Nothing I write here is new, but with the Amazon burning last year, and the western United States on fire this year, we need to take another look at the importance of seaweed.
An increasing body of research is documenting the potential of seaweed farming to counter climate change as deforestation decimates rainforests and other crucial carbon sinks. Seaweed grows fast, really fast, whereas trees take decades to reach maturity. Seaweed can grow as much as one meter per day! Cultivating seaweed forests that absorb planet-warming emissions that are fireproof, seems the way to go.
Seaweed forests or farms as they are often called are highly efficient at storing carbon. Seaweed also ameliorates acidification, deoxygenation and other impacts of global warming that threaten the biodiversity of the seas and the source of food and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people.
Farming seaweed in just 3.8% of the federal waters off the California coast could neutralize emissions from the state's $50 billion agriculture industry. Finally, seaweed farms can be integrated with fish and other marine life, to grow enough protein to serve the world. It's something we all need to take a closer look at.
No comments:
Post a Comment