any remaining sick or dead trees so they don't crush new ones, then we replant. The big issue is a lack of shade ~ it gets very hot in the afternoons and it's hard for the saplings to survive. Once the coconuts become established, we can plant other tree species. We are trying to get three different heights.
Remediation: some of the forest is still intact, the rest has failed. Same as above ~ get new coconuts in the open areas, but hardwoods can go into the existing forest shade and will probably survive.
Enhancement: most of the forest is in good condition, but some gaps are appearing in the canopy. We plant new trees: thinking what it willl look like in 10 year's time. We leave it in peace and check every six months.
Plastics: this stuff is everywhere ~ even in our forests we find rubbish from the outside world. It is a nightmare! As the plastics break down into ever smaller pieces it goes into our food supply. Filter feeders like clams suck it up, small fishes eat it ~ then they are eaten by bigger fish; which we eat. Turtles and seabirds are full of plastic,and the birds also feed theirchicks. A plastic nightmare!