Ep 171, Wait, Seaweed Can Do, WHAT? Sam Elsom's Climate Gamechanger
This Episode is was made possible by our friends at gentlemen’s clothier M.J. Bale
According to UNEP, methane has accounted for roughly 30% of global warming since pre-industrial times and is proliferating faster than at any other time since record keeping began in the 1980s. While it hangs around in the atmosphere for less time than carbon does, while it is here, it's more potent. Where does it come from? Livestock emissions account for about a third of human-caused methane emissions. And yes, there's a fashion connection thanks to leather and wool. What if feeding livestock a certain type of seaweed could help? It can!
Meet Sam Elsom, the Aussie behind Seaforest - an environmental tech company set up to tackle climate change by the power of seaweed.
Did you listen to last week’s Episode with wool grower simon Cameron? This is part 2 of the story, again, recorded on my trip to Tasmania with MJ Bale.
NOTES
SEAFOREST is on a mission to decarbonise Australian agriculture by feeding a seaweed supplement to livestock. How does it work? Listen to the interview to find out. Discover the company here.
The CSIRO is the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation is an Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research.
Read all about the partnership with M.J. Bale here.
Simon Cameron feeding the supplement to his flock.
SEAWEED IS AMAZING …
Seaweed 101. Seaweeds are a type of algae that grow in the oceans, and have been proven to absorb C02. According to NOAA: “Some seaweeds are microscopic, such as the phytoplankton that live suspended in the water column and provide the base for most marine food chains. Some are enormous, like the giant kelp that grow in abundant “forests” and tower like underwater redwoods from their roots at the bottom of the sea. Most are medium-sized, come in colors of red, green, brown, and black, and randomly wash up on beaches and shorelines just about everywhere. The vernacular ‘seaweed’ is a bona-fide misnomer, because a weed is a plant that spreads so profusely it can harm the habitat where it takes hold. Not only are the fixed and free-floating “weeds” of the sea utterly essential to innumerable marine creatures, both as food and as habitat, they also provide many benefits to land-dwellers, notably those of the human variety.”
Is seaweed healthy? Does it count as a vegetable? Are all kinds nutritionally the same? Read more in TIME mag.
THE SEAWEED GAP In Australia we have 14,000 species of seaweed, there is more biodiversity than anywhere else in the world, yet we had no seaweed aquaculture industry at all…well, until now.
AQUACULTURE & ETHICS “We should not imagine, however, that we can use the sea in the same destructive manner that we have used the land,” writes Tim Flannery in Sunlight & Seaweed. “Sadly, most aquaculture has a very mixed history in terms of sustainability… In enclosed waters, such as fjords and estuaries, nutrients from excess feed as well as the waste from the fish themselves have severely polluted waterways. Increased disease transmission along with ‘genetic pollution’ of wild stocks by domesticated strains remain major issues. But like land-based farming, aquaculture can be practised in ways that minimise impacts.”
Inside the SeaForest labs.
The particular type of seaweed SeaForest is cultivating is ASPARAGOPSIS - a red seaweed native to Australian Coastal waters. They say: “THIS SEAWEED, WHEN INCLUDED IN VERY LOW QUANTITIES AS A FEED SUPPLEMENT, GREATLY REDUCES THE PRODUCTION OF METHANE FROM LIVESTOCK.” Read more here. Key to their work are: agricultural scientist DR ROB KINLEY, and Emertius Professor at James Cook University DR ROCKY DE NYS, who is also Seaforest’s Chief Scientific Officer.
GIANT KELP “Reaching heights of more than 100 feet (30 m), the giant kelp is the largest seaweed and the largest of all marine algae. It lives in cold, clear waters where it forms large, dense kelp forests that provide habitat for thousands of other marine species. Though it resembles a tall grass, giant kelp is not a plant. Instead, it is a brown alga and is part of the large kingdom of life known as the Protista. Most protists are single-celled organisms, but the giant kelp is a complex species and is the largest protist in the world.” VIA OCEANAORG.COM
MY OCTOPUS TEACHER might just be the loveliest film ever.
RUMINANTS Ruminant stomachs have four compartments: the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum and the abomasum. Rumen microbes ferment feed and produce volatile fatty acids, which is the cow's main energy source. Rumen microbes also produce B vitamins, vitamin K and amino acids.
FONTERRA is a New Zealand multinational publicly traded dairy co-operative owned by around 9,000 New Zealand farmers.
TIM FLANNERY is the Australian climate scientist, explorer, prolific author, and founder of Australia’s climate council. In his 2017 book Sunlight & Seaweed, he unpacks how seaweed could help is in the fight to draw down carbon. In chapter 7, The Power of Kelp, he’s writing about how huge global rises in red meat production is driving up methane emissions. “In the early 2000s, atmospheric methane concentration was increasing by just 0.5 parts per billion per year. But by 2016 it was increasing by 12.5 parts per billion. Just where all the extra methane is coming from is not clear, but the researchers commented: ‘We think that agriculture is the number one contributor to the increase.’ Some of that agricultural rise is almost certainly coming from livestock.” LISTEN TO TIM on Episode 17.
Tim set up Australia’s CLIMATE COUNCIL began as a non-profit organisation in 2013. Find them here.
The IPCC is The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and potential future risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. It has 195 member states. Read 2017’s report here.
OCEAN ACIDIFICATION “is the change in seawater chemistry due to the absorption of increasing CO2 in the air from fossil fuels and deforestation. Globally, ocean acidity has already increased by 30% compared with pre-industrial times over 200 years ago. However, ocean acidification conditions are more variable along the coast and on coral reefs than in the open ocean. Studies show ocean acidification is already affecting the physiology and behaviour of marine animals and plants, creating both winners and losers, and ecosystem changes. Coral reefs are considered particularly vulnerable to ocean acidification, because their whole ecosystems depend on the carbonate skeletons of corals for their structure.” Via Australian Institute of Marine Science
TASMANIA’S NATURE is indeed wonderful. TAKAYNA is Australia’s largest temperate rainforest and the second largest temperate rainforest in the world. One of Earth’s last great wild places, it deserves secure, permanent protection.
Don’t let logging companies and ecocidal mining companies chop the place down…Read the latest on Guardian Australia here. Lend Bob Brown your support here.
LOVE, ACTUALLY…
Sam’s wife is Sheree Commerford - a former fashion designer and stylist, she’s passionate about sustainability and today runs CANVS - a creative agency that does sustainable collabs in the lifestyle and fashion spaces. Find it here. Here’s Sam & Sheree at the Sustainable Fashion Awards in Milan September 2022, where Seaforest was nominated for an award. They didn’t win, this time - but look how much they clearly are total winners at life. Ahhh.