AmericaSpeaks TheVoiceOfJoyce The oceans from the Atlantic thru the Caribbean and into Africa have seen a massive increase in Sargassum, a brownish seaweed, that sweeps our Globe. When it’s contained, fish are nourished. When it’s overgrown, it rots and produces Hydrogen Sulfide and arsenic. The overgrowth is forming as our oceans warm. Why should we care? This form of seaweed traps Carbon and scaled up , it can be collected by robots and sunk in the oceans for centuries. It’s another way to maintain a 1.5 degree Celsius rise in Global temperatures. #Science & technology

Posted on by jaslvr

www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/07/great-atlantic-sargassum-belt-seaweed-visible-from-space

There is a lot of carbon biomass associated with sargassum – about 3m tonnes in the Great Sargassum Belt,” Subramaniam notes. “Through photosynthesis it is taking up atmospheric carbon dioxide and converting that into organic carbon.” Sinking it to the bottom of the sea would store that carbon for a couple of centuries, buying the Earth time to “flatten the carbon curve”, he says.

With the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stating that 10bntonnes of carbon will need to be removed every year by 2050 to keep global heating below 1.5C, the Great Atlantic Sargassum belt contains a fraction of what needs to be sequestered – but it could be scaled up with seaweed cultivation.

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