Seaweed saves the day
Throughout my whole life, and probably yours as well, we’ve heard of the impending doom that is the depletion of the ozone layer. Basically, that means all the chemicals, especially carbon dioxide, we are pumping into the atmosphere are scraping away at the main line of defense against solar flares and radiation from the sun. Of course, humans driving cars isn’t the only source of damage; agriculture, animals, and deforestation are all air pollution contributors. After I did a little searching and reading, I discovered seaweed could be a remedy for negative environmental changes.
Most of us don’t realize how much seaweed is utilized in everyday products, from delicious sushi, toothpaste, makeup, fertilizers, and so much more. The health benefits for humans mainly include the rich nutrients it contains from the years it spends submerged in salt-water and swaying along the fertile sea floor. We obtain these nutrients by either directly eating seaweed or even applying it to our skin to give it a nice hydrating glow. Despite these personal benefits, there are even greater environmental interests. Seaweeds provide around 50% of the oxygen we breathe, can be used as a form of energy, and can also be an alternative for plastic bottles.
The seaweed farming industry is growing every year, because kelp only needs saltwater, sunlight, and nutrients; it’s a relatively easy crop to raise. According to Craig Lemoult in his reading, “Kelp For Farmers; Seaweed Becomes A New Crop In America”, “many plants and animals cannot survive when there is too much nitrogen in the water, but seaweed is able to “capture” the nitrogen, as well as contaminants in the water.” Lemoult’s point is that kelp is a low maintenance plant that can take care of itself continuously throughout all the seasons because the saltwater environment regulates its temperature for peak growth.
Kelp can be seen as the equivalent to a “virus” in the world of oceanic plants, even though it isn’t necessarily considered a true plant. If living in the right conditions, seaweed just keeps growing and spreading along coastal rocks and stable seabeds until it reaches areas where it can’t get what it needs to survive. In Janosch Tröhler’s “Is Seaweed (Yes, Seaweed) The Answer To All Our Problems?”, he recalls his conversation in an interview with Joost Wouters, a Dutch entrepreneur. Wouters said, “seaweed is the fastest growing biomass on the planet” when he was describing why we should be using that instead of fossil fuels. He also acknowledges that when this biomass is digested by bacteria, it generates biogas, which is an alternative for non-renewables.
Speaking of improved alternatives to dreadful resources, plastic is also an increasingly dangerous man-made product used for basically everything we manufacture, buy, or consume. One-use commodities, water bottles for example, stack up in landfills every single day and it takes a long time for them to fully break down, and even when they do, the chemicals in the plastic gets released into the sky and contributes to air pollution. Ryan Whitwam celebrates the fact that Skipping Rock Labs, a startup created by three British design students, came up with a really cool and fun “container” people can use to drink water from. Whitwam describes their project in “Seaweed-based water pouch aims to end the need for plastic bottles”; these students observed the different kinds of membranes, like on eggs or fruit, used in nature which resulted in their own creation, a membrane composed of sodium alginate found in kelp and calcium chloride. He states “ each pouch of water costs only two cents to produce. Because the membrane is entirely organic, you can eat it after you drink the water.” Every bit of environmental help is much needed.
Despite the fact that seaweed can provide so many benefits for humans or other land dwellers in general, they have also provided resources mainly for the creatures that live underwater, more specifically, small fish seeking refuge in its forests from predators or crashing waves. Heller McAlpin’s “A homage to seaweed and a plea for wise management of this valuable resource” reviews the book “Seaweed Chronicles” written by Susan Hand Shetterly. In Shetterly’s work, she offers some harsh critiques about businesses taking too much from the ecosystem and not giving back enough in return. She brings up the collapse of Atlantic cod fisheries and how we have caused significant decreases in the population of fish species and plant species for our own gain. McAlpin demonstrates that “much of the book focuses on efforts to protect seaweed — and the “living mosaic” ecosystem of which it’s an integral part — before it is too late.”
Although I agree with Shetterly up to a point, I have to stand by the claims of Lemoult, Tröhler, and Whitwam, using fast growing seaweeds is a much better substitute for fossil fuels and plastic water bottles. The air pollution and waste we create in the future would be dramatically smaller if we utilized kelp a lot more in our daily routines.
