tagged w/ Algae
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SUMMARY: "Algae fuel is based on technologies which seek to use algae or bacteria to produce fuels by combining light, carbon dioxide, water and nutrients through photosynthesis. It is a dream which has arisen every time the oil price has spiked. [...] That sort of logic, and laboratory experiments backing it up, saw a rash of start-ups around the world - and especially in the US - seeking venture capital funding based on promises of limitless, cheap, clean fuel. But none has yet succeeded in producing fuel commercially and at scale. Instead, many firms have shut down."SUMMARY: "Algae fuel is based on technologies which seek to use algae or bacteria... more
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Biddulphia Reticulata understands the little guy. Biddulphia Reticulata knows how hard it is to make a living. Biddulphia Reticulata will restore our freedom!Biddulphia Reticulata understands the little guy. Biddulphia Reticulata knows how... more
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When copying the model of land-based industrialized farming, current aquaculture practices can have many of the same negative environmental impacts inherent in industrial-scale agriculture.
U.S. aquaculture operations, primarily producing shellfish, are subject to stringent environmental regulations. But due to the poorly regulated use of high amounts of chemicals and antibiotics to maintain massive, centralized monocultures of fish and shrimp particularly in South America and southeast Asia, aquaculture farms have gained a reputation for polluting water and producing poor-quality food.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. The Atlantic had a fantastic piece this week on the growing movement to clean up aquaculture operations — producing better food, sustainable biproducts, and making them a solution to environmental problems:
Unsurprisingly, once information got out among the general public, “aquaculture” quickly became a dirty word. Industry responded with a strategy of mislabeling seafood and upping their marketing budgets, rather than investing in more sustainable and environmentally benign farming techniques.
But a small group of ocean farmers and scientists decided to chart a different course. Rather than relying on mono-aquaculture operations, these new ocean farms are pioneering muti-tropic and sea-vegetable aquaculture, whereby ocean farmers grow abundant, high-quality seafood while improving, rather than damaging, the environment.
One of the keys? Seaweed. This type of algae, which can be used for everything from food to fertilizer, could be a major piece of creating a network of sustainable farming operations:
Seaweed farms alone have the capacity to grow massive amounts of nutrient-rich food. Professor Ronald Osinga at Wageningen University in the Netherlands has calculated that a global network of “sea-vegetable” farms totaling 180,000 square kilometers — roughly the size of Washington state — could provide enough protein for the entire world population.
The goal, according to chef Dan Barber — named one of the world’s most influential people by Time and a hero of the organic food movement — is to create a world where “farms restore instead of deplete” and allow “every community to feed itself.”
But here is the real kicker: Because they require no fresh water, no deforestation, and no fertilizer — all significant downsides to land-based farming — these ocean farms promise to be more sustainable than even the most environmentally-sensitive traditional farms.
Along with being a fantastic source of food, seaweed could be a substantial feedstock for biofuels production. A lot of research has been done on seaweed as a biofuel source, and some pioneers are beginning to farm it for energy production. And while there are no seaweed-based biofuels being produced at commercial scale, there are a lot of good reasons to continue pursuing it.
Firstly, seaweed is not a major source of food globally. And it’s also one of the fastest growing plants in the world. It can grow 9-12 feet in three months. Additionally, fifty percent of seaweed’s weight is oil, so we would theoretically only need to set aside three percent of the world’s oceans for seaweed farming to meet world energy needs.
If you compare efficiency of algae as a fuel source to other proven sources, there’s no comparison. Soy produces 40 to 50 gallons of biofuel per acre, rapeseed between 110 and 115, mustard 140, and palm oil 650. Algae, on the other hand, has the potential to produce 10,000 gallons of biofuel per acre. And most importantly, seaweed can absorb five times more carbon dioxide than land-based plants.
The Atlantic explores the potential for seaweed-based biofuels further:
More at the linkWhen copying the model of land-based industrialized farming, current aquaculture... more
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Toxic algae is sucking the oxygen out of Lake Erie.
