The Oyster’s Example

Towards Sequestration in the Principled Pursuit of Green.

Observe the way the Earth has subtracted, concentrated and secured its active elements for the long-term. -Earthen Principle №3

This is the eighth post in the Earthen Ethic series. Here we take a look at the third principle of ecological contribution: Towards Storage. Image from Kunstformen der Natur (1904), by Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel, German artist and philosopher who coined the term ‘ecology’.

UNLIKE A CAR, A ROCKET LAUNCH OR AN EBOOK, the Crassostrea gigas Oyster removes, concentrates and stores carbon out of its environment. In so doing, it not only provides it’s own home, but also a valuable ecological contribution to our common home. By extracting calcium and carbon from the ocean around it, oysters build their shell out of calcium carbonate. On average, 13% of an oyster shell’s net weight is carbon.i At the end of the oyster’s life, the shell falls to the bottom of the ocean floor. There it and countless other shells are buried by feces, carcasses and other carbon-laden organic matter raining down from life above. Over time, the buried shell is completely secured from sun, friction and oxidation. Effectively protected from degradation, it can be eons before its carbon and calcium have a chance to cycle back into biosphere.ii

An oyster’s shell embodies the third phenomenon that has characterized the Earth’s greening of the planet — the inevitable draw down of its active elements into secure storage. As we saw earlier, the Earth has slowly and steadily subtracted its carbon into concentrated, geological deposits over the…