During our ocean passage, we enjoy the darkness of the night. And the moon and the skies above. Very special, because we live in Rotterdam where there is always light. But maybe because we appreciate it so much, this is also why we noted that the skies are less dark than they used to be. Nowadays, the brightest sparks in the skies are not the stars or the moon. What is happening?
The new lights in the skies are brighter than the moon and the stars…. Not unlike on this ‘Chandelllier’ picture (Source)
The satellites reflect the sun so we see them as bright objects moving in the sky. It’s at the same time confronting, comforting and confusing.
Comforting
First the comfort-part: some of these satellites enable us to communicate. We use them to update our position and occasionally update our weather forecast when we are on the ocean. Satellites can gather loads of information to solve sustainability-issues. And they can enhance communication also in remote areas.
Confusing
The confusing part is that, even in the middle of the ocean, we are ‘not alone’. And it is harder to experience the deep awe and relaxation of ‘the moon and the skies above’. Let alone knowing that there is debris of all those floating manmade objects in the skies. But these are perhaps ‘luxury-worries’. Indegenous people who use the night sky in their cultural practice raise alarm. The skies are changing and we don’t yet know if we can reverse it.
In some remote parts of the world, more satellites could improve the connection with the rest of the world. This might be in the very parts where the indigenous people live. But there hasn’t been any meaningful environmental review of these launches. And the people have not been consulted.
Confronting
From 2019 to 2022, the number of functional satellites in orbit has more than doubled.
A summary of all objects in Earth orbit officially cataloged by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network as of 2019. (Graphic has been provided by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Orbital Debris Program Office via International Dark Sky Association)
It might be 25 times this within 8 years, with possibly up to 100,000 operational satellites. In large part this increase is from the launch of satellite mega-constellations such as SpaceX’s Starlink.
Earth and oceans are being surveyed by satellites day and night source
The confronting part is that most satellites are related to energy-devouring systems. The ‘war’ on information and the military system all need satellites too. And these are the big owners of the satellites. With the rise in the number of objects in space, collisions and debris might grow. The collective reflection of sunlight from all of those objects actually raised the brightness of the night sky itself, which makes it difficult to see the stars.
Sailing and surfing
Perhaps looking into the real stars more often, instead of surfing the internet might be a wise idea. This gives you energy instead of using it. And, nature is – still – most impressive.
Perhaps it will never be as idyllic as on this picture (source), but it’s good to keep the ideal in mind.
Ya’s motto is: use only what you need. It saves a big chunk of energy, so less windmills, solar panels, and money.
Now the Ecodesign Initiative of the EU makes legislation for this. Because it forces manufacturers to make their machines use only the energy they need. And that saves us lots of unnecessary use of energy and combustion of CO2. How does this work?
What a difference does the wattage of a vacuum cleaner make? A lot!
Vacuum cleaner
Let’s look at an example. Ever wonder why your vacuum cleaner gets so hot? Well, most customers believe ‘more power is better’. So, the 2.400 watt vacuumcleaner must be the best one. Well, it is not. A research on vacuum cleaners concluded that ‘some of the 2000 watt-plus vacuumcleaners are for 1.200 watt heaters’. After this study, the EU forced manufacturers to lower the maximum wattage while at the same time demanding better functioning. From 2013, the maximum power was limited to 1.600 watt, from 2017 even to 900 watt. These measures save 23 terrawatthours in 2030. For example, this is enough to light 23 million houses for one year. It is more than two times all the windenergy generated in the Netherlands in 2021 (8,9 terawatthours).
Ecodesign worked out more guidelines and in 2020, which all together saved some 1037 terawatthours of energy. This is more energy than The Netherlands used in 2020 (some 933 TWh).
Just 10-14 EU civil servants have made sure that EU saved more energy than The Netherlands used in 2020 (some 933 TWh).
Sustainable products initiative
The Ecodesign Directive is a success story. Thanks to boring EU-guidelines, the EU emitted 170 megatonnes less CO2 in 2020 (which is more than the total of Dutch CO2-emissions!). As a matter of fact, these ‘boring’ EU’s ecodesign rules, made by a group of dull and grey office workers, could account for one third of reduction EU has targeted ( a 55% greenhouse gas reduction by 2030).
