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A comment on Seaweed could be scrubbing more carbon from the atmosphere than expected (2017). Parent comment

Re:Seaweed could be scrubbing more carbon from the atmospher... by Shoh3pif on Tuesday August 07, 2018 @05:41AM (#17705034)
From the article:

> All in all, super-powered seaweeds could sequester around 173 million metric tons (190 million tons) of carbon each year, about as much as the annual emissions of the state of New York.

It's not that much in comparison to the emissions of the entire industrialized world.

Every bit helps of course, but it's not a magical solution to our problems.

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Re:Seaweed could be scrubbing more carbon from the atmospher... by DennisP on Tuesday August 07, 2018 @08:13AM (#17705752)
That's how much is happening naturally, with a low percentage of seaweed sinking to the depths. Large-scale farming operations could do a lot more.
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Re:Seaweed could be scrubbing more carbon from the atmospher... by Shoh3pif on Tuesday August 07, 2018 @09:13AM (#17706228)
Intensive farming only happens when the material is used in a profitable way. Growing things only to dump them in the oceans is only profitable with subsidies or carbon taxes.

Extensive farming would likely have the natural rate of sequestration.

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