The lake is currently undergoing one of the worst algae blooms in decades, turning the water a scummy bright green. According to NASA, blooms like this did occur in the 1950's and 60's, but now phosphorus from farms, sewage, and industry have fertilized the waters.
After the 60's, increased regulations and improvements in agriculture and sewage treatment limited the phosphorus and helped to control the blooms. However, the shallower Western basin near Detroit has been more susceptible to the algae than other deeper areas.
The exact reason behind the bloom is a bit unclear, but scientists believe it could be linked to increased rainfall and, believe it or not, mussels. It seems the types of mussel, zebra and quagga that have invaded the lake feed on phytoplankton instead of algae, making it even easier for the blooms to occur, according to NASA.
While the algae doesn't directly kill fish, it's still not good. As the algae dies, it's broken down by bacteria which uses oxygen from the water. This oxygen removal creates areas where fish can't survive. In addition, if consumed, it can also create flu-like symptoms in people or even kill pets.
Former Vice President Al Gore spoke Thursday in Detroit on the matter, associating climate change with the algae problem. "We're still acting as if it's perfectly OK to use this thin-shelled atmosphere as an open sewer. It's not OK," he said. "We need to listen to the scientists. We need to use the tried and true method of using the best evidence, debating and discussing it, but not pretending that facts are not facts."
While in the past, some have criticized Gore, claiming that he's made exaggerated statements about the environment, yesterday's speech drew upon some pretty hard scientific evidence, leading many leaders at the International Joint Commission to listen a bit more intently.
More at the linkToxic algae is sucking the oxygen out of Lake Erie.
The lake is currently... more
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Time...
Posted by Tara Thean Tuesday, June 14, 2011 at 3:57 pm
The effects of this spring's extreme flooding of the Mississippi River have been – pardon the pun – spilling over into every possible corner of the area's residential, commercial, and agricultural life over the last two months. And it looks like the environment hasn't escaped either: researchers from the University of Michigan predict that the largest Gulf of Mexico “dead zone” on record will result from the flooding.
The dead zone is forecast to be between 8,500 and 9,421 square miles – an area roughly the size of New Hampshire, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The zone is a threat to aquatic organisms as well as the humans who depend on them in the gulf's booming seafood industry.
"Stream flows were nearly double normal during May, delivering massive amounts of nutrients to the Gulf, and that's what drives the dead zone," said Donald Scavia, Special Counsel to the U-M President for Sustainability and director of the Graham Sustainability Institute.
Scavia noted that the most likely 2011 scenario is a Gulf dead zone of at least 8,500 square miles. This estimate far surpasses the 6,000-square-mile average of the past five years, as well as the current record, set in 2002, of 8400 miles.
The oxygen-starved Gulf dead zone is largely caused by farmland runoff containing fertilizers and livestock waste from as far away as the Corn Belt. Nitrogen and phosphorus from these sources flow down the Mississippi River and into the Gulf in late spring and summer each year, prompting explosive algal blooms, which later die and sink to the ocean floor. As they decompose, the algae provide bottom-dwelling bacteria with organic matter to feast on. Oxygen is consumed in the process, producing an oxygen-starved region in bottom and near-bottom waters: a dead zone.
This year, nitrogen and phosphorus have been seeping from Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers into the Gulf in alarmingly high amounts. In May 2011, 164,000 metric tons of nitrogen were transported to the northern Gulf, according to the U.S. Geological Survey – a 35% climb from average May nitrogen estimates in the last 32 years. The Gulf has seen a shocking 300% increase in nitrogen content since 1960.
Increased stream-flow rates and agricultural runoff are the main culprits, Scavia said.
"Yes, the floodwaters really matter, but the fact that there's so much more nitrogen in the system now than there was back in the '60s is the real issue," he explained.
Scavia called the growth of the Gulf dead zones an “ecological time bomb.”
"Without determined local, regional and national efforts to control them, we are putting major fisheries at risk,” he said.
