Can seaweed help curb global warming?
-
0:04 - 0:06Oh, there's a lot of it.
-
0:07 - 0:09This is seaweed.
-
0:14 - 0:15It's pretty humble stuff.
-
0:16 - 0:19But it does have
some remarkable qualities. -
0:19 - 0:22For one, it grows really fast.
-
0:23 - 0:26So the carbon that is part
of that seaweed, -
0:26 - 0:28just a few weeks ago,
-
0:28 - 0:32was floating in the atmosphere
as atmospheric CO2, -
0:32 - 0:35driving all the adverse consequences
of climate change. -
0:36 - 0:40For the moment, it's locked
safely away in the seaweed, -
0:40 - 0:41but when that seaweed rots --
-
0:41 - 0:44and by the smell of it,
it's not far away -- -
0:44 - 0:49when it rots, that CO2 will be released
back to the atmosphere. -
0:49 - 0:53Wouldn't it be fantastic
if we could find a way -
0:53 - 0:57of keeping that CO2 locked up long-term,
-
0:57 - 1:02and thereby significantly contributing
to solving the climate problem? -
1:04 - 1:06What I'm talking about here is drawdown.
-
1:07 - 1:10It's now become the other half
of the climate challenge. -
1:10 - 1:14And that's because
we have delayed so long, -
1:14 - 1:16in terms of addressing climate change,
-
1:16 - 1:21that we now have to do two very big
and very difficult things at once. -
1:21 - 1:24We have to cut our emissions
and clean our energy supply -
1:25 - 1:28at the same time that we draw
significant volumes -
1:28 - 1:31of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
-
1:31 - 1:35If we don't do that, about 25 percent
of the CO2 we put in the air -
1:35 - 1:38will remain there,
by human standards, forever. -
1:39 - 1:40So we have to act.
-
1:42 - 1:46This is really a new phase
in addressing the climate crisis -
1:46 - 1:48and it demands new thinking.
-
1:48 - 1:52So, ideas like carbon offsets
really don't make sense -
1:52 - 1:54in the modern era.
-
1:54 - 1:55You know, when you offset something,
-
1:55 - 1:59you say, "I'll permit myself to put
some greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, -
1:59 - 2:01but then I'll offset it
by drawing it down." -
2:01 - 2:04When you've got to both cut your emissions
-
2:04 - 2:05and draw down CO2,
-
2:05 - 2:08that thinking doesn't make sense anymore.
-
2:08 - 2:10And when we're talking about drawdown,
-
2:10 - 2:15we're talking about putting large volumes
of greenhouses gases, particularly CO2, -
2:15 - 2:17out of circulation.
-
2:17 - 2:19And to do that, we need a carbon price.
-
2:19 - 2:23We need a significant price
that we'll pay for that service -
2:23 - 2:25that we'll all benefit from.
-
2:26 - 2:28We've made almost no progress so far
-
2:29 - 2:31with the second half
of the climate challenge. -
2:31 - 2:33It's not on most people's radar.
-
2:34 - 2:38And, you know, I must say,
at times, I hear people saying, -
2:38 - 2:42"I've lost hope that we can do anything
about the climate crisis." -
2:42 - 2:45And look, I've had my sleepless
nights too, I can tell you. -
2:45 - 2:49But I'm here today as an ambassador
for this humble weed, seaweed. -
2:51 - 2:55I think it has the potential
-
2:55 - 3:00to be a big part of addressing
the challenge of climate change -
3:00 - 3:02and a big part of our future.
-
3:02 - 3:06Now, what the scientists are telling us
we need to do over the next 80-odd years -
3:07 - 3:08to the end of this century,
-
3:08 - 3:11is to cut our greenhouse gas emissions
-
3:11 - 3:14by three percent every year,
-
3:14 - 3:18and draw three gigatons of CO2
out of the atmosphere every year. -
3:18 - 3:22Those numbers are so large
that they baffle us. -
3:22 - 3:24But that's what the scientists
tell us we need to do. -
3:25 - 3:27I really hate showing this graph,
-
3:27 - 3:29but I'm sorry, I have to do it.
-
3:29 - 3:32It is very eloquent
in terms of telling the story -
3:32 - 3:34of my personal failure
-
3:34 - 3:37in terms of all the advocacy I've done
in climate change work -
3:37 - 3:41and in fact, our collective failure
to address climate change. -
3:41 - 3:43You can see our trajectory there
-
3:43 - 3:46in terms of warming
and greenhouse gas concentrations. -
3:46 - 3:50You can see all of the great
scientific announcements that we've made, -
3:50 - 3:53saying how much danger
we face with climate change. -
3:53 - 3:55You can see the political meetings.
-
3:55 - 3:58None of it has changed the trajectory.