With the recent EU -Sustainable products initiative, EU widenes the Ecodesign Directive to a broader range of goods. They also force the industry to make products durable, repairable, reusable and recyclable.
Miracles
So you see, at Ecodesign, grey office workers work day by day, detail by detail, consistently doing the real work on sustainability in their boring offices. We think they do miracles.
Wherever we go, we try to discover as much local fruit and vegetables as we can. In Spain and Portugal we were amazed by finding good food during our walks. In Suriname, we found amazing brown and hairy fruit and more.
On the market in Paramaribo, some of the fruit did not look appealing. Like the sapodilla fruit in the front. But we tried it anyhow.Brown and hairy from the outside, it’s gorgeously sweet inside.And while Europeans only know coconuts as brown and hairy…….when they are fresh you would not recognize them….…..because then they are smooth and yellowish.And as Dave showed us, you can drink the juice once you sliced open the coconut.
Of course there’s also plants that look as if you can eat them.
Like these pretty calabash in Bendekonde, that contain an enormous inedible nut inside and serve only for decoration and functional purposes…but look somewhat like this small “pompelmoes” (citrus maxima or pomelo), with its delicious citrus fruit inside.Depending on how ripe the fruit is….you lose almost 1/5 of its size when you peel it! Sweeter than grapefruit, good structure, enchanting colours, keeps for weeks:pompelmoes might be our favorite fruit!
Our most intriguing fruit was the awarra or bush-gum:
We collected these awarras during our jungle-tour…
We ate most of them right away: take off the crown and scrape with your lower teeth from the other end to the top. Chew and enjoy the rich, soursweet taste, spit out the hairy bits.
For conservation, we took of the peel and sugared them. This way we can keep them for weeks.
And we learned how to like the bitter sopropo.
Slice and put in water with salt for a few hours, rinse and prepare with other strong tasts.The same treatment goes well for the white tomatoes or antroewa’s.
The best recipes for Suriname food and ways to prepare fruit and vegetables can be easily found. Take a look, because with roots in Indian, Indonesian, Chinese and West-African, Dutch, Jewish and Chinese cooking there’s always something you will like.
The deeper into a country, the better. In Suriname this means you end up in the jungle. So we went as far as we could.
This time, we left ‘Ya’ to make a 300 km ride by car, and then a 100 km ‘ride’ in a longboat through the jungle on the Suriname river. There, we slept in a little house to complete our tour over land.
Like to react? Please mail to: info@fossilfreearoundtheworld.org Like to sail with us? Please mail to: info@fossilfreearoundtheworld.org or Signal/Whatsapp to +316 283 44 823
The deeper into a country, the better. In Suriname this means you end up in the jungle. So we went as far as we could.
This time, we left ‘Ya’ to make a 300 km ride by car, and then a 100 km ‘ride’ in a longboat through the jungle on the Suriname river. There, we slept in a little house to complete our tour over land.
Like to react? Please mail info@fossilfreearoundtheworld.org Like to sail with us? Please mail info@fossilfreearoundtheworld.org or Signal/Whatsapp to +316 283 44 823
We don’t want plastics, microfibers or carbon from the tap; we want plankton!
On Ya, we want to use only what we need. This is also true for our precious drinking water. So, whenever possible, we use the water we’re sailing on for washing the dishes etc. We take this water from the big tap with the electric pump, like you do at home. For drinking water, we use the smal foot-pump. Now what does this have to do with plankton? Well, if you take oceanwater from the tap, you would like to see some beautiful plankton under your microscope every now and then. Not plastics or carbon. So, let’s see what our water sampling earlier this year has brought the researchers from GOES.
GOES expected 10 to 20 particles of plastic and other matter between 0.02 and 0.2mm in size. Instead the sailors found between 100 and 1000 per litre.
Micro-plastic concentrations were on average 1 particle per litre, with higher concentrations near the coast.
Up to 1000 particles per litre were PCC (Partially Combusted Carbon) and some unidentified particles.
GOES expected 1 to 5 plankton per litre of water, but the sailors found less than 1 in 10 litres. There should have been at least 1 larger plankton animal per litre (above 50um) in the Atlantic Ocean. However, we found less than 1 in 10 litres.