Gulf fisheries recorded a high dockside value of $629 million in 2009, and nearly 3 million recreational fishers – who took 22 million fishing trips – contributed a further $1 billion to the Gulf economy. The Gulf of Mexico/Mississippi River Watershed Nutrient Task Force aims to reduce the size of the dead zone to around 1,900 square miles.
Nutrient load models can be complicated by short-term weather patterns moving water masses or mixing up the water column, say researchers at Louisiana State University.
But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be worried. "While there is some uncertainty regarding the size, position and timing of this year's hypoxic zone in the Gulf, the forecast models are in overall agreement that hypoxia will be larger than we have typically seen in recent years," NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said in a statement.
Gulf Restoration Network Director of Science and Water Policy Matt Rota is frustrated with the EPA's handling of the expanding dead zone, which he calls “another harsh reminder that our country must work aggressively to clean up the Mississippi River.”
“The EPA must stop dragging its feet in addressing the Dead Zone,” he said, explaining that the Gulf Restoration Network petitioned EPA to address the Dead Zone in 2008. “Almost three years later, the EPA still hasn't responded to this petition, and the Dead Zone continues to plague the Gulf impacting wildlife and coastal communities.”
The actual—as opposed to estimated—size of the 2011 Gulf dead zone will be released after a NOAA-supported monitoring survey led by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium between July 25 and August 2.
Read more: http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2011/06/14/scientists-predict-record-gulf-of-mexico-dead-zone-due-to-mississippi-flooding/#ixzz1PQ6t1opFTime...
Posted by Tara Thean Tuesday, June 14, 2011 at 3:57 pm
The effects... more
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When you think Mexico, think biofuels (not just tequila). That's the message of OriginOil, a Los Angeles, California, company that's been contracted by the Mexican government to produce 1 percent of the nation's jet fuel using algae in the next five years. By the end of the decade, the project aims to produce 20 times that amount, and propel Mexico to the front of biofuel producing nations.
:http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/02/mexico-top-biofuel-producer-algae-oil-originoil.php#ch02When you think Mexico, think biofuels (not just tequila). That's the message of... more
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suzane
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The U.S. Armed Forces are way ahead of our corrupt and craven Congress when it comes to finding ways to reduce dependence upon petroleum: the Pentagon figured out that we can save the lives of U.S. service personnel by reducing the use of fossil fuels. Read the article to find out how your military is out-greening the private sector:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/opinion/19friedman.html?em&exprod=myyahooThe U.S. Armed Forces are way ahead of our corrupt and craven Congress when it comes... more
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In a laboratory where almost all the test tubes look green, the tools of modern biotechnology are being applied to lowly pond scum. Foreign genes are being spliced into algae and native genes are being tweaked.
:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/algae-the-next-big-source-of-green-energy/654311/In a laboratory where almost all the test tubes look green, the tools of modern... more
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There are plans within the aviation industry to replace kerosene with biofuel derived from algae. The new fuel comes with a surprising benefit: Planes will be able to fly farther on the same amount of fuel.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,706473,00.htmlThere are plans within the aviation industry to replace kerosene with biofuel derived... more
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The ‘City Respiration Skyscraper’ might look malicious with its spiky exterior, but its intentions are 100% benevolent. Designed by Czech architects Pavlína Doležalová and Jan Smékal, the spiraling tower is a 240 meter-high structure covered by air-cleaning algae. The designers envision that a network of these prickly scrapers could be strategically placed in the most polluted areas of a city to have its air cleaned in just a couple of weeks.
The building’s outer cellular structure is comprised of a cluster of spiky concrete units inspired by sea sponges. This tower itself works as a chimney where polluted air can be gathered, filtered and oxygenated by the algae and a specialized water-sprayed system. We’ve seen other types of purifying skyscrapers, and the idea of having an office building or other structure do double duty as filters seems very promising.The ‘City Respiration Skyscraper’ might look malicious with its spiky... more
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Here's another Current TV host top favorite stories countdown. This time around we pulled together Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller's top 14 Current TV videos, and gathered them here, for your delight.
