Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Warming Wednesdays: yes, we CAN work toward sustainability


My friend Brendan is a fisherman. He's also a successful blue-green entrepreneur whose Kickstarter campaign to grow his business has blasted over his first goal. Not that he couldn't use some more help!

Here's the rationale:

As lifelong commercial fishermen, we know our oceans are in trouble. Overfishing has wiped out 90% of large fish; climate change is driving everything from lobsters to whales northward; nitrogen pollution is triggering ever-expanding dead zones.

... Restoring Our Oceans: Two years ago while out on the boat, a light bulb went off: We realized that millions of years ago, Mother Nature invented two species - kelp and shellfish - designed to restore ocean ecosystems and mitigate climate change. And these are two species we can grow! Here's how our 3D model is a game-changer:

Climate Change: Carbon is a root cause of acidification, rising water temps and other climate-related threats to our oceans. The kelp we grow -- known as the “rainforest of the sea” -- absorbs five times more carbon than land-based plants. Our 20 acre farm alone has the potential to remove 134 tons of carbon a year. So we're not just fishermen - we're climate farmers. ...

If we beat our $30,000 goal [they have!] and raise $50,000 we will create an educational program to train the next generation of 3D ocean farmers. Then we'll take our model on the road, as a catalyst for the creation of a network of local ocean farms, growing food-fuel-fertilizer while reducing carbon emissions and restoring our ocean ecosystems. Imagine seaweed and shellfish integrated into wind farms, fish plants re-opened to process restorative food and coal plants re-purposed to process kelp biofuel.

Enjoy the video!

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