Why is the large amount of plastic and black carbon so bad?
Oceanic water is meant to be pure, free of plastics etc. So, normally, you would only expect some 20 particles per litre, we now found up to 1000. These particles will be eaten by planktonic organisms and coral. As you know, plastic is toxic, especially when it disintegrates into smaller particles. PCC comes from the exhaust of ships. The exhaust gases are scrubbed with seawater and them dumped into the oceans. There will also be direct fall-out of particles from the atmosphere.
The plastics take in toxic chemicals from the seawater and amplify their concentration many thousands or millions of times, and then plankton or coral consume the particle with fatal consequences. Coral reefs and marine plankton are the root of the food chain for the planet and coupled with oceanic ecosystems they control the climate. Around the time a baby, born today, reaches adulthood, most of these systems will be dead – unless we take action on pollution.
A sample we took near Cape Verde, the blue and red dots by shape and colour most probably being plastic particles.
About the mysterious ‘black particles’
The shipping industry burn in the order of 300 million tonnes of heavy, dirty fuel oil every year. Approximately 5% of this oil ends up as partially combusted carbon. Shipping industry dump 15 million tonnes of toxic waste into the oceans every year. The flue gases are now scrubbed from the exhaust and dumped directly into surface ocean water. This means the shipping industry is responsible for 15 million tonnes of toxic waste every year.
These carbon particles take in toxic chemicals just like plastic does, sometimes in even higher concentrations. So, they will contain molecular plastic, heavy metals and toxic chemicals. The worst part of it is that this is probably the result of another ‘Wrong good idea’, …
This is a sample taken by GOES’ SV ‘Copepod’ from water in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, near the equator. It shows the filtrate from just 100ml of water, so count the particles and multiply by 10, and this is the concentration in a litre of seawater.
The coral reefs are dying and will be gone in 25 years along with any remaining fish, this is also happening all over the world. Shipping needs to be changed. It should be great again, without leaving the oceans polluted with plastics and chemicals. So then also, we can have more ‘plankton from the tap’.
We use our biggest tap for seawater. Just for fun, we took this sample straight from the tap at the middle of the ocean. And we were lucky! these beautiful creatures look a lot like plankton.
We invited the children from Kinderhuis Johanna, Waterland and artist Dave Simson to paint the children’s dreams for the future on the jib. It was great! See all the work, and the sailing, in the next movie.
17 children, assisted by artist Dave Simson, painted their dreams of the future on Ya’s jib
Next day we went sailing. So, the children hoisted the sail and, of course, they enjoyed seeing their paintings. Their footprints make heart prints on the sail, accompanied by all creatures of the sea. You see, this is the clean, healthy and happy future the children want to live in. Don’t you?
We featured on the Children’s News in Suriname (5 minutes of colourful joy)...
One reason for us to become fossil free, is because it saves money. Another reason has always been that you stop supporting ethically doubtful states like Saudi Arabia, Russia, Libya, and more. It is geopolitics on micro level.
How we did this on ‘Ya’ was mainly to look into the mirror of our own consumption. Yes, that hurts, but we had to. Because, with our normal consumption level we had to build some 5 windmills and about 5 times more solar panels on the ‘Ya’. That is simply too much work, and we should build a bigger boat just to get all that equipment on it. Which would raise our consumption again…. We can’t afford such detours.
Detours are great when you have time and money, when you like complexity and challenges, with discussions.
So, we used our common sense and discovered that we were on a detour. We took a shortcut and checked our own consumption and what we spilled.
That was a short cut! It proved to reduce our energy consumption with about 70-80%. The main trick is that we only use what we need. That is rather simple. An example:
We cook on an induction cooker, instead of combusting gas on a gas stove. This saves about 55% of energy. We use a pressure cooker, saving another 15%. The moment it cooks, we take it from the induction into an insulation box till it is cooked, and we saved another 15-20%. So, on cooking we reduce our energy use by 80-90%. And we cook and live in more comfort (less stress, no moist atmosphere).
Another example is a flexible mind in the planning of our trips. That reduces the engine use with about 80%. (About flexible planning on your side: how much fossil fuel did you save in the COVID time, when you stepped in your car 1 time a week instead of 5 times?)
