With our planet at a vulnerable point on the road toward climate catastrophe, scientists around the world are working on novel approaches that could turn things around for our planet and our species.

Now that renewables are more mainstream, single use plastics are in decline, and plenty of delicious meat and dairy alternatives are on the market, as individuals we’ve never had more options for living a sustainable life.

And if our governments and representatives follow suit, reducing fossil fuel usage and leaving them where they belong (deep underground) whilst subsidising green projects, we could be on the way to a brighter, safer future.

For the government in the UK in particular, researchers from the University of Leeds’ School of Earth and Environment have an interesting, and potentially hugely impactful proposal.

Release wolves into the Scottish Highlands.

It seems like an odd proposal. How would the reintroduction of wolves into remote parts of the UK’s northernmost nation help the climate?

Well, according to the study – which was recently published in the British Ecological Society’s journal Ecological Solutions and Evidence – this simple measure could have an enormous effect.

And that’s because wolves are the natural predator of red deer, a prolific species in the Scottish highlands.

The problem with their presence there, however beautiful, is that in their natural grazing they eat tree saplings, which means that the trees and woodland there are prevented from continuing their growth cycles.

If these trees were allowed to regrow, the study suggests, up to one million tonnes of CO2 could be absorbed every year. This could be massive for the UK’s climate goals, as the University of Leeds’ Professor Dominick Spracklen explained in a statement:

“There is an increasing acknowledgement that the climate and biodiversity crises cannot be managed in isolation.

We need to look at the potential role of natural processes such as the reintroduction of species to recover our degraded ecosystems and these in turn can deliver co-benefits for climate and nature recovery.”

It wouldn’t take that many wolves either. According to the researchers’ models, just 167 wolves would be sufficient.

In fact, according to the data, each of these 167 wolves would be worth £154,000 to the UK economy, since the natural predation processes of just one wolf would reduce red deer numbers such that 6080 tonnes of CO2 was removed from the atmosphere.

And that’s because there are at least 400,000 red deer roaming Scotland, since their natural predators (including wolves) were all removed from the country over 250 years ago. In that time, their population numbers have boomed.

In fact, there is one red deer for around every 13 humans living in Scotland.

Since they eat saplings, their huge numbers are one of several factors that has caused native woodland to decline across the country.

Though the release of predators into the wild is controversial, with farmers naturally concerned about their livestock, the University of Leeds researchers present it as a viable and natural option to reducing carbon emissions and the destructive of native woodland such that Scotland can be effectively rewilded, whilst the UK can come closer to its 2050 climate targets.

And, since wolves lived in Scotland until humans eradicated them 250 years ago, what more natural solution is there?

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