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Are We Ignoring the Best Climate Solution We Already Have? · How To Protect The Ocean

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  We may already know how to store carbon, so why aren't we using it?
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  Why aren't we using these methods?
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  That's what we're gonna talk about on this episode of the How
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  to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  Because if you are here to find out more about the ocean and use this podcast
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  as a resource to help you make better decisions in your daily life for the
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  ocean, you've come to the right place.
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  If you do not wanna miss tomorrow's episode, we publish five days a
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  week, Monday to Friday, you should hit that follow button right now on
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  your favorite podcast app because we are coming with the heat today.
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  We are gonna be talking about the blue economy, and we are gonna
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  be talking about something that we've been doing for a while.
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  And the question really is: Are we ignoring one of the most effective
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  climate solutions we already have?
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  Think about that.
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  Like, we always talk... I remember here in Canada, Justin Trudeau
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  comes out with a great plan.
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  I'm not a hater of Justin Trudeau.
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  I don't love everything he did as a prime minister being a Canadian
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  citizen, but I did like a lot of the environmental stuff that he did.
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  And at one time, he came out and he said, "We're gonna plant a
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  billion trees." And that was great.
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  It was great to hear that more trees are gonna be planted.
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  It's a great program.
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  But is that really the right solution?
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  Are we really putting the right amount of money into planting these trees?
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  Yes, we have to plant trees.
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  We should always be planting trees, especially up here in
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  Canada where we harvest trees.
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  We always need to have some kind of recoup.
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  We always need to have some kind of plan.
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  We have this massive land mass that was once dominated by forests
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  of all different types of species.
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  Now it's being depleted, not only because we've been harvesting a lot of
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  it, but also because of forest fires, disease and everything like that.
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  But tree planting is not the best solution that we have.
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  The best solution is actually below the ocean surface in the
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  aquatic plants that are in there.
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  And that's where the real blue economy is and something that we've been ignoring.
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  So a recent report that was highlighted on phys.org focused on something
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  called blue carbon, and we've talked about blue carbon before.
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  We've talked about how it includes ecosystems like mangroves,
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  seagrasses, and salt marshes.
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  These environments capture and store carbon and sediments many
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  more times than an average tree would do in a forest on land.
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  That is the key.
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  Often they are more efficient at storing this carbon than forests.
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  And I think we get this to the situation where we know more about trees and
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  we know less about these seagrasses, these mangroves, these salt marshes,
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  kelp forests and so forth because they're above the surface of the ocean.
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  We haven't studied these forests in a long time.
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  And to be honest, like, when you put something down below
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  the ocean, it just gets ignored.
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  There's this famous meme that we've seen or a cartoon that we've seen
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  where you have these two guys, these two cartoon characters that
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  are stranded on a desert island.
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  It's this tiny, tiny island in the middle of the ocean, and they're
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  staring out, and the one comments, "Man, I wish there was something to
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  eat out here." They're on this tiny, like, little, little, tiny island where
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  you can see all around and everything.
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  And they look out into the ocean surface, and they see nothing.
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  But below the ocean are all the animals that they can use to
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  feed on and all that kinda stuff.
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  And they just ignore it because all they can see is just flat surface of
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  ocean, as far as the eye can see.
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  And that happens a lot, I feel like.
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  We just are not connected to the ocean as much because a lot of us are
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  still afraid of going in the ocean.
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  They're afraid of sharks.
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  They're afraid of the unknown.
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  People don't wanna put their feet in aquatic plants or any kind of a macroalgae
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  because it feels funny, and they're just not used to it, and that's fine.
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  If you're a little scared of the ocean, that's okay.
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  That's understandable.
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  But it doesn't mean we don't have to know much more or we just kind
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  of ignore what's been going on in the ocean or ignore the benefits
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  that the ocean can provide.
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  And a lot of times, because of these areas, these habitats like mangroves,
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  seagrass, and salt marshes are along the coastline, we have altered a lot of that
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  coastline to match our own benefits, our own human benefits, and we don't do it
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  where we are looking at, "Hey, how does this system actually play a role in our
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  ecosystem to actually help us breathe?"
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  Just to breathe.
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  And that's the problem.
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  Here's the problem, like, only 20% of countries are including these
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  ecosystems in their climate strategies.
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  We're not even including in the climate strategies, let alone
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  we're just ignoring it altogether.
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  We're not including these climate strategies even though they store more
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  carbon in sediments or down below the ocean than any other system on land.
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  So imagine that.
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  And you gotta remember, the ocean is what gives us every second breath, so
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  we should be focusing more on the ocean, especially when it comes to climate.
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  If only 20% of the countries are including these ecosystems in their climate
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  strategies, that means most climate plans are missing a major opportunity.
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  And it goes even as far as the climate weeks that we hear, Climate
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  Week Toronto, Climate Week New York.
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  They have, like, one panel on the oceans or a couple of panels.
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  So a whole full week, like, five days, seven days, however long it goes on.
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  I've never been to one, but I've heard them go on.
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  I don't go because there's no ocean stuff being talked about it.
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  It's a huge complaint of mine.
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  It's like, how do we have all these people who are coming together with
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  a lot of money and a lot of savvy and, like, entrepreneurs, everything,
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  and they don't know that the climate is oceans, oceans is climate?
