The ocean is the earth’s largest ecosystem and a key player in global climate regulation. Harnessing its power to fight the effects of climate change has been an ongoing project for years, but progress should be accelerating thanks to new technology that’s expected soon.
The “solutions to climate change in the ocean” is a solution that has been proposed by many scientists. This solution includes harnessing the power of the ocean to combat climate change.
Scientists believe that the ocean, which covers 70% of the Earth’s surface, already works as a gigantic carbon sink, taking roughly a quarter of the carbon dioxide created annually by human activities. Atmospheric carbon is absorbed by physical mixing of air and water at the surface, as well as chemical processes under the surface including photosynthesis by marine plankton. According to study, once carbon reaches the water, it may be securely stored up in the deep sea for hundreds or thousands of years.
According to scientists, switching to renewable energy, driving electric cars, and moving to low-carbon industry may not be enough to prevent the most devastating effects of climate change. According to a 2019 research by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, removing 10 gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere per year between now and 2050 is also required to satisfy international climate targets.
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Some measures are already in place, including as technology that absorb carbon dioxide straight from the air, agricultural practices for carbon storage in soils, and improvements in forest management. Now, some scientists are investigating how the ocean may absorb more carbon, as well as the advantages and concerns it would entail.
“We urgently need to find out how to remove some CO2, and it’s becoming evident that we won’t be able to do it entirely on land,” says David Keller, a senior scientist at Germany’s Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. “The ocean is an important part of the carbon cycle, and it’s where the majority of carbon gets stored anyhow.” I believe it is only natural to gaze there. We don’t want to pollute the ocean, of course.”
Dumping tons of iron filings into the ocean as a fertilizer to boost plankton growth–something that has been done on a modest scale more than a dozen times–is one idea for ocean-aided carbon reduction. Other ideas include constructing massive offshore kelp farms and repairing coastal ecosystems.
Researchers from the Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel performed an experiment off the coast of Grand Canary Island in the autumn to see whether adding alkaline minerals to seawater may help decrease CO2.
Michael Sswat/GEOMAR/GEOMAR/GEOMAR/GEOMAR/GEOMAR/GEOMAR
It needs to be seen if such procedures can be successful and safe, particularly on a broad scale. Ocean carbon removal, according to scientists and entrepreneurs, requires further study as well as a long-term business strategy.
According to Holly Jean Buck, an assistant professor of environment and sustainability at the State University of New York at Buffalo and author of “After Geoengineering: Climate Tragedy, Repair, and Restoration,” tinkering with the ocean could face challenges in gaining public acceptance and gaining acceptance from people who rely on the sea for their livelihoods. Nonetheless, she believes it is an essential choice to examine. “We already know how to reduce pollution. But there isn’t much out there in terms of eliminating emissions.”
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The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine organized a group of experts in 2021 to identify six ocean carbon removal methods that might help reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. The paper suggested a $125 million research program to better understand the difficulties, including possible economic and social consequences, and projected that translating these concepts into scalable demonstration projects would cost $1.3 billion. Although several generous organizations have pledged modest sums to fund research, no specific program has been established.
Meanwhile, some eco-entrepreneurs are putting their own ideas for using the ocean to remove carbon to the test. Here’s an example:
Antacids from the sea
Project Vesta, located in San Francisco, claims it will conduct an experiment on a Caribbean island later this year to add a carbon-absorbing mineral to seawater, which would behave as a giant antacid pill. Increasing alkalinity triggers a chain of chemical processes that transform dissolved CO2 in saltwater into stable bicarbonate and carbonate molecules, allowing the ocean to absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere.
The nonprofit organization intends to crush olivine, a volcanic green mineral, into sand-like particles and sprinkle it throughout the shore of an unnamed cove on the island. As waves and currents disintegrate the olivine, a sequence of chemical processes are predicted to occur, allowing the ocean to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. A control site will be a second bay on the island lacking olivine sand. “We do modify the ocean chemistry,” says Project Vesta CEO Tom Green, “but we do it in a very slow manner.”
Meanwhile, Planetary Technologies, a Canadian business, intends to utilize nickel-mine waste, or tailings, to create an alkaline substance that can be dumped into the ocean. The tailings are utilized in a process that uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, producing mineral hydroxide as a byproduct. When added to seawater, the hydroxide boosts alkalinity and absorbs more CO2 from the atmosphere, according to the company. The substance will be added to existing industrial outfalls that flow to the ocean.
Planetary Technologies CEO Mike Kelland explains, “We start at the mining site, generate our extremely mild pure form of alkalinity, transport it to the shore, and then introduce it into saltwater via a permanent outfall.” By the end of 2024, the business hopes to have its pilot plant up and operating near a mine in Quebec.
Using big glass cylinders, researchers lead by Geomar conducted an experiment to see how adding different alkaline minerals to saltwater helps decrease CO2. In September and October, the first phase took place off the shore of Grand Canary Island. The second portion will take place in a Norwegian fjord in May. Early findings indicate that the chemistry of the oceans must be closely monitored to ensure that carbon is adequately absorbed. A chemical precipitate arises if the alkalinity becomes too high, which may be hazardous to ocean plankton.