-
3:58 - 4:01And this is why we need new thinking,
-
4:01 - 4:03we need a new approach.
-
4:04 - 4:10So how might we go about drawing down
greenhouse gases at a large scale? -
4:11 - 4:13There's really only two ways of doing it,
-
4:13 - 4:16and I've done a very deep dive
into drawdown. -
4:17 - 4:20And I'll preempt my --
-
4:20 - 4:25And I would say this stuff comes up
smelling like roses at the end of the day. -
4:25 - 4:27It does, it's one of the best options,
-
4:27 - 4:30but there are many, many possibilities.
-
4:30 - 4:34There are chemical pathways
and biological pathways. -
4:34 - 4:37So two ways, really,
of getting the job done. -
4:37 - 4:39The biological pathways are fantastic
-
4:39 - 4:43because the energy source
that's needed to drive them, the sun, -
4:43 - 4:44is effectively free.
-
4:44 - 4:47We use the sun to drive
photosynthesis in plants, -
4:47 - 4:50break apart that CO2
and capture the carbon. -
4:50 - 4:51There are also chemical pathways.
-
4:51 - 4:54They sound ominous, but actually,
they're not bad at all. -
4:54 - 4:58The difficulty they face is
that we have to actually pay -
4:58 - 5:00for the energy
that's required to do the job -
5:00 - 5:02or pay to facilitate that energy.
-
5:02 - 5:05Direct air capture is a great example
of a chemical pathway, -
5:05 - 5:09and people are using that right now
to take CO2 out of the atmosphere -
5:09 - 5:12and manufacture biofuels
or manufacture plastics. -
5:12 - 5:14Great progress is being made,
-
5:14 - 5:16but it will be many decades
-
5:16 - 5:21before those chemical pathways
are drawing down a gigaton of CO2 a year. -
5:21 - 5:24The biological pathways offer us
a lot more hope, I think, -
5:24 - 5:26in the short term.
-
5:26 - 5:30You've probably heard
about reforestation, planting trees, -
5:30 - 5:32as a solution to the climate problem.
-
5:33 - 5:34You know, it's a fair question:
-
5:34 - 5:37Can we plant our way out
of this problem by using trees? -
5:38 - 5:41I'm skeptical about that
for a number of reasons. -
5:41 - 5:43One is just the scale of the problem.
-
5:43 - 5:46All trees start as seeds,
little tiny things, -
5:46 - 5:48and it's many decades
before they've reached -
5:48 - 5:51their full carbon-capture potential.
-
5:51 - 5:52And secondly,
-
5:52 - 5:56if you look at the land surface,
you see that it's so heavily utilized. -
5:56 - 6:00We get our food from it,
we get our forestry products from it, -
6:00 - 6:03biodiversity protection
and water and everything else. -
6:03 - 6:06To expect that we'll find enough space
to deal with this problem, -
6:06 - 6:08I think is going to be quite problematic.
-
6:09 - 6:11But if we look offshore,
-
6:11 - 6:15wee see a solution where there's already
an existing industry, -
6:15 - 6:17and where there's a clearer way forward.
-
6:17 - 6:20The oceans cover
about 70 percent of our planet. -
6:20 - 6:24They play a really big role
in regulating our climate, -
6:24 - 6:27and if we can enhance
the growth of seaweed in them, -
6:27 - 6:30we can use them, I think,
to develop a climate-altering crop. -
6:31 - 6:33There are so many
different kinds of seaweed, -
6:33 - 6:36there's unbelievable
genetic diversity in seaweed, -
6:36 - 6:37and they're very ancient;
-
6:37 - 6:41they were some of the first
multicellular organisms ever to evolve. -
6:41 - 6:44People are using special
kinds of seaweed now -
6:44 - 6:45for particular purposes,
-
6:45 - 6:49like developing very high-quality
pharmaceutical products. -
6:49 - 6:52But you can also use seaweed
to take a seaweed bath, -
6:52 - 6:54it's supposed to be good for your skin;
-
6:54 - 6:56I can't testify to that,
but you can do it. -
6:57 - 7:00The scalability is the big thing
about seaweed farming. -
7:00 - 7:04You know, if we could cover
nine percent of the world's ocean -
7:04 - 7:05in seaweed farms,
-
7:05 - 7:09we could draw down the equivalent
of all of the greenhouse gases -
7:09 - 7:10we put up in any one year,
-
7:10 - 7:12more than 50 gigatons.
-
7:12 - 7:15Now, I thought that was fantastic
when I first read it, -
7:15 - 7:19but I thought I'd better calculate how big
nine percent of the world's oceans is. -
7:19 - 7:21It turns out, it's about
four and a half Australias, -
7:21 - 7:22the place I live in.
-
7:22 - 7:25And how close are we
to that at the moment? -
7:25 - 7:29How many ocean-going seaweed farms
do we actually have out there? -
7:29 - 7:30Zero.
