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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Betsy Johnson, Brian Stout, Former President Trump, Henry Heimuller, Joe Biden, Pat Robertson, Ted Cruz, Joe Biden’s dogs, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Bill’s Standard Disclaimer
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Growing algae in the Sahara desert, and burying it will help sequester CO2
Saving The Planet With Algae
In the least expected place to try and slow and stop the climate catastrophe hope is in the Sahara Desert. With one of the most inhospitable environments imaginable, an answer to the climate crisis is growing and at a fast pace. A London-based company named Brilliant Planet, has leased a little over 15,073 acres of land outside the remote coastal town of Akhfenir in southern Morocco, to cultivate algae. The area is laying in between the Atlantic Ocean to the north and the Sahara to the south. Algae absorbs atmospheric carbon dioxide and emits oxygen via photosynthesis, and has been doing so since before the first land plants ever existed. The company has developed a way to grow algae at super rates, they start growing it in a beaker in a lab, and ending up in 12,000-square-meter pools of locally-sourced seawater. The process mimics a natural algae bloom, and a test tube of algae can multiply to fill 16 of these giant man made pools which are the equivalent of 77 Olympic-sized swimming pools, the process is extremely fast and is completed in just 30 days. The algae is removed from the water then pumped up a 10-story tower and sprayed into the desert air. In the approximate 30 seconds it takes to reach the ground, hot air dries the biomass out, leaving hypersaline algae flakes which can be collected and shallow buried, sequestering their carbon for thousands of years, so the company claims. This process is very cost effective, and it does not cost a lot of money to rent the desert because governments are eager to have any economic activity. There is no completion with any other industry, or farms, and the facility is out of sight, while doing its job. The UN’s climate change panel the IPCC estimates that hundreds of billions of tons of carbon dioxide would need to be removed from the atmosphere by 2100 to limit global heating to 2.7 degrees F. right now we are suffering from climate change severe weather patterns , droughts. Brilliant Planet’s solution claims it can permanently remove 30 times more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per hectare per year than a typical European forest. Supporters of this new idea on land says the use of algae as a new and promising strategy” that “exemplifies an innovative use of natural process to address an urgent global issue. Morocco’s geographical characteristics make it a suitable environment, the desert is enormous and all that land might be converted for carbon capture and storage projects, since it is not suitable for other uses, and does not impact other industry, homes, farms. Etc. The concerns of this new idea of Microalgae production on a large scale might damage local ecosystems, strain water resources, and modify habitats, but what other choice do we have in the battle against climate change. We have to try all possibilities because we are in between a rock and a hard spot. A 1,000-hectare facility represents a baseline commercial site that would create around 250 jobs, mostly for skilled local workers but still it will produce clean jobs so that’s a win win. Brilliant Planet plans to sell carbon credits to fund its operation and expansion. In July, it announced its first major deal, with global technology company Block, to remove 1,500 tons of carbon dioxide by 2027. Brilliant Planet has received over $26 million in investment to date and another funding round is scheduled for later this year. Its goal is to remove one million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year which is the same annual emissions of 217,000 cars by the end of the decade. That would take 24,710 acres across multiple sites and investment of around $1 billion. It sounds like a lot of money but really think about it, we humans have been taking hundreds of billions worth of product from this earth, it’s time we give back and pay for our greed. We have only this planet to live on we must do something to make it right. For global usage the company has identified about half a million square kilometers of flat desert by the ocean land where it will work ,the company hopes to set up in Namibia next. One company can’t do it all but there are many people who are keen to the idea and are planning on getting in on the ground level of this possible problem solving venture which will make a huge difference in our battle against climate change and while saving the planet they can make a fortune as well.
Tammy
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