Mariana's countdown is going to air today, at 6pm E / 3pm P on Current TV, so be sure to tune and join Mariana as she walks you through each story. What? You can't make it tonight? Don't worry, her countdown will re-air on Monday 9/21 at 1pm E / 10am P, so you could always set your DVR(s) to record.
For now, get a sneak peek at what she'll be covering in the special. These are some pretty memorable stories, and they've obviously left an impression on Mariana. Feel free to add links to some of your own favorite moments in Current TV in the comments.
Living Library
Here's Mariana's top 14 -- enjoy!
Living Library
The Internets Dumbest How To Videos -- Viral Video Film School on infoMania
Sierra Leone AAA from Vanguard
Kenya from Vanguard
F*ck My Facebook on Tech Report on infoMania
Ode to a Toothpaste from Vanguard
Toxic Seas from Vanguard
Medicine from Target Women on infoMania
War Wounds from Vanguard
Suicide in Japan
Camel Milk Bar from Vanguard
Old Lady Hip Hop
African Gun Market -- Wanna Buy an AK-47? from Vanguard
African Exodus from Vanguard
Here's another Current TV host top favorite stories countdown. This time around... more
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There was sense of deja vu in the biofuels sector this week when U.S. Energy Secretary Chu announced nearly $80 million in funding for research and development of algae-based fuels.
The dream of turning pond scum into diesel began with a similar flood of government investments by the Carter administration during the oil crisis of the 1970s. In fact, many of the buzzed-about algae-to-fuel startups today are basing their technology on the seminal research from that era.
The government spending dried up Algae Emerges as DOE Feedstock of Choice for Biofuel 2.0after Carter left office, and research efforts suffered ...
http://solveclimate.com/blog/20100115/algae-emerges-doe-feedstock-choice-biofuel-2-0There was sense of deja vu in the biofuels sector this week when U.S. Energy Secretary... more
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Record levels of algae have plagued U.S. coastal areas this year, sickening swimmers and hampering shellfish harvests, oceanographers say.
Wayne Litaker, a research scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told Tuesday's USA Today that toxic algae blooms have spread for hundreds of miles along some sections of coast, a phenomenon known as "red tides," which cause harm to fish and can trigger paralysis in human swimmers.
Litaker told the newspaper the blooms, which scientists say have spread out over much larger areas in recent years, have caused an estimated $100 million per year in damages to the seafood and tourism industries.
State officials reportedly blame widespread algae with forcing the closure of Maine's harvest of clams, oysters and mussels, and the killing of more than 4 million fish off the coast of Texas.
Donald Anderson, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, said some algae blooms are now stretching for up to 1,000 miles, adding that overfishing and global warming may be helping to spur their growth.Record levels of algae have plagued U.S. coastal areas this year, sickening swimmers... more
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« Treating Parkinson’s and other brain diseases could be just the beginning. Optogenetics has amazing potential, not just for sending information into the brain but also for extracting it...
...Existing neural technologies are strictly one-way. Motor implants let paralyzed people operate computers and physical objects but are incapable of giving feedback to the brain. They are output-only devices. Conversely, cochlear implants for the deaf are input-only. They send data to the auditory nerve but have no way of picking up the brain’s response to the ear to modulate sound.
No matter how good they get, one-way prostheses can’t close the loop. In theory, two-way optogenetic traffic could lead to human-machine fusions in which the brain truly interacts with the machine, rather than only giving or only accepting orders. It could be used, for instance, to let the brain send movement commands to a prosthetic arm; in return, the arm’s sensors would gather information and send it back. Blue and yellow LEDs would flash on and off inside genetically altered somatosensory regions of the cortex to give the user sensations of weight, temperature, and texture. The limb would feel like a real arm. Of course, this kind of cyborg technology is not exactly around the corner. But [with optigenetics] it has suddenly leapt from the realm of wild fantasy to concrete possibility.
