Raphael ThysPhoto by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash
The world is suffocating under the immense weight of our carbon waste. 2023 is the first year that this has been on full display for the world to see, with catastrophic weather events happening seemingly every month from pole to pole. Thousands are dying from climate change each year, and as time goes on, this death toll will get far worse. We must stop this self-inflicted drawn-out apocalypse, but our efforts are so far inadequate. As such, the IEA has repeatedly stated that carbon capture and storage will be a crucial industry to meet our climate goals. But, this technology is still wildly expensive and unscaleable. But a new startup, Running Tide, might just have a perfect solution. Dumping wood into the ocean!
Let’s start at the beginning because there are a few things we need to recap first to understand what Running Tide is doing here.
There are many ways to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. One of the most obvious, simple and efficient is with plants. The chlorophyll within their leaves reacts atmospheric carbon dioxide with water and light energy to create carbon-rich sugar molecules. They then use these sugars as food to fuel themselves, but can also bundle them up into organic polymers to build their bodies out of. This is why you sometimes hear people say that wood is actually made from air, as the carbon within it comes from the atmosphere.
This is also why forests are incredibly carbon-rich environments. Not only do the trees contain tonnes of carbon, but the decomposing dead wood creates incredibly carbon-rich soils beneath the trees. As such, one of the most simple carbon-offsetting technologies is forest protection and conservation, as helping these ecosystems thrive does capture a lot of carbon dioxide. For example, each square meter of the Amazon contains between 14 and 40 kilograms of carbon above and below ground, and in total, it contains around 123 billion tons of carbon above and below ground.
But there are some severe drawbacks to using this natural carbon capture and storage. Firstly, it has an upper limit. Eventually, decomposition re-emits the carbon stored by the trees back into the…