Farm of Floating Kelp
Running Tide, an aquaculture firm, proposes a flotilla of basketball-size buoys that sustain kelp fronds underneath them in “kelp microforests.” The kelp would take CO2 from the water as it grew. When the kelp plant becomes too large and heavy, it sinks to the bottom, carrying the carbon it has absorbed with it.
Can Kelp Assist You?
Running Tide, an aquaculture firm, suggests developing “kelp microforests” as a way to increase CO2 collection. The following is how the system would work:
Kelp fronds would be supported under flotillas of basketball-sized, biodegradable buoys. The kelp would collect CO2 from the water during photosynthesis, as the ocean absorbs it from the atmosphere.
When a kelp plant becomes too large and heavy, it sinks, pulling the carbon it has absorbed after it. According to Running Tide, it would eventually be buried in sediments or eaten by deep-sea marine life.
Kelp fronds would be supported under flotillas of basketball-sized, biodegradable buoys. The kelp would collect CO2 from the water during photosynthesis, as the ocean absorbs it from the atmosphere.
When a kelp plant becomes too large and heavy, it sinks, pulling the carbon it has absorbed after it. According to Running Tide, it would eventually be buried in sediments or eaten by deep-sea marine life.
Kelp fronds would be supported under flotillas of basketball-sized, biodegradable buoys. The kelp would collect CO2 from the water during photosynthesis, as the ocean absorbs it from the atmosphere.
When a kelp plant becomes too large and heavy, it sinks, pulling the carbon it has absorbed after it. According to Running Tide, it would eventually be buried in sediments or eaten by deep-sea marine life.
Kelp fronds would be supported under flotillas of basketball-sized, biodegradable buoys. The kelp would collect CO2 from the water during photosynthesis, as the ocean absorbs it from the atmosphere.
When a kelp plant becomes too large and heavy, it sinks, pulling the carbon it has absorbed after it. According to Running Tide, it would eventually be buried in sediments or eaten by deep-sea marine life.
“It simply hits the muck, and some of it gets eaten, and becomes part of the ecology down there,” explains Marty Odlin, CEO of Running Tide and a former commercial fisherman with a Dartmouth engineering degree. “The carbon just becomes part of what’s known as the deep-ocean conveyor belt, which is carried through the ocean’s bottom and eventually appears at an upwelling point 800 to 1,000 years from today.”
Mr. Odlin and Running Tide’s academic colleagues are determining where the buoys should be placed to capture the most CO2. They’re also thinking about employing various macroalgae species based on the region. It is currently constructing a pilot plant in Portland, Maine.
Too much rotting kelp on the bottom might generate “dead zones” of low-oxygen water that could damage marine life, according to a new National Academies research, while too much floating kelp could deplete the top layer of nutrients that other marine animals need.
Carbon Sequestration at Sea
What if you could capture CO2 from the atmosphere and deposit it under the ocean in volcanic rock? Solid Carbon, a Victoria, B.C.-based cooperation of American and Canadian academics, has this as its goal.
CO2 gas would be piped into basalt rocks 350 feet below the seabed using floating ocean platforms fitted with direct air collection equipment, such as one now in use in Iceland. The carbon dioxide would be absorbed by the basalt and turned into rock.
Solid Carbon intends to start a demonstration project in Cascadia Basin, a volcanic zone 130 miles off the coast of British Columbia, in 2024. The basin might retain the equivalent of 15 years’ worth of global human carbon emissions, according to Kay Moran, project leader and CEO of Ocean Networks Canada, an academic cooperative that runs underwater observatories.
Any buried CO2 must be monitored, according to marine scientists, to ensure that it does not escape from the formation and rise up into the ocean.
Six Ways to Capture the Ocean
The National Academies recognized six promising approaches for ocean carbon capture and proposed a budget to advance the initiatives into field trials or pilot stages, as well as to investigate possible negative impacts on marine life:
Nutrient fertilization: Increase the development of marine phytoplankton and increase CO2 absorption via photosynthesis by adding nutrients such as nitrogen, iron, or phosphorus. $290 million in total
Artificial upwelling and downwelling: Use pipelines and pumps to bring deep, cold, nutrient-rich water up to the surface to promote phytoplankton production and collect CO2 from the atmosphere, and to transport that carbon down to the deep ocean. It may be challenging to keep the carbon locked up and out of the environment, according to the research. The sum is $25 million.
Create large-scale seaweed farms that carry carbon to the deep ocean or into sediments by cultivating seaweed. $130 million is a large sum.
Ocean ecosystem recovery: Replant and repair ocean ecosystems to jump-start carbon absorption by marine animals and plants. $220 million in total
Increase the alkalinity of the ocean using minerals and other chemicals to enable it to safely absorb more CO2. The price range is $125 million to $200 million.
$350 million. Electrochemical approaches: Using electric current in activities such as raising the alkalinity of seawater to collect CO2.
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Climate change is a major threat to the health of marine organisms. Harnessing the ocean to combat climate change could help marine life thrive in a changing environment. Reference: what are some possible ways that climate change could impact marine organisms positively.
Frequently Asked Questions
How have the oceans helped combat climate change?
What is the most effective way to combat climate change?
A: The most effective way to combat climate change is by switching from fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas to renewable energy sources. A more personal approach would be planting trees in countries where they are needed the most.
Does the ocean help global warming?
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