Nobody wants people to dump toxic waste into the oceans. But tragically, the very same natural micronutrients that are the most crucial for the oceans to be healthy and generate climate-restoring photosynthesis have been mislabeled by some as “toxic.”
This is a big mistake, as perhaps our best chance to properly manage the climate crisis is centered on the unique capacity of the oceans, when healthy, to generate the photosynthesis that can remove the ruinous 1 trillion tons of extra CO2 that we have put into the atmosphere.
After 12 years of investigative climate journalism, I have come to believe that Ocean Pasture Restoration, OPR, offers a uniquely realistic path to avoid climate ruin. OPR is a nature-based strategy to bring the oceans’ capacity for photosynthesis back to its historical norms in order to draw down enough CO2 from the atmosphere to give us a real chance to survive.
Nothing else comes close in terms of feasibility and practical ability to lower the damage of the CO2-caused greenhouse effect down to a liveable level. And, rather than requiring trillions of dollars from governments and donors, it can actually create profits in various enterprises including restored fisheries on a local level. It’s fast, cheap and safe — and we have no decent alternative solutions.
OPR restores the health of the oceans by replacing those natural trace nutrients, primarily iron, that have been lost in the last century due to a reduction in the amount of nutrient-rich dust blowing onto the oceans.
OPR adds tiny amounts of mineral-rich dust to ocean pastures in the deep open ocean. Nature herself, by her dust storms and volcanoes, over time immemorial, has on many occasions added essentially this same composition of mineral-rich dust to these same deep ocean pastures, in amounts thousands to millions of times larger than what OPR envisions, and with some pretty impressive impacts on fisheries.
Download Why the ocean matters in climate negotiations
The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development hosted one press conference on Geo-Engineering to solve the Climate Crisis at the Glasgow COP 26 to discuss ocean pasture, restoration. What is never discussed is the term “climate restoration”. It is thought to be “too expensive”! Others say it is not physically possible. This is physically, financially and even politically possible. It will require removing 1 trilion tons of CO2. The knowledge how to do this is available. This involves reduction of the Greenhouse effect. Emissions reduction is only half of what is needed. Ocean Pasture Restoration needs to be combined with emissions reduction. OPR plus emissions reduction will change the data.
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Tags: Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development: Geo-Engineering to solve the Climate Crisis, Ocean Pasture Restoration, Why the Ocean Matters in Climate Change