So, it is common sense: the short cut is to first check your consumption before you start supplying your consumption (or ‘demand’, as the Dutch government calls it.).
Zero use of fossil fuels makes our childrens future better, and we save money, and we micro-contribute to better geopolitics.
Geopolitics and fossil fuels
Now the Ukraine war broke out. Even here in Surinam everyone notices this, for example on the petrol and gas prices. Surinam has its own petrol and gas production, so in theory they don’t depend on petrol from abroad. Although nearly autarkic, the prices on the pump have risen seriously. Simply because also Suriname is part of the world economy. The relation with the USA is close. The USA stopped taking gas and oil from Russia and uses their own oil fields instead. This is just a tiny change, but enough to raise the price sharply because everywhere else in the world the oil prices rise sharply.
The EU is directly dependent of Russian gas and oil. The EU leaders themselves must feel the irony that on one hand they take measures to boycott Russia, while on the other hand Russia could squeeze the gas supply a bit and states like Bulgaria and the Baltics (near100% dependent), Germany (50%), Poland (40%) and many more countries, will be in serious trouble.
Geopolitics is a serious thing.
The EU dependency on Russion fuel is large. Here the gas dependency in 2020 is shown in percentage part consumption of Russian gas (source )
Dutch detours
Let us focus on the Netherlands. This country has a small dependency on Russian gas (14% in 2021), so that is easy to reduce. Immediately after the EU’s first boycott measures, the Dutch government decided to develop an extra wind park at sea costing 1.2 billion Euros. Does it help? Mwah, In about 3 years. But not now. And contributes only a few percents to our energy use. And it costs a lot.
Although Holland is a small and crowded country, they also speeded up procedures for solar energy fields. Will that work against Putin’s power? Mwah. In about 2 or 3 years. on its fastest. What will all these parks cost? Billions on direct costs, but the real costs will be the many billions caused by the rise of the square meter price of the scarce Dutch soil.
Blue energy, and all kinds of other brand-new alternative energy sources are too undeveloped. Also, the research and development of near-sustainable nuclear power like thorium-based power plants, has been neglected for decades. This will take another 10 years.
So, all sustainable energy supply can’t help us against Putin’s threat. So then what?
Using coal power plants is a terrible solution, especially for the Netherlands with its vulnerable low sea level. And with a prime minister speeching in Glasgow for the international forum: “Now we need action! Action! Action! On the climate change actions, Holland is mediocre, but the Dutchmen should be the front runner, the example, the leader. Restarting coal power plants, would make itself doubtful.
Sofar in an outline: we are spending all money we have, and more, we work our ass off, would throw away our image, and still mister Putin has his hand on the gas valve, able to close it anytime.
We Dutchmen are cornered. With our back against the wall.
So, what now?
If all detours fail, then take the shortcut
Now the Dutch Association for Sustainable Energy has made a recommendation for the Dutch government. The question is how to save the 5 to 8 bcm (billion cubic metres) of Russian gas? The answer starts with the common sense measures to prevent and reduce the energy:
“The Netherlands can save almost 5 billion cubic metres of gas in one year. In four years, potentially 10 billion cubic metres of gas can be saved.”
A miracle? No. Did they get mad in these respected institute? No.
They continue: “Positive side-effect is a CO2 emission reduction of roughly 10 percentage points of our Climate Goals (55% in the National Climate Act)”
But that is great! It has always been a skin of their teeth thing to their targets on the climate change actions. Let us have a look on what actions have to be taken.
For the Netherlands: more than half of the possible reductions in gas could be done by simple measures. More than 80% of them could be done within a year. This reduces our immediate dependency on Russia. Without negative side effects. Source
So finally, after all expensive detours failed, even the government has to see that the simple solutions work. These solutions don’t cost much, that they are mostly common sense, many people can understand them, they are never high tech (sorry to all engineers and tech universities), they are even pretty boring, and are all easy to implement. And they are not sexy. So plenty reasons for the government why they are never focused on these short cuts.
But, they help.
Check on fossil free ‘Ya’ if you doubt about it.