-
7:30 - 7:33But we do have some prototypes,
and therein lies some hope. -
7:33 - 7:38This little drawing here of a seaweed farm
that's currently under construction -
7:38 - 7:41tells you some very interesting
things about seaweed. -
7:41 - 7:43You can see the seaweed
growing on that rack, -
7:43 - 7:4525 meters down in the ocean there.
-
7:45 - 7:49It's really different
from anything you see on land. -
7:49 - 7:53And the reason being that, you know,
seaweed is not like trees, -
7:53 - 7:56it doesn't have nonproductive parts
-
7:56 - 7:59like roots and trunks
and branches and bark. -
7:59 - 8:02The whole of the plant
is pretty much photosynthetic, -
8:02 - 8:03so it grows fast.
-
8:03 - 8:06Seaweed can grow a meter a day.
-
8:07 - 8:09And how do we sequester the carbon?
-
8:09 - 8:11Again, it's very different from on land.
-
8:11 - 8:14All you need to do
is cut that seaweed off -- -
8:14 - 8:16drifts into the ocean abyss,
-
8:16 - 8:17Once it's down a kilometer,
-
8:17 - 8:22the carbon in that seaweed is effectively
out of the atmospheric system -
8:22 - 8:23for centuries or millennia.
-
8:24 - 8:25Whereas if you plant a forest,
-
8:25 - 8:28you've got to worry
about forest fires, bugs, etc., -
8:28 - 8:30releasing that carbon.
-
8:31 - 8:32The key to this farm, though,
-
8:32 - 8:36is that little pipe
going down into the depths. -
8:36 - 8:40You know, the mid-ocean is basically
a vast biological desert. -
8:40 - 8:43There's no nutrients there
that were used up long ago. -
8:43 - 8:45But just 500 meters down,
-
8:45 - 8:48there is cool, very nutrient-rich water.
-
8:48 - 8:51And with just a little bit
of clean, renewable energy, -
8:51 - 8:53you can pump that water up
-
8:53 - 8:57and use the nutrients in it
to irrigate your seaweed crop. -
8:58 - 9:03So I think this really has
so many benefits. -
9:03 - 9:07It's changing a biological desert,
-
9:07 - 9:08the mid-ocean,
-
9:08 - 9:12into a productive, maybe even
planet-saving solution. -
9:13 - 9:15So what could go wrong?
-
9:15 - 9:18Well, anything we're talking
about at this scale -
9:18 - 9:21involves a planetary-scale intervention.
-
9:21 - 9:22And we have to be very careful.
-
9:23 - 9:25I think that piles of stinking seaweed
-
9:25 - 9:27are probably going to be
the least of our problems. -
9:27 - 9:29There's other unforeseen things
that will happen. -
9:29 - 9:32One of the things that really worries me,
when I talk about this, -
9:32 - 9:35is the fate of biodiversity
in the deep ocean. -
9:35 - 9:38If we are putting gigatons of seaweed
into the deep ocean, -
9:38 - 9:40we're affecting life down there.
-
9:40 - 9:42The good news is that we know
-
9:42 - 9:45that a lot of seaweed
already reaches the deep ocean, -
9:45 - 9:48after storms or through submarine canyons.
-
9:48 - 9:50So we're not talking
about a novel process here; -
9:50 - 9:53we are talking about
enhancing a natural process. -
9:56 - 9:57And we'll learn as we go.
-
9:57 - 10:01I mean, it may be that these ocean-going
seaweed farms will need to be mobile, -
10:01 - 10:04to distribute the seaweed
across vast areas of the ocean, -
10:04 - 10:07rather than creating
a big stinking pile in one place. -
10:08 - 10:11It may be that we'll need
to char the seaweed -- -
10:11 - 10:15so create a sort of an inert,
mineral biochar -
10:15 - 10:17before we dispatch it into the deep.
-
10:17 - 10:19We won't know until we start the process,
-
10:19 - 10:22and we will learn effectively by doing.
-
10:23 - 10:26I just want to take you
to contemporary seaweed farming. -
10:26 - 10:27It's a big business --
-
10:27 - 10:30it's a six-billion-dollar-a-year business.
-
10:30 - 10:32These seaweed farms off South Korea --
-
10:32 - 10:34you can see them from space,
they are huge. -
10:34 - 10:37And they're increasingly
not just seaweed farms. -
10:37 - 10:41What people are doing in places like this
is something called ocean permaculture. -
10:41 - 10:43And in ocean permaculture,
-
10:43 - 10:47you grow fish, shellfish
and seaweed all together. -
10:47 - 10:49And the reason it works so well
-
10:49 - 10:52is that the seaweed
makes the seawater less acid. -
10:52 - 10:56It provides an ideal environment
for growing marine protein. -
10:56 - 10:59If we covered nine percent
of the world's oceans -
10:59 - 11:00in ocean permaculture,
-
11:00 - 11:05we would be producing enough protein
in the form of fish and shellfish -
11:05 - 11:08to give every person
in a population of 10 billion -
11:08 - 11:12200 kilograms of high-quality
protein per year. -
11:13 - 11:15So, we've got a multipotent solution here.
