To meet international climate goals, we need to remove 10 gigatons of atmospheric CO2 every year between now and 2050. And although we are fortunately moving into a time where renewable energy, electric vehicles and low-carbon manufacturing are increasingly becoming mainstream to combat climate change and help meet these goals, much more needs to be done.
Finding new ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere is vital to the future health of our planet. One new method that has come to the forefront in recent times, is how the ocean itself, which covers 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, can help us. The ocean has been found to “soak up” additional carbon because it plays a major role in the carbon cycle, and is where most of the Earth’s carbon is stored.
On the cusp of this research is Project Vesta (Vesta.Earth), a research-based organization whose mission is to further the science of Coastal Carbon Capture (CCC) and galvanize global deployment. Also, known in the academic research world as Coastal Enhanced Weathering, CCC is a way of harnessing the power of the oceans to accelerate the Earth’s natural long-term carbon dioxide removal process and enhance coastal resilience.
Project Vesta spreads a natural mineral, olivine, in coastal areas. There, wave action speeds up the carbon dioxide capture process while de-acidifying the ocean. Thirty years of scientific research has demonstrated that this works and has provided strong evidence that it is a highly affordable and scalable solution.
The process captures 20 times more carbon dioxide than the extraction and transportation of the olivine. If deployed on just 0.1%-0.25% of global shelf seas, 1 billion tonnes of CO2 could be removed from the atmosphere.
Project Vesta’s efforts are also capturing the attention of the mainstream media. The Wall Street Journal recently highlighted the organization’s efforts in this article about how innovators are “tinkering” with our ocean’s chemistry to send CO2 to the deep sea. The organization has also been highlighted in MIT Technology Review, The Guardian, and The National Academy of Sciences, Engineer and Medicine Journal.
As a member of the .Earth domain tribe, we are excited to see organizations like Project Vesta using the specialized domain to enhance its branding and reinforce its efforts to reduce carbon from our atmosphere.
Do you work at an organization that uses the ocean to combat climate change? The .Earth domain is the perfect platform for showcasing your organization’s work with the world’s oceans. Click here to secure your own .Earth domain.