Want to join us on ‘Ya’ for a time? Then email to info@fossilfreearoundtheworld.org Or give us an app or call: +316 283 44 823 (Signal or Whatsapp)
We entered Suriname and saw sharp divisions in the water, probably differences in the currents of river water and oceanwater. And we found many more controversies in Suriname.
The sea before Suriname consist of the fresh water from the river (right) and the salt sea water.
Since 2014, Suriname is one of the three countries in the world with a net-negative carbon economy. They absorb more greenhouse gases than they emit from human activities.This negative carbon output is easy to explain. Only half a million people live in Suriname. 90% of Suriname’s human activity is on the coastal strip of 30 kilometer. The other hundreds of kilometres are jungle, rainforest, which capture carbon.
The capital of Suriname, Paramaribo, looks like a Dutch town. Not only in the architecture of some of the characteristic buildings, but also in its setting: it is built almost on sea water level
Carbon negative, but necessary carbon productivity
Like we saw in Gambia, also Suriname is particularly vulnerable to sea level rise and salt water intrusion.[11] , because nearly all people live in the low lying coastal strip.
Agriculture and mining are the main sources of income. Agriculture contributes the largest part of the country’s emissions.[2], the mining is the next. The country is covered by forests, mainly pristine rainforest, which absorb the CO2. This annually absorbs 8.8 million tons of carbon, while providing annual emissions of 7 million tons of carbon
While Suriname is rightfully proud of its carbon negative status, it badly needs the income from mining: formerly bauxite, now oil and gold. Petroleum exports are an important part of the economy of Suriname,[7] much of which is controlled by the state owned Staatsolie Maatschappij Suriname. As of January 2020, an American corporation, Apache Corporation, was drilling wells in Maka Central.[8]Unfortunately, mining can do great harm to the rainforest.
The Afobaka dam with the hydro energy, producing most of Surinams electricity (source)
Unfortunately, the building of the dam came with negative side-effects. The original inhabitants, the Samarakans (Marrons) were forced to move, the wood in their forest was cut and they suffered a great deal from all of this.
Suriname has an important source of reneweable energy: hydroelectric energy. In the 1960s, the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) built the US$150-million Afobaka Dam[16] . This created the Brokopondo Reservoir a 1,560 km2 lake, one of the largest artificial lakes in the world. Some 75% of the hydroelectric energy in the country was used for alumina and aluminium.(source). After the shutdown of Alcoa, Suriname became the owner of the Dam and hydroenergy now supplies the major part of the countries’ electricity (source)
Electricity cables dominate the main roads in Paramaribo. In fact, they are everywhere.
Rich country, poor people
They say here: “You put your walking stick in the soil and next year there are branches and leaves on it”. That is the fertility. But the country is also rich in minerals. In 1990, the UN ranked Surinam as potentially the 17th richest countries of the world. On the other hand, the UN in 2018 predicted that in 2030 Surinam would be one of the poorest countries of the world pro capita.(source) This would probably be caused by the budget deficit, caused mainly by debts and the great number of governmental employees (source).
Now, Suriname is a low-income country indeed. Most people earn 260 to 400 Euro per month and prices of living are relatively high. In 2018 20% of the people lived under the poverty limit. With COVID, GDP dropped 15%. Like most of the Caribbean states. As a matter of fact, it goes for most of the developing countries who are at risk of flooding with climate change.
No contribution to climate change, but victim of the consequenses
Surinams contributions to global climate change have been limited. But now, climate change leads to warmer temperatures and more extreme weather events. Noel, the owner of the Marina, tells us that schools in the south of the country have been closed in recent months due to flooding.
According to the World Bank, temperatures have already increased across the country, with a significant increase in hot weather.[9] A large part of the rainforest may disappear because of the changes in rain and temperature.[10]
Koppen-Geiger climate map for 1980-2016 ((left)and for 2071-2100right). There will be less tropical rainforest, more monsoon climate and even some savannah in the south.
The future: long term or short term?
Suriname is in a constant balancing act in relation to sustainability. And it is aware of this.
Positive signpost with the ruins of the past in the background, Paramaribo, march 2022.
In 2020 Suriname updated the Nationally Determined Contributions focus on four key areas; forests, electricity, agriculture and transport. Suriname wants to hold on to 93 per cent forest cover but needs “significant international support… for the conservation of this valuable resource in perpetuity.”
