Brad Ack gets why people might be leery about sinking billions of tonnes of carbon pollution in the ocean, using fledgling technologies to tackle the climate crisis.
However, record levels of global warming have put the planet and ocean in such peril that aggressive large-scale measures are essential, said Ack, chief executive officer for Ocean Visions, a nonprofit coalition advancing ocean-climate solutions.
“The oceans have very significant potential to assist and be part of the giant carbon removal challenge we have,” Ack said. “The ocean is already the largest cycler of carbon on the planet.”
Get daily news from Canada’s National Observer
Even the near elimination of emissions from burning fossil fuels by 2050 won’t be enough to cool the planet’s system and superheated oceans or fully alleviate the rise of wildfire, droughts or floods, Ack said.
Carbon removal, also known as negative emissions strategies, includes natural solutions like relying on forests, marshes or soil to trap and store carbon, or the deployment of emerging technology to pull carbon directly from the air or ocean, and then, storing it long term.
Estimates suggest between five and 16 billion tonnes of CO2, or 16 GtCO2 (gigatonnes), will need to be removed annually by 2050, depending on the rate of emissions reductions and whether we overshoot our climate targets.
What people are reading
It’s not a question of whether we do carbon removal, but rather where we do it, Ack stressed.
The ocean is already the planet’s greatest carbon sink, absorbing 30 per cent of human-caused emissions and 90 per cent of excess heat fuelled by greenhouse gases. Able to lock CO2 in the deep sea for hundreds and even thousands of years, oceans act as a reservoir for about 38 GtCO2 of this “blue carbon.”
Attention and controversy is on the rise about climate solutions that aim to scale up and speed the ocean’s natural biological or chemical processes to capture and store C02.
The ocean sequesters CO2 in two ways: As microscopic marine creatures or plants absorb carbon, and when carbon dioxide dissolves in the ocean.
Phytoplankton at the ocean’s surface draw carbon and release oxygen during photosynthesis. They can be eaten by other animals, or die and fall to the ocean floor where they get trapped in sediment.
Surface water also absorbs and dissolves carbon. The colder and less salty the water, the more dissolved carbon it can take up. Frigid water near the poles tends to absorb more CO2, and being denser, sinks to the sea floor, moving with deep ocean currents under pressure into marine basins for long periods of time.
There’s a rising swell of interest in marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) solutions aiming to scale up and speed the ocean’s natural biological or chemical processes to capture and store CO2, Ack said.
Amplifying natural blue carbon storage by conserving and restoring marine ecosystems like mangroves, eelgrass, or salt marshes with tandem benefits to biodiversity is widely supported in the scientific community and underway worldwide.
However, there’s a schism among researchers, some of whom are apprehensive about novel strategies that haven’t yet been tested on a large scale.
Emerging ocean-based strategies are being considered to remove carbon to tackle global warming. Illustration by Ocean Visions
Proposals include massively boosting the production of seaweeds like kelp, which absorb carbon during photosynthesis, before sinking it into the deep sea or turning it into a climate-friendly seafood or bioplastic.
Others involve pumping surface water down to the deep ocean where increased pressure and solubility allow more carbon to be stored. Or alternatively, pushing cold, nutrient-rich water up from the deep to spur the growth of plankton that absorb carbon before sinking to deeper water when they die.
A related strategy is to fertilize the ocean with iron or nitrogen to trigger large plankton blooms.
Scrubbing carbon from the airor stripping it from ocean water before injecting it into the deep sea or seabed, or boosting the ocean’s alkalinity and ability to absorb carbon by loading it with minerals like basalt or carbonate are also being explored.
Critics suggest the focus on novel methods poses a distraction from urgent and drastic emissions cuts and nature-based solutions that are workable right now.
And a number of ocean scientists with the Deep Sea Ocean Stewardship Initiative are urging caution around using the deep sea as a potential dumping ground without a robust understanding of the impacts on ocean chemistry, food webs and marine life.
Professor Lisa Levin of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, led a team study on how manipulating the ocean to curb the climate crisis might threaten deep-sea ecosystems or its vital carbon cycle services.
Decaying seaweed on the seabed could deplete oxygen and pumping excessive carbon dioxide into the deep sea could suffocate marine life.
Seeding the ocean with substances to boost alkalinity or plankton could reduce light, cause harmful levels of cadmium or nickel, destructive algal blooms, or increase ocean acidity.
“The technologies are pretty much unproven,” she said. There’s concern that if people do think about the ocean, they’re thinking about it the wrong way — as a waste disposal system,” she said.
There’s a need for more research and integrated policy to make sure mCDR costs don’t outweigh the benefits, she said.
Brad Ack, Ocean Visions CEO, spoke about the need to advance science on ocean carbon removal at the recent UN Climate Summit in Dubai. Photo courtesy Ocean Visions.
Ack agreed, noting Ocean Visions has created a blueprint to accelerate science and actions needed to prove or disprove the viability of novel ocean carbon removal methods by 2030.
“We’re a consortium of science organizations trying to ask and answer the most critical questions about whether or not this can scale and we can do it safely, effectively, and how it compares with all of the other alternatives,” Ack said.
To date, the focus of carbon clean-up has centred on land-based natural solutions, which simply cannot meet the significant carbon removal that’s necessary, Ack said.
Two billion tonnes of CO2, or two gigatonnes (GtCO2), are being removed annually — the vast majority using conventional land-based methods like protecting or restoring forests or soil management, recent research indicates.
A mere one per cent of that total comes from emerging technologies like direct air capture (DAC) and storage.
Yet natural terrestrial carbon removal, even scaled up to five GtCO2 by 2050, won’t be enough on its own to reach net zero.
It’s estimated novel methods including ocean-based options need to provide half of the 10 GtCO2 removal needed by mid-century. Those strategies must increase to an estimated 15 GtCO2 by the end of the century.
There will undoubtedly be trade-offs to large-scale interventions, but the climate crisis is now immune to tentative interventions, he said.
It’s analogous to using chemotherapy, which has unpleasant symptoms, to treat a lethal cancer, he added.
Global warming is on track to be increasingly life-threatening, he stressed.
“We know it and see it in our real lives,” Ack said.
‘Now the question is, how many different forms of medical intervention are we willing to try to keep ourselves alive?”
Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
