Verdeindex Edition 01
By Oscar Petterson Fuentes
Non-profit: Coral Gardeners
Today’s non for profit in focus are the Coral Gardeners, a group founded in 2017 and based in Mo’orea, a sister island of Tahiti, who were founded with the aim of ‘restoring the ocean, one coral at a time’. Before we get into this amazing initiative let’s understand the importance of coral and what issues it currently faces.
Coral reefs are some of the most diverse ecosystems on earth and provide habitat for at least 25% of the oceans marine life. The importance of coral reefs does not stop there with coral reefs playing a crucial role in supporting local communities through generating an income from tourism as a key source of food. Not only this, but they protect shorelines from storms and floods which helps prevent a loss of life and devastating infrastructural damage inland.
However, as with many of the natural elements that benefit us, corals are being destroyed around the world by humans. Pollution, overfishing, destructive fishing practices such as using dynamite or cyanide, collecting live corals for the aquarium market, mining coral for building materials, and a warming climate are some of the many ways that humans are destroying corals across the globe.
This is exactly what the Coral Gardeners identified and in 2017 Tituoan Bernicot founded the Coral Gardeners in which the values of the company is based on their mission to:
“revolutionise ocean conservation and create a global movement to save the world’s coral reefs through active reef restoration, awareness activities and innovative solutions, developed by our CG labs.”
Titouan Bernicot and his team actively care for corals as if tending to a garden and it is the small-scale operations such as this that have the greatest impact. Through selling apparel and accessories (I myself have a bracelet), and giving people the option to adopt a coral, (which covers the expense of caring and planting the coral) they have been able to fund an expansive coral regeneration and planting project.
Upon writing this newsletter they have planted 100,870 corals and reached over 450 million people through their projects. They have covered the equivalent of 12,494 m2 of coral and have restored 11 reefs. The Coral Gardeners whilst based in Mo’orea have the ultimate goal of opening similar grassroot operations across the world to catalyse awareness and protection of these ocean rainforests.
Tech start-up: Windfall Bio
Agriculture is the largest man-made source of methane emissions with this sector producing 40% of man-made methane emissions. Methane emissions according to the UN environmental program:
“… has accounted for roughly 30 percent of global warming since pre-industrial times and is proliferating faster than at any other time since record keeping began in the 1980s.” (Article)
Finding a solution to the methane problem has become an increasingly important task now that experts cite methane reduction as one of the quickest ways to begin mitigating the worst-case scenario for climate change. The reason for this is that although methane is over 80x more potent as a GHG than carbon dioxide it only stays in the atmosphere for around 20 years compared to CO2 which lingers for over 300.
Today’s interesting tech comes from Windfall Bio. Founded in 2023, it is one of the few companies developing a solution to capture methane. They do this by using a ‘mem’ which are naturally existing methane-eating microscopic organisms. They consume methane but also release nitrogen compounds which become valuable nutrients for other microorganisms in the soil allowing surrounding plants to thrive. The aim of this process is intriguing as they are able to create a nourishing agricultural cycle that not only benefits farmers and their yields, but simultaneously improves the condition of soil and removes potent GHG. In essence, this tech kills two birds with one stone. These mem’s consume methane and produce a natural fertiliser keeping the soil healthy. Windfall Bio not only focuses on agriculture but in a recent interview with CNBC Josh Silverman CEO of Windfall BIO said :
“Our customers can be farmers, they can be dairy farmers who have access to cows [think cow farts], and they need to make fertilizer themselves. But we also work with customers in the oil and gas space who have waste methane from their day to day operations. We can work with landfills and waste management.” (Article)
The potential of this company and technology can be tremendous, spanning several sectors and tackling the methane problem.
When looking at the company I found one of their slogans; ‘nature knows no waste’, incredibly interesting. It plays on one of my key ideologies that nature is an underrated tool in solving key sustainability issues and in this case the output of one biological process (methane) is the input for another. We can learn so much from how nature works and seeing how this is being used by innovative companies is encouraging.
Challenge: Collapse of the AMOC
Unfortunately, when it comes to climate change we can’t only look at the positives and everyday we must continue to remind ourselves of the profound challenge we face. Today, I will look at the possible collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and the serious consequences this could have on humanity.
The AMOC is a “conveyer belt”·that moves water current by density. The colder the water the greater the density and this difference allows warm water to be carried from the Equator to the Arctic where the water is cooled and sinks, making way for more warm water from the equator.
However, warming seas and melting ice are hindering the sinking of water masses and this is a serious problem. While the effects of carbon dioxide emissions are already alarming, with a few tenths of a degree increase per decade, the slowing down of the AMOC could cause an increase in temperature of a few degrees per decade. Not only this but it is forecasted that European cities could experience a drop in temperature of between 5 and 15 degrees. Furthermore, the Atlantic ocean would rise by an expected 70cm, submerging coastal cities and the southern hemisphere would see an increase in temperature. The last time this occurred was 12,900 years ago and what followed was a period of 1300 years of freezing.
Articles on the topic:
Met office – The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation in a changing climate
Science.org – Physics-based early warning signal shows that AMOC is on tipping course
The Guardian- Atlantic ocean circulation nearing ‘devastating’ turning point, study says
Renewable matter – The AMOC collapse is closer then expected: the consequences
Hope: Trump’s War on Carbon Markets: Will It Prevail?
In my opinion, the challenge of climate change must be approached with optimism and the best way to this is to focus on the positives as much as the negatives. Today’s hope section will focus on the idea that ‘more people care about climate change than you think’ and this comes from an article produced by Our World in Data.
When it comes to policy support on climate change the global average was 72% in favour of climate policies. A recent paper in Nature Climate change conducted a survey of over 130,000 people in 125 countries and 89% wanted to see more political action within their countries. A further study published in Nature Communications found that 80%-90% of Americans underestimated public support for climate policies. Contestants thought that between 37-43% of Americans wanted more action however the actual number was more than two-thirds.
There is no doubt that there is a partisan gap on climate change but once again it is smaller than people think. It is very easy to feel like climate change is an issue which only some people give thought to, but the reality is, it permeates through society. People who deny the severity of climate change will always be loud and through this, our view on others’ perception becomes tainted. However, as the numbers above show, the majority of people do understand this severity and although it is easy to become disheartened it is important to remember that to support the environment is to be in the majority. Therefore, together as part of the majority, real change can and must be implemented.