Sustainable and “clean” electricity is also a priority; Suriname strives for a “share of electricity from renewable sources above 35% by 2030.”
Agriculture is the cause of 40 per cent of the country’s total emissions but this has also provided a continuous valuable source of income. At the same time, the sector is strongly impacted by climate change. So, Suriname focusses on the development of climate-smart farming. That includes water resources management, the promotion of sustainable land management; and adopting innovative technologies, for example converting biomass into energy.
For transport, Suriname wants to improve public transportation and introduce controls on vehicle emissions.
Lotus flowers in a little canal in Suriname. Did you know these beautiful flowers only grow in the mud?
It is going to be quite a road to combine economic and sustainability goals. Suriname is well worth the effort.
But in the meanwhile, what can Surinam do for such long-term ambitions? Still the state has a ‘waterhead’ on government, which in combination with prestige projects like the Wijdenbosch Bridge, led to a state debt. The pay back forms the largest costs each year. And still, the salaries have to be paid every term of the month, being the second largest costs.
Surinam needs foreign money, but their banks mostly block the ways to get it in.
A concrete example. Peter rented a car and payed with some left-over Euros. The rental man was very happy with it.
At the gas station Peter topped up the petrol tank. The gas station does not accept a credit card, only cash Surinam Dollars. So, Peter goes to the ATM for cash. Every ATM has a waiting line (otherwise they don’t work). Peter tried to get money from the ATM, but at the very end of the procedure, it says “No”. Peter tries his other card. This one does not work either, also at the very end. Only result is that the line gets longer. Peter tried other ATMs. No way.
Peter went to the bank. The line was 45 minutes. The answer was:
“Please try it later.” Peter tried it later with 5 other ATMs. Again, Peter went to bank, and was helped after 35 minutes. The answer was also here:
“Please try it later.” Peter said he already did. They answered:
“Please try it tomorrow.”
So, from 11 AM till 4 PM Peter has tried to get Surinam dollars, but zero success. He would have much preferred to spend this time to buy things, eat Surinam meals etc. That day Peter heard all the professional answers for: “we are too incompetent to get money from foreign bank accounts”. These unwilling ATMs are not an incident; it is structural.
It is French and Caribbean. The colours are truly impressive. Fruits and vegetables as far as you can see, sold by vendors from French Guyana and Surinam. There is every reason to buy local from a sustainability point of view. But the truth is: it is just too good not to do so!
Best ask what the fruits and vegetables are and how to prepare them. For example the green/orange fruit of a palmtree, the Parepou has to be boilt for 35 minutes and it tasts like a sweet potato! Parepou recipe The lady warned me that the chilies are really hot.The colorful arrangements catch the eye…The pepper and chilies look like candy. Best not to believe that.Cucumbers that look like courgettes, courgette-like vegetables that look like cucumbers, everything is possible.The ‘harvest’ of our first shopping tour, note especially the small bananas and local ‘chestnuts’ that have to be boiled for 20 minutes.The second shopping tour brought for example the red ‘pommes d’amour (recipe), fragrant Cupuaco (recipe), and the sour gooseberries (recipe).
Take it away!
If you don’t feel like cooking, on the Saturday market you can buy French-Guyanese delicacies.
The immensely popular fried codfish…the French-inspired ‘tarte-a-‘l’onion’….and the tasty ‘jamais goûté’ that is only caught on Maroni river.
But how about the weather?
Even on a rainy day (and there are lots, it is the rainy season) everybody takes out the umbrella and goes there. It is fun.
Enjoy your local markets!
Buying local saves an awful lot on fossil fuels (prevention on cooled transport and storage), and we can store it longer. And, it is more fun!
You want to join us on our sailing fossil free sailing and living? Then contact us.
During our trip, we saw lots of weed in the ocean. We did some research and quickly found the answer: it is Sargassum weed and it has been b(l)ooming since 2011. Columbus already wrote about the Sargasso Sea, as a strange local phenomenon. However, the massive growth we see now, could have rather scary consequences.
What did we see?
A pluck of weed just behind the ‘Ya’.
