It is more than “we don’t get the biology.” We don’t get the system. What happens at the bottom impacts what happens at the surface; what happens at the surface impacts what happens in the atmosphere.
When whales were mass slaughtered during the 18th and 19th centuries, no one had a clue they played a key role in the vertical mixing of ocean waters, bringing up cold water rich in nutrients to the warm surface. Spritz a little whale poop into the mix and it’s plankton blooms. Plankton that sequester carbon. Plankton eaten by whales who eventually take it for near permanent sequestration when they die and sink to the ocean floor (where they become the center of another, ephemeral ecosystem). The plankton is also eaten by lots of other critters and as long as carbon is traded among life forms, it stays out of the atmosphere. A point that often gets lost is that life itself is a massive carbon sink. We are, after all, carbon life forms.
It will be a while before whale populations recover to the levels of two hundred years ago. So now we have people talking about seeding the oceans with iron to promote plankton blooms and designing clever ways to the bundle it up and sink it. https://jaginsburg.substack.com/p/when-life-hands-you-seaweed
Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures in an attempt to cool down ocean surface temperatures as tactic to defang hurricanes came up with an unintentional biomimic of a whales they called the Salter Sink: https://jaginsburg.substack.com/p/waves-of-relief
So whales not only played a key role in regulating atmospheric carbon levels, but also sea surface temperatures. We didn’t know…
We also really don’t know whether the IEA predictions are going to hold re energy transition metals. They don’t have a great track record. Just as the Chinese were able to see twenty years ago what’s now obvious re the need for REE’s and critical minerals, we need to ask, “What will be needed in 20 years?” I am currently working on a book for MIT on the materials transition and let me tell you, from battery tech to nano-materials things are already changing.
So. Do we really need to irreversibly wreck the bottom of the ocean? No. The bigger and far more disturbing question is with so many tipping points tipping and also colliding, does it matter?
* I have always thought it would be a better world if a field biology class were required of pretty much everyone, but especially anyone working in government (elected or appointed) and Silicon Valley techs (inventors and investors). Nothing teaches systems thinking faster…
It is more than “we don’t get the biology.” We don’t get the system. What happens at the bottom impacts what happens at the surface; what happens at the surface impacts what happens in the atmosphere.
When whales were mass slaughtered during the 18th and 19th centuries, no one had a clue they played a key role in the vertical mixing of ocean waters, bringing up cold water rich in nutrients to the warm surface. Spritz a little whale poop into the mix and it’s plankton blooms. Plankton that sequester carbon. Plankton eaten by whales who eventually take it for near permanent sequestration when they die and sink to the ocean floor (where they become the center of another, ephemeral ecosystem). The plankton is also eaten by lots of other critters and as long as carbon is traded among life forms, it stays out of the atmosphere. A point that often gets lost is that life itself is a massive carbon sink. We are, after all, carbon life forms.
It will be a while before whale populations recover to the levels of two hundred years ago. So now we have people talking about seeding the oceans with iron to promote plankton blooms and designing clever ways to the bundle it up and sink it. https://jaginsburg.substack.com/p/when-life-hands-you-seaweed
Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures in an attempt to cool down ocean surface temperatures as tactic to defang hurricanes came up with an unintentional biomimic of a whales they called the Salter Sink: https://jaginsburg.substack.com/p/waves-of-relief
So whales not only played a key role in regulating atmospheric carbon levels, but also sea surface temperatures. We didn’t know…
We also really don’t know whether the IEA predictions are going to hold re energy transition metals. They don’t have a great track record. Just as the Chinese were able to see twenty years ago what’s now obvious re the need for REE’s and critical minerals, we need to ask, “What will be needed in 20 years?” I am currently working on a book for MIT on the materials transition and let me tell you, from battery tech to nano-materials things are already changing.
So. Do we really need to irreversibly wreck the bottom of the ocean? No. The bigger and far more disturbing question is with so many tipping points tipping and also colliding, does it matter?
* I have always thought it would be a better world if a field biology class were required of pretty much everyone, but especially anyone working in government (elected or appointed) and Silicon Valley techs (inventors and investors). Nothing teaches systems thinking faster…
Absolutely NOT. At every land site there is environmental degradations, so keep your greedy, little mitts off.