Seaweed for Everyone: The Science Behind the Magic
- climacrew
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
The general know-how of seaweed ranges drastically from ‘oh. That’s what they add to my expensive sushi’ to ‘oh seaweed is a great carbon sequester’. The sushi commentator might not know what carbon sequestration is. That’s the wide range of general knowledge of seaweed.
Welcome to this multi-part series on Seaweed: The Oceans and The People - to bridge the gap between sushi and sequestration. Seaweed is a strong proponent of emission reduction via carbon sequestration [Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing atmospheric carbon dioxide and storing it long-term, either naturally or technologically, to reduce greenhouse gases and combat climate change]. Seaweed captures and converts CO2 to biomass via photosynthesis.
The seaweed work in India is scaling, and its contributions are not limited to just carbon sequestration - seaweed harvesting as a skill directly contributes to green skilling and the equipping of people to survive and thrive the transition to renewables - making this transition a Just Transition.
The impact of seaweed on people and the ecosystem forms part of an important phrase - people, profit, planet.
Where does profit come in here? Seaweed harvesting is a booming and rapidly expanding blue economy sector that aligns with the ‘people, profit, planet’ framework by providing sustainable livelihoods, ecological benefits and significant economic opportunities.
This multi-part series sits at the intersection of seaweed science and the people, profit, planet model to show us how the sciences and the social sciences overlap - the way it does.
Climate change is not just a scientific phenomenon; it has wide reached socio-economic consequences as well - so is seaweed.
With that preface, we come to our first question - for all our sushi seaweed audience, what exactly is seaweed in the context of climate, carbon and ecology?
At first glance this greenish, brown-colored kelp might not be so exciting or promising. Yet when it comes to tackling climate change, this peculiar organism has incredible powers. From storing greenhouse gases to helping coastal communities adapt to climate impacts and reducing carbon footprint of the global food system - seaweed is everywhere, and fortunately so.
Carbon sequestration begins as seaweed captures carbon from the oceanic environment through photosynthesis. As the seaweed grows, parts of it chip off and drift to the ocean floor, trapping CO2 in the deep oceans with it.
But the first question is how does a market for seaweed harvesting exist if seaweed occurs naturally in oceans? It is now that we should consider the consequences of climate change, pollution, and human activity.
Pollution, warming, and coastal development have led to declining natural seaweed ecosystems. Additionally, natural seaweed forests are highly location specific and seasonal - also ecologically delicate.
We’ve come beyond the point of using what’s ‘there’ - seaweed farming becomes a process that shifts the pressures from already fragile natural seaweed ecosystems.
Here is where organizations like ClimaCrew come in - for seaweed farming that is both ecologically and economically resounding. This is especially needed in India since it sits at a peculiar position of being the 3rd largest emitter while also dealing with job stagnation, poverty and economically disadvantaged communities. The combined economic and ecological opportunities of seaweed farming make it a very attractive, yet also necessary, venture in the nation.
Knowing this context and what seaweed does, we’ll be moving onto looking at how exactly communities and marine ecosystems benefit from seaweed farming in the next article!
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