And it all began with pond scum. »« Treating Parkinson’s and other brain diseases could be just the... more
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In the summer of 2007, a team of Stanford graduate students dropped a mouse into a plastic basin. The mouse sniffed the floor curiously. It didn’t seem to care that a fiber-optic cable was threaded through its skull. Nor did it seem to mind that the right half of its motor cortex had been reprogrammed.
One of the students flipped a switch and intense blue light shone through the cable into the mouse’s brain, illuminating it with an eerie glow. Instantly, the mouse began running in counterclockwise circles as though hell-bent on winning a murine Olympics.
Then the light went off, and the mouse stopped. Sniffed. Stood up on its hind legs and looked directly at the students as if to ask, “Why the hell did I just do that?” And the students whooped and cheered like this was the most important thing they’d ever seen.
Because it was the most important thing they’d ever seen. They’d shown that a beam of light could control brain activity with great precision. The mouse didn’t lose its memory, have a seizure, or die. It ran in a circle. Specifically, a counterclockwise circle.In the summer of 2007, a team of Stanford graduate students dropped a mouse into a... more
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C'mon, I don't need to say much else. That header alone should make you wanna see WTF this is all about. Read about what it at www.oneof365.comC'mon, I don't need to say much else. That header alone should make you... more
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jrn
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PetroAlgae is the first renewable energy company to commercialize a drop-in replacement for fossil fuels. The company licenses an innovative commercial micro-crop technology that enables the large-scale production of green fuels as well as a high-value protein co-product. The company's fuels are functionally identical to petroleum-based fuels and therefore use the existing industry infrastructure.
PetroAlgae’s proprietary technology is 1) clean, 2) economically viable, 3) scalable, 4) resource efficient, and 5) ready for commercialization today. Our micro-crops consume more than twice their weight in CO² and produce yields up to 25x to 100x more productive than macro-crop (soy, corn, soy, jatropha, etc.) biofuel feedstocks.PetroAlgae is the first renewable energy company to commercialize a drop-in... more
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The fluorescent green mantle of biofuel savior has come to rest upon algae—slimily, sure, but for good reason. Algae grows in fresh water or salt water or sewage, rather than competing with food crops for land or resources. And algae actually sucks out the pollution from coal-fired power plants, with a theoretical yield of oil per acre that's hundreds of times greater than, say, corn.
But after all the hype—and there's been plenty of it—the fact remains that nobody has yet proven they can cheaply and reliably transform the stuff from a thick, green slurry to a finished fuel capable of making a dent in America's 870 million–gallon-per-day petroleum habit.
"I get a lot of people telling me that they've got thousands of gallons, but when I actually ask for a sample I can get maybe two," says Jennifer Holmgren, director of the UOP renewable energy and chemicals division, which is working to refine jet fuel from feedstocks that include algae.
"Google some of the numbers, and you've got people claiming that right now they're producing 35,000 gallons per acre per year, and they'll be producing 100,000 gallons—and that's just impossible," says Solix Biofuels lead scientist Bryan Wilson, a veritable grandfather with two successful years in the fledgling algae industry. "There's probably not more than a few barrels floating around right now."
Two years ago, there were less than a handful of companies chasing the next wave of so-called "pond scum" power. Today, there are dozens, many backed by big energy industry players such as Chevron and Shell. Last year, DARPA granted UOP $6.7 million to study how "second-generation" feedstocks, or nonfood crops, could turn into JP-8 jet fuel for U.S. Air Force and NATO fighters. Just this month, Airbus and JetBlue announced goals to replace 30 percent of jet fuel with second-gen biofuels by 2030. Air New Zealand and Dutch airline KLM have similar plans in the works.
All that's missing, for now, is all that oil they need to refine.
"It's frustrating for the outside world, but we've been learning how to do agriculture for about 5000 years, and we've been learning how to make oil from algae now for only a couple of years. So there's a lot of learning, and the curve is pretty steep," Wilson says. "This is probably going to be the first summer that you're getting anything more than just test tubes of oil produced."
