Mon 26th Feb 2018
Ocean Drawdown
Do you get seasick out on the ocean?
Is the sea sick of climate change?
Alanna Mitchell overcame her sea sickness and went down to the bottom of the ocean. She is an award winning Canadian Science journalist. After her show “SEASICK”, she spoke to Vivien about the erotic thrill of witnessing coral spawning. Her play dramatises the enormity of climate change affecting the ocean’s chemistry. As Charlie Veron said after bleaching, the coral will dissolve like an Alka Selzer Tablet in a jug of water. Dealing with the grief and tapping into a more creative response is all part of this sobering interview.
Professor Rocky De Nys from James Cook University is the leader of the Macroalgal Biofuels and Bioproducts project. He talks to us about Apsparagopsis Taxiformis and how it reduces methane produced by ruminant animals. The scientists thought it must have been a mistake when the results of 80% reduction in sheep came back from the lab.
We talk about the hopes for kelp farms sequestering carbon and other ocean based climate solutions.
Further reading:
“A cow walks onto a beach” in Paul Hawken’s book Drawdown.
Alix Foster Van Elst is an Antarctic campaigner with Greenpeace. Their ship is right now in the Weddell sea where there is growing momentum to create an ocean sanctuary of 1.8million square kilometres, proposed by the EU. Healthy oceans draw down vast quantities of CO2 as well as protecting marine life. So it would be a boon for the climate. At the Bonn Climate conference last November, Australia was among the very lowest performing countries, yet when it came to protecting Antaractica in 1991 Bob Hawke proved that we could be environmental leaders. Is this new Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary an opportunity for us to regain our self respect?
