Marine Biology

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Mangrove_in_Can_Gio_forest.jpg

We all know how important plants and forests are to take carbon out of our air, but this article sheds light on how important our underwater forests are. Plankton near the surface of the ocean takes almost 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere every year, but it has no way to store it permanently. However, there are plants such as the Mangrove Forests, salt marshes, and sea grass beds that are able to store the carbon in the sea floor. In fact, these plants are responsible for storing away nearly 1,650 million tons of carbon dioxide (about half of the world’s emissions) a year, despite the fact that they only cover 1% of the world’s seabed.

Achin Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General tells us that “We already know that marine ecosystems are multi-trillion-dollar assets linked to sectors such as tourism, coastal defence, fisheries and water purification services. Now it is emerging that they are natural allies against climate change.” Unfortunately, these marine forests are quickly disappearing; around 7% are being lost every year (this is 15 times faster than the tropical rain forest deforestation!). If we could preserve these marine forests, they would be able to reduce the emissions in our atmosphere by 25%, keeping the global warming below 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit.

Do you think this is the best solution to global warming that we have now (even though it has been here all along)?

Do you think it is possible for these plants to slow and even stop global climate change?