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  If we wanna stop climate change, we have to focus on the ocean.
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  The ocean already absorbs a huge portion of the carbon that we emit.
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  This is why I say that every second breath we take is because of the ocean.
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  All this plankton, which is abundant in every ocean, are basically plant cells.
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  These plant cells will absorb the sun for energy and absorb the carbon dioxide
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  that is in the atmosphere, bring it into their cells, so they can emit oxygen.
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  That's what they do.
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  Photosynthesis, absorb carbon and sunlight, produce oxygen.
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  That's what they do.
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  So when you have that many, that much plankton in the ocean, you're gonna get
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  this huge system that absorbs carbon dioxide and actually returns oxygen.
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  And these coastal systems that we're talking about today are some of the most
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  powerful carbon sinks on the planet.
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  We need to reduce greenhouse gases, which is carbon dioxide.
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  These systems can help, not only plankton, but the systems like
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  seagrasses, mangroves, kelp forests, salt marshes, all these different things.
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  And if I forget any, I'm not doing it on purpose or anybody who's
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  gonna email me because of that.
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  But the thing is too is, like, they're fragile ecosystems.
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  When they are destroyed, they don't just stop storing carbon.
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  They release it.
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  So it's like when you have a forest fire.
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  When you have a forest fire, you get more carbon dioxide released because
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  of all that storage of carbon dioxide.
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  So not only the tree is going and all the stuff that comes off the tree, but
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  you're also getting all that stuff in the soil that is burning as well and
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  all that carbon dioxide going out.
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  So when you destroy a seagrass or you destroy a mangrove,
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  you're gonna get the same thing.
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  Everything that's stored in there kinda gets released.
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  So keeping them intact, healthy is something that's really important 'cause
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  they're both a risk and a solution.
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  And so this is not just a discovery problem.
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  We've known this for a long time.
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  It's an implementation problem.
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  You've probably heard me say this a number of times if you've been
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  listening to the podcast for any number of days, or weeks or months.
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  And so I think it's really important to look at how we can not only
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  protect the systems that are intact, but scale up the systems of not just
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  protecting, but also restoring.
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  Because we need to protect what exists, we need to scale that up, but we also
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  need to restore what's been lost and include these systems in our climate
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  policy because it's gonna help us.
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  It's gonna make changing the climate back a lot easier when we
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  include it into this climate policy.
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  And it's just a matter of countries actually understanding,
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  like taking inventory of how many seagrass systems they have.
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  'Cause seagrasses are temperate as well as tropical.
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  You see seagrasses everywhere.
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  Mangroves are tropical.
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  You see them a lot of places.
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  A lot of these systems actually perform more than just carbon sinks.
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  They actually perform a lot of security functions for the coastline.
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  I've talked about this before, but when tsunamis or big wave actions happen,
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  they actually reduce the energy of that wave as it goes across, as it reaches
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  land, it actually dissipates that.
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  Areas in the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean where it killed a lot of people
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  in areas where it didn't kill a lot or didn't have much of an effect at all
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  were areas that had mangroves, coral reefs, seagrasses all intact because
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  those systems ended up dissipating the wave energy as it went across,
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  and a lot more people survived.
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  So, we need to make sure that these are included in this policy
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  for a number of different reasons.
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  But when you start including these natural barriers, that will provide
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  safety and that'll provide stability in our environment and our atmosphere.
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  We know that the science is already there.
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  The gap is really like funding and action.
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  That's really where it comes down to.
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  So when you go to a climate week or you go to any kind of climate action
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  function, look for where the ocean is, like where the ocean people are.
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  Are they bringing things to the table?
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  Are they even there?
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  Why aren't they there?
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  And if you're somebody in ocean, you should be going to these weeks.
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  You should be going to Climate Week New York, Climate Week Toronto.
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  You should be going all over the place where there's a COP And you should be
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  bombarding them with ways to take action.
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  Start businesses, start funding these places, these actions because that's
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  something that we're gonna need.
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  And get our politicians on track to be like, "Hey, stop destroying the
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  environment and the ocean and start protecting it because it's gonna be
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  a lot easier to do the things that we want down the road than not to."
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  So we're not short on climate solutions.
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  We're just ignoring the ones that we already have.
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  That's the thing.
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  We're just short on using them.
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  So I wish that we could start really thinking about how we
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  can do it better in the future.
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  And that's what I really want you guys to do when we look forward.
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  I would love to hear your comments, your feedback on this.
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  You can hit me up on my socials, DM me.
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  All the links are in the show notes, so you can check that out.
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  I'd love to continue the conversation with you, ' cause that's why I started this
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  podcast, was to start the conversation.
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  You continue it.
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  Send me feedback.
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  Go to speakupforblue.com/feedback.
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  You can leave a voicemail.
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  You can type something in, whatever you'd like to do.
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  I would love to hear from you, or hit me up on my socials, whichever is easiest.
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  Let's have a conversation on the ocean.
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  Let's have some fun.
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  Let's talk about something that we can do to really help.
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  Your solutions are just as good as mine.
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  There's no judgment.
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  Love to hear from you.
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  But until then, thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of
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  the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  Have a great night.
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  We'll see you tomorrow, and happy conservation.