This is algae's second coming. The first attempt, run by the U.S. government in the wake of the last oil crisis, was killed in 1996 by the Clinton administration while oil hovered around $20 per barrel. But even now, with record-high petroleum prices, algae stands in no position to compete, and hurdles remain at every stage of production.
Just choosing which kind of algae to start with is a herculean task. There are well over 100,000 species, each adapted to grow in different environments at different rates, and each capable of producing different amounts of oil—or none at all. The government collected more than 3000 different strains from all over the world in the 1980s, 300 of which were deemed promising. Today, many algal strains have been engineered into genetically modified superplants—the secret formulas of biofuel startups—but there is, as yet, no proven winner. Not to mention, there remains the small matter of how to make the algae flourish, how to cheaply dry several million gallons of subsequent slush, and how to get the oil out of minuscule cell walls and into the metaphorical barrel.
"It's not as easy as running a combine through a field of canola to get the seeds and crush them," says Michael Weaver, CEO of the Washington biofuels company Bionavitas. "For anybody who thinks that we can go from ‘Hey, let's look at algae,' to full-on fuel production in the period of the past three to five years, it's just never going to happen that way."
A number of pilot plants scheduled to come online in the next several months will likely give .....The fluorescent green mantle of biofuel savior has come to rest upon... more
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rav3
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2 years ago
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An unusual experiment featuring equal parts science, environmental optimism and Native American capitalist ambition is unfolding here on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation in southwest Colorado.
With the twin goals of making fuel from algae and reducing emissions of heat-trapping gases, a start-up company co-founded by a Colorado State University professor recently introduced a strain of algae that loves carbon dioxide into a water tank next to a natural gas processing plant. The water is already green-tinged with life.
The Southern Utes, one of the nation’s wealthiest American Indian communities thanks to its energy and real-estate investments, is a major investor in the professor’s company. It hopes to gain a toehold in what tribal leaders believe could be the next billion-dollar energy boom.An unusual experiment featuring equal parts science, environmental optimism and Native... more
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Editor’s Note: Hey folks! Sorry for the hiatus! Green Air’s been getting busy with lots of new partners and contributors including the author of this piece, Kristin Arrigo. She’s the newest addition to the Green A-Team, a columnist for the Nashua Telegraph and we’re THRILLED to have her aboard. Enjoy!
The ‘blob’ or sometimes referred to as the ‘glob’ , or the ‘goo’, is 12 miles long of black filamentous, or ‘hairy’ plant life. Strongly resembling an oil spill, it was discovered in a far end of Alaska on July 16, 2009.
While the growth of algae is a natural occurrence, this particular strain is considered at this point, aside from trapping a few jellyfish, to be unique. The growth of algae is a response to the way light and nutrients combine in water. These conditions may include an area of low water level, creating a surface algae. Algae grows very quickly once the perfect conditions present themselves.
So what does it all mean? Well, that is yet to come, but it is possible that this algae form is nature’s response to global warming in a more positive way than we are used to concluding when we hear the phrase ‘ response to global warming’.
Blooming algae is one of the greatest cleaners of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Cold water, is nutrient rich, stimulating algae to bloom. The remote location of the origin of ‘the blob’ was in an area where the surface water is extremely cold. This cold, cold water which exists normally at the bottom of the ocean, now on the surface combining with sunlight, at the intensity it is at these days, and the right nutrients and voila, it’s the blob! Allowed to grow undisturbed, the algae is undeterred from it’s global mission.
However, certainly only blanket statements from scientists are currently available, because the analysis will take some time.
What we do know is best summed up by Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Terry Hasenauer (who) says, “It’s certainly biological. It’s definitely not an oil product of any kind. It has no characteristics of an oil, or a hazardous substance, for that matter. It’s definitely, by the smell and the makeup of it, it’s some sort of naturally occurring organic or otherwise marine organism.”Editor’s Note: Hey folks! Sorry for the hiatus! Green Air’s been getting... more
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