EDFish

Selected tag(s): carbon sequestration

Blue carbon: A better tomorrow begins below

By EDF Oceans / Published: April 5, 2022

By: Kristin M. Kleisner and Jamie Collins

As we embark this year on the United Nations Ocean Decade, you may be hearing quite a bit about blue carbon. But what is it, and why is it so important for the future of our planet? Well, the oceans play a critical role in trapping carbon, and they have absorbed about a third of all human-generated carbon emissions since the start of the Industrial Revolution. This is important because the carbon that human activity has released into the atmosphere acts as an accelerator of climate change.

When carbon is stored naturally in the various parts of ocean and coastal ecosystems — sequestering it, or taking it out of the atmosphere, where it could contribute to warming — we call it blue carbon. The blue carbon storage reservoir includes waters, sediments, and marine plants and animals. Unfortunately, loss of habitat, overfishing and other human impacts, including those from climate change, are reducing the ability of the oceans to trap carbon. That’s why we are exploring pathways to restore these benefits now and help to secure a better future for us all. You can learn more about blue carbon and some of the ways in which we may be able to restore key pathways using this interactive site. Read More »

Posted in Science/Research / Also tagged biodiversity, Blue Carbon, carbon, Climate change, Coastal Communities, coasts, Ecosystems, emissions, Food Security, mangroves, mesopelagic fish, Natural Climate Solutions, Oceans, Overfishing, restoration, salt marshes, seaweed, seaweed farms, seaweed forests, Whales | Comments are closed

Natural climate solutions cut a steady course through a sea of proposals for ocean carbon dioxide reduction

By Jamie Collins / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: December 8, 2021

When it comes to slowing the warming of our planet, there is no substitute for immediate, dramatic reductions in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. But emissions reductions alone won’t be enough to limit warming to the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal at the heart of the 2015 Paris Agreement, or even to the Agreement’s upper limit of 2 degrees Celsius. In fact, we’ll almost certainly need to complement emissions reductions with big investments in carbon dioxide removal, or CDR, to capture and lock away some of the carbon dioxide we’ve already emitted.

Posted in International, Science/Research / Also tagged Blue Carbon, carbon, carbon credits, carbon dioxide removal, Climate change, coastal ecosystems, coasts, Engineering and Medicine, geoengineering, greenhouse gases, mangroves, mesopelagic fish, National Academy of Sciences, Natural Climate Solutions, Oceans, salt marshes, twilight zone, whales seaweed | Comments are closed

Seaweed to heal the planet

By Rod Fujita / Bio / Published: November 2, 2021

Seaweed forests and algal beds cover about 3.5 million square km of our planet — only about 1% of the ocean’s surface — but these amazing ecosystems generate benefits to people and nature far out of proportion to their size. Read More »

Posted in International, Science/Research / Also tagged biodiversity, Climate change, coastal ecosystems, erosion, Fisheries, Food Security, Natural Climate Solutions, seaweed, seaweed farming | Comments are closed

Blue Carbon: a diamond in the rough

By Doug Rader / Bio / Published: August 17, 2021

As the biosphere continues to warm and the ocean acidifies, solving the global carbon problem becomes more critical each day. Keeping temperatures to survivable levels requires reducing emissions while at the same time working aggressively to absorb as much carbon dioxide as possible, using approaches that can nurture natural ecosystems and help vulnerable human communities flourish. Read More »

Posted in Science/Research / Also tagged Blue Carbon, kelp, mangroves, Natural Climate Solutions, resilience, seaweed, Whales | Comments are closed

Whales, ships and climate change

By Rod Fujita / Bio / Published: May 12, 2021

In all the years I’ve been studying the ocean, whales have provided some of my fondest memories. I remember those humpbacks singing to each other off Maui; the baby gray whale I saw rolling around in the surf near Bodega Bay; and the blue whales that left me awestruck during trips to the Channel Islands.

Lately, I’ve been studying natural ocean processes that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, searching for ways to restore or accelerate them so that we can safely slow down the rate of global warming. Whales might be part of the solution.

Posted in Pacific, Policy / Also tagged carbon drawdown, Climate change, Marine Protection, Pacific, west coast, Whales | Comments are closed

Seaweeds to the rescue, redux

By Rod Fujita / Bio / Published: February 23, 2021

Recently, there has been a great deal of interest and even excitement about how seaweed might be able to help save us from climate change.

I appreciate the newfound exuberance for seaweed, and wholeheartedly agree that seaweeds do a lot for society and the planet. A similar awakening to the wonders of seaweed occurred in the 1980s, but it is now a distant memory. Let’s revisit the past so we can figure out how to create the conditions that will drive the restoration of seaweed forests and the expansion of seaweed farming at scale so they can contribute to carbon drawdown while benefiting people and nature. Read More »

Posted in Science/Research, Seafood / Also tagged carbon drawdown, fishery science, Food Security, Marine Science, research, seaweed, Sustainable Seafood | Comments are closed