-
11:15 - 11:17We can address climate change,
we can feed the world, -
11:17 - 11:19we can deacidify the oceans.
-
11:20 - 11:23The economics of all of this
is going to be challenging. -
11:23 - 11:26We'll be investing many,
many billions of dollars -
11:26 - 11:28into these solutions,
-
11:28 - 11:31and they will take decades
to get to the gigaton scale. -
11:31 - 11:34The reason that I'm convinced
that this is going to happen -
11:34 - 11:37is that unless we get the gas
out of the air, -
11:37 - 11:40it is going to keep driving
adverse consequences. -
11:40 - 11:42It will flood our cities,
-
11:42 - 11:43it will deprive us of food,
-
11:43 - 11:47it will cause all sorts of civil unrest.
-
11:47 - 11:50So anyone who's got a solution
to dealing with this problem -
11:50 - 11:51has a valuable asset.
-
11:52 - 11:54And already, as I've explained,
-
11:54 - 11:59ocean permaculture is well on the road
to being economically sustainable. -
12:01 - 12:03You know, in the next 30 years,
-
12:03 - 12:07we have to go from being
a carbon-emitting economy -
12:07 - 12:09to a carbon-absorbing economy.
-
12:10 - 12:12And that doesn't seem like very long.
-
12:13 - 12:17But half of the greenhouse gases
that we've put into the atmosphere, -
12:17 - 12:19we've put there in the last 30 years.
-
12:20 - 12:21My argument is,
-
12:21 - 12:24if we can put the gas in in 30 years,
-
12:24 - 12:26we can pull it out in 30 years.
-
12:26 - 12:29And if you doubt how much
can be done over 30 years, -
12:29 - 12:33just cast your mind back
a century, to 1919, -
12:33 - 12:35compare it with 1950.
-
12:35 - 12:37Now, in 1919, here in Edinburgh,
-
12:37 - 12:40you might have seen
a canvas and wood biplane. -
12:40 - 12:43Thirty years later,
you'd be seeing jet aircraft. -
12:43 - 12:46Transport in the street
were horses in 1919. -
12:46 - 12:49By 1950, they're motor vehicles.
-
12:49 - 12:511919, we had gun powder;
-
12:51 - 12:541950, we had nuclear power.
-
12:54 - 12:57We can do a lot in a short period of time.
-
12:57 - 13:00But it all depends upon us believing
that we can find a solution. -
13:02 - 13:05Now what I would love to do
is bring together all of the people -
13:05 - 13:07with knowledge in this space.
-
13:07 - 13:10The engineers who know
how to build structures offshore, -
13:10 - 13:12the seaweed farmers, the financiers,
-
13:12 - 13:14the government regulators,
-
13:14 - 13:17the people who understand
how things are done. -
13:17 - 13:19And chart a way forward,
-
13:19 - 13:23say: How do we go from the existing
six-billion-dollar-a-year, -
13:23 - 13:25inshore seaweed industry,
-
13:25 - 13:29to this new form of industry,
which has got so much potential, -
13:29 - 13:32but will require large
amounts of investment? -
13:33 - 13:35I'm not a betting man, you know.
-
13:35 - 13:37But if I were,
-
13:37 - 13:39I'll tell you, my money
would be on that stuff, -
13:39 - 13:40it would be on seaweed.
-
13:40 - 13:42It's my hero.
-
13:42 - 13:43Thank you.
-
13:43 - 13:47(Applause)
- Title:
- Can seaweed help curb global warming?
- Speaker:
- Tim Flannery
- Description:
-
It's time for planetary-scale interventions to combat climate change -- and environmentalist Tim Flannery thinks seaweed can help. In a bold talk, he shares the epic carbon-capturing potential of seaweed, explaining how oceangoing seaweed farms created on a massive scale could trap all the carbon we emit into the atmosphere. Learn more about this potentially planet-saving solution -- and the work that's still needed to get there.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 14:00
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Can seaweed help curb global warming? | ||
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Oliver Friedman edited English subtitles for Can seaweed help curb global warming? | ||
Brian Greene approved English subtitles for Can seaweed help curb global warming? | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Can seaweed help curb global warming? | ||
Krystian Aparta accepted English subtitles for Can seaweed help curb global warming? | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Can seaweed help curb global warming? | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Can seaweed help curb global warming? |