We saw the weed all the time. Watch with us some secondsThe wind and waves shape the weed in endless long lanes through the ocean
We took some weed to see what it looked like from nearby, and then used the microscope we use for the GOES project.
The weed on a plate…… and parts of the weed on a petri-dish
On some of the weed, you can see small black dots, mainly in the ‘hair’ of the weed. These could be plants or plastics.
Our first conclusion was that there might be plants as well as plastics in the ‘hairs’ of the weed. But this is up to biologists.
Is this weed really that much? The growth of the weed has been documented and studied over the last 10 years.
The most likely cause is climate change. The Sahara dries and grows, and the dust clouds spreading at sea are rich in nutrients. Climate change also leads to the upwelling of nutrients from deep ocean waters at the other end of the sargassum belt in West Africa. Also, fertilizer flows into the Amazon River and the Mississippi River and then to the ocean. The fertilizer comes from industrial-scale agriculture (corn, soja) and (meat) ranches.
Sargassum field near Big Pine Key in Florida, source
Is it good or bad?
The Sargasso sea, that gave the weed its name, is a nursery for marine life. The weed shelters plankton, eel, fish and turtles. But the huge growth in the last decade keeps the sunlight away from marine life and that is a real threat. This is because it can result inlow oxygen levels and create hydrogen sulphide, potentially causing the death of marine life (Pfaff 2015).
The picture shows and describes the effect of Sargassum mats on mammals, fish and plants. SourceSargassum weed on Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Source
Also, some of the weed ends up on the beaches of the Caribbean isles and Mexico. Ecologically this is a tiny bit, but the impact for us humans is big.
Check out this news item: When the weed rots away, it emits a toxic gas, smelling of rotten eggs,
To a solution
The scale is so big, that Mexico deployed the Mexican navy to clean it up from the beautiful white beaches. But, the commanding officer admits that it is hopeless work. Some communities plow the seaweed under the sand. But you can do it once or twice and then the white beach becomes more and more brownish soil.
An engineering company made a ‘Sargassum Seaweed Barrier’ before the beach. It works in normal weather circumstances. But they don’t know what to do with the Sargassum that is caught.
On small scale, people collect it, wash off the salt with (scarce) fresh water and convert it to natural fertilizer. In Mexico some entrepreneurs compress this into bricks and use it, like adobe, for building construction. Problem is that the scale is way to big. Even on a large scale, it would not solve even 0,000001 % of the problem.
In the Netherlands, Wageningen University found a way to convert it into biogas and into fertilizer. But it is not commercially interesting, it creates new side effects. Most of all, although this university proves international excellence on ecology and (marine) biology sciences, it neglects the problem itself, and its cause. Instead of the ocean scale, it narrows the sustainability vision down to a the scale of a coast, or a beach.
In this movie the MIT/PERG researchers put up the idea called ‘SOS Carbon’. Idea is to pump all weed deep into the ocean, where it will die of overpressure and sink to the bottom. But being aware of the gigantic scale of this project, they doubt about the feasibility. Also, they did not check any side effect. So, they narrowed it down to a project to harvest only the weed that could reach the beach and then pump that down to the deep sea on the spot.
Solution from 5 miles to 5000 miles.
All solutions have in common that they don’t look further than the horizon of the coast. Let us say: 5 miles. But the problem is a wide belt about five thousand miles, on a complete ocean as a matter of fact. These solutions are symptom-fighting. In no solution the ecological impact is addressed, neither of the solution, nor of the other 4995 miles. Nobody seems to know if this massive growth will continue, or if it is just a temporary reaction in the eco system. Even the UN Environmental Programme’s white paper focuses only on the solutions for the surplus of weed, because they are not sure if there is anything that can be done about the cause.
The only solution that addresses the scale is the prevention of the entire problem. Prevention is nearly always the cheapest solution and has the guarantee of zero new side effects. This means that we have to address climate change and nitrogen emissions from human activities in the first place. Yes, this is a look in the mirror, and yes, that can hurt. But the solution, living fossil free, will deliver a better life for you, for the next generations and for the rest of the world. That is sustainable. Impossible? We live fossil free on “Ya”. Join us. We all can save a bit of the world for our children.
