Harmful algal blooms produce dangerous toxins that can sicken or even kill people and pets, and hurt property values, livelihoods, and local economies. But the toxic menace can also be leveraged in the fight against climate change because ridding water bodies of toxic blue-green algae not only restores aquatic ecosystems, it also offers a solution toward reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Toxic blue-green algal bloom season has arrived early and with a vengeance in parts of the United States.
From Lake Okeechobee in Florida to Lady Bird Lake in Texas, the familiar blue-green gunk appeared earlier this year - about two months too soon.
Up and down the East Coast and across the Midwest to the Great Lakes, water management officials are on watch. Parts of the country that experienced warmer-than-normal winter temperatures are bracing for early outbreaks.
It is concerning, because harmful algal blooms produce dangerous toxins that can sicken or even kill people and pets, and hurt property values, livelihoods, and local economies.
Paradoxically, this toxic menace can also be leveraged in the fight against climate change because ridding water bodies of toxic blue-green algae not only restores aquatic ecosystems and removes a potentially deadly health risk, it also offers a solution in our global quest to reduce the atmospheric carbon dioxide choking our planet.
This is the untapped, under-the-radar climate solution that, until recently, very few people have talked about.
Why?
Because only now have scientists figured out how to quantify how much carbon removal is possible by remediating toxic algal blooms. It is a solution that deserves its due.
Our planet’s vast oceans, lakes, and coastal ecosystems are the world’s greatest natural carbon sinks. We can leverage their carbon-soaking superpowers to help resolve the great climate challenge of our time by killing and sinking toxic blooms, locking away gigatons of sequestered CO2 at the bottom of the ocean for thousands, if not millions, of years.
Here’s how.
Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, are carbon-soaking superheroes present in all natural water bodies. When cyanobacteria multiply rapidly, they produce toxins and form harmful algal blooms that choke aquatic ecosystems. We see this every summer in the waters of western Lake Erie.
Deploying a floating algaecide to target the toxic algal species sparks a biological signal known as “programmed cell death” within the colony. The toxic cells die and sink to the sediment carrying with them the sequestered carbon and allowing an array of biodiverse species and nontoxic algae to take over the ecological niche.
The carbon is locked away and the health of the ecosystem is renewed, improving water quality in short order.
Scientists have concluded that preventing the worst impacts of climate change requires not only significantly cutting emissions, but also removing up to 10 gigatons of carbon each year in order to reach net zero by 2050.
We are nowhere close to meeting that bar.
We must pull out all the stops: Emissions reduction, nature-based climate solutions, land-based carbon capture, and carbon removal via water. By killing toxic blooms and sinking the algal biomass, we can, for the first time, draw a realistic line toward the goal of removing up to 10 gigatons of carbon per year.
But why stop there?
Remediating all harmful algal blooms worldwide could remove an estimated 115 gigatons of carbon in one year.
Think about that. By cleaning up the world’s infected water bodies, we could move the bar even higher than net zero. We could move toward net negative.
Dare we dream so big?
The urgency of the moment cannot be overstated. Glaciers are melting. Temperatures and sea levels are rising. Extreme weather events are unleashing their fury at an accelerating pace. But there is reason for optimism.
Across the globe, innovators are stepping up and pioneering new emissions reduction technologies. The potential of our oceans, coastal wetlands, and lakes to mitigate our climate crisis is powerful - and ready to be tapped. We can and must dive into these uncharted waters.
Eyal Harel is a clean water advocate and CEO of BlueGreen Water Technologies, a global water-tech company whose mission is to restore, safeguard, and optimize the health of water bodies worldwide.
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