But your message is very reviving – a wonderful reminder of why I chose the ocean over something easier. Thank you.

Please keep up the amazing work you have done, and I will try to catch up! ;}
I would love to hear from you, and as Roberto Benini, the famous Italian film maker, said in his best English upon winning an Ocscar for A Beautiful Life, ” I want to swim in your ocean!” And that I do!

best,
S.

Her approach may initially be more ´genteel` (for want of a less patronising term!) but at least it has opened the door for further discussion which in my eyes makes her talk very effective.

Having said that, I have to hold my hand out and thank you Russ, for stimulating me even further – with your comments and explanation on specific issues effecting the health of the ocean and the alternatives for replenishing the nutrients and reducing CO2. Your suggestion seems so simple¿! Apologies for my ignorance, but is the scientific community/environment agencies not considering/working on this idea already?

…this is going to keep me awake for hours!
Laura
Palma Mallorca, Spain

First, we should do no harm to the integrity of systems fine-tuned over hundreds of millions of years — systems that are already working, probably at their maximum efficiency when put into a total and long-term global context.

Restoring health to the ocean does not include the introduction of
“nutrients” that enable a few weedy species to respond vigorously for a short time, but may not be good news for the suite of organisms that naturally occur.

I am not opposed to appropriate geo-engineering and applaud entrepeneurial solutions to ocean acidification but share with many thoughtful ocean scientists a deep sense of alarm concerning large-scale introduction of iron into the sea as an appropriate means of taking up CO2. What may appear to work in the short term may not have the desired lasting effect, coupled with disruption of existing microbial systems that have functioned over eons.

Those reading this who want further clarification might dive into the issue from the many scientists currently exploring how to cope with ocean acidification.

But the reality of the oceans is that the depletion of fish in the oceans is only partly caused by the ‘usual suspects’ the fishers and fish eaters she so passionately points her finger at with shocking photographic back-up. In reality the real culprits are all of us and not merely as eaters of sea food. The real crisis for the oceans is the collapse of the ocean pastures wrought by high and rising CO2 which at once deprives the ocean plants of vital mineral micro-nutrients by greening vegetation on land thus limiting dust in the wind, and through its direct role in combining as H2O+CO2=H2CO3 (carbonic acid) to make the seas too acidic for life. She fails to note that it is those unphotogenic ocean plants now mostly perished which would be able to keep acidification in check if not for our starving them and everything, which really is EVERYTHING, that feeds upon them.

Her finger of blame to fishers and fish eaters is all well and good but with all her passion and speaking skills and photo library she gives a free pass to the much larger and more immediate problem of ocean CO2 effects. She chooses to not present the evidence of or the reason behind depletion of ocean plankton blooms. From Southern Ocean losses of 10% to tropical ocean losses of 50% of ocean plant life, the plankton blooms are the real victims and very real ROOT cause of our ocean crisis. Her call is not to ACT to do something to save the ocean rather it is a call to STOP doing what we are doing and leave the ocean to heal itself. That course may feel good and be well known but it is surely the folly that insures the final destruction of the blue heart of this planet. It’s the organic approach, if you have a bad heart, start taking better care of yourself and all will heal itself, don’t intervene with knowledge and know how and certainly not technology to fix your heart, just let it alone and let nature take its course.

In reality we must ACT to stop the loss of ocean plant life and to replenish the vital mineral micro-nutrients we deny the oceans and thus restore the ocean pastures. That carbon bomb made up of hundreds of gigatonnes of deadly CO2 that is today airborne will remain lethal for centuries to come as CO2 once in the air has a lifetime of centuries before it is absorbed, mostly by the plants of land and sea. That carbon bomb already airborne is most certainly deadly to the oceans green heart even if we were to stop emission of even a single additional molecule of fossil CO2. So the issue at hand is not to protect and preserve more ocean from the usual suspects, them not us of course, save perhaps making slight changes to our dietary habits or perhaps screwing with yet another energy efficient light bulb or driving a fashionable hybrid car. What must be done is to take action to repair, replenish, and restore the damage done and that is a job where we must get dirty hands and aching muscles and spend billions not merely pointing to curtail the usual suspects.

The real work to restore the oceans and save life on this blue planet requires first replenishing the vital mineral micro-nutrient dust that nurtures the oceans plants and pastures. These vital minerals from land, mostly iron, as dust in the wind was and is the dusty Yin to the Yang of rain which flows from sea to land to nourish plant life. There is nothing we can do to stop the CO2 in the air today from continuing to green the land producing better ground cover and thus denying the oceans their vital dust in the wind, only centuries of time will neutralize the carbon bomb already unleashed. However if we take iron rich natural mineral dust back to the oceans on a fleet of ships amounting to less than 1/10th of 1% of the world shipping fleet we can immediately and affordably bring back the plankton blooms to the now depleted ocean pastures. Upon those restored pastures all ocean life will flourish and be restored. And in the bargain as for the impact of CO2 which produces deadly ocean acidification, restored ocean phyto-plankton is the only anti-dote. Ocean plant life will use the suns abundant energy via photosynthesis to biologically fix CO2 into living plant biomass denying that CO2 the opportunity to bind with water to make deadly carbonic acid. My wish is that we choose to act to restore ocean life instead of sitting by to watch the certain acid death of our bluegreen heart.

Russ George – former TED speaker
Planktos Science

This will probably have to be done with international treaty, which should be done in a similar way to the IWC moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986.

In order to do this environmentalists will have to work with fisherman- who have to do something for work, and it turns they’re skilled at navigating the seas. Employing commercial fisherman for research and (more importantly) habitat restoration will provide sustainable jobs for an industry destined to collapse, if it isn’t outlawed. This will increase our knowledge of the planet and its “life support system”, the ocean.

This would allow for more large scale research projects- like Craig Venter’s ocean sampling project. It would be amazing to see an ocean habitat restoration project undertaken internationally- a global movement for fisherman to give back to the sea, if you will.