Thank you to all visitors to Lakefest 25 and Greenbelt 25 Festivals whom I talked to and have checked out this site.
We have let CO2 build up in the air get so extreme that we now have the absurdity of having to rely on the ONLY safe exponentially growing plant being able to save us.
As humanity we have already shown that other methods of reducing our carbon output from fossil fuels is not something that Governments nor population in general are willing to take in the extreme measures that ARE required for survival.
Fossil fuel has powered all our technological advances of recent years beyond the Industrial Revolution, started in Victorian times in the UK. Our lives have been transformed across the planet dramatically since then.
The reason we are not doing anything effective about climate change and more specifically about the CO2 build up in our atmosphere, (which is heating the planet and changing the power and frequency of extreme weather events), is twofold.
‘One’ the fossil fuel industry is more powerful than a single superpower country.
‘Two’ WE CAN’T SEE the CO2 building up, it is imperceptible to all our main senses, (especially sight), which warn us of danger in order to survive.
If CO2 were red in colour for example, we would ALL be demanding that our governments do something about the atmosphere going pink when we know scientifically that is the cause of global warming.
So how does duckweed propagation solve all of this? Why is it the practical solution to our problems?
Let’s be clear about this, duckweed propagation on an industrial level worldwide and storage of it in solid form, will reduce CO2 in the air, but it also needs us to up our game in alternative energy sources to fossil fuels, to be far more effective in reusing and recycling, restoring habitats (such as rainforests) not destroying them. Making polluters pay for damage and policing that damage more effectively. Duckweed is part of the solution not solely the solution.
This is why we need to make stringent efforts to reach a Carbon Zero point and be able to stabilize it for a Carbon Neutral sustainable future. Since we have let it get so bad many of us have realised that we are doomed unless we come up with a near miraculous answer.
We live on a ‘Goldilocks’ planet. We are just the right distance from the sun for it to have greenhouse gases in its atmosphere trapping some of the sun’s radiated energy and thus keeping it warmer than its distance would otherwise allow. Let’s be clear, without CO2 in the air our planet would freeze. Carbon based life in its great diversity relies on there being liquid water to function, survive and thrive. Mess with that CO2 level and life dies of heating up too much with too much CO2 or dies of cold as the planet becomes an ice ball in the coldness of space with no greenhouse gas CO2.
Why and how is duckweed a ‘Goldilocks’ plant for the ‘Goldilocks’ planet? It is because it is just right for the requirements for carbon capture in the first instance and after as part of the sustainable carbon cycle of the planet.
One, it exhibits exponential growth in a short time span (2 days).
Two, it has a very restrictive growing habitat, so that if it escapes from the propagation places we
construct for it, it cannot ruin the planet and take over.
Three it has the ability, in the smaller varieties, to desiccate in air without rotting.
Four, it is so simple to grow and harvest. A single stroke of a blade across the dirty water surface of vertically stacked trays once every 2-day life cycle.
Five, it can be made into compressed blocks to enable us to lock it up in solid form to make manmade peat bogs from it in disused quarries around the world.
Six, we can create for it easily the extra surfaces of the Earth in the critical equation of: Mass x Time x Equivalent surfaces of the Earth. Only our constructional capabilities to build vertically restrict us in that last part of the Whittaker equation.
Seven, it has so many uses for humanity after it has stabilised CO2 in the atmosphere. This means we can continue to make use of the facilities we have constructed to grow it. It has use as food (with more protein content than Soya) with five varieties fit for human consumption and twelve for animals. It makes near perfect biofuel. It depollutes water and makes excellent easily spread natural fertilizer. Also remember in cities, growing towers will be pumping oxygen back into their polluted atmosphere.
Growing duckweed on an industrial scale is a ‘no brainer’. It is a win/win/win/win/win/win/win situation.
It is so important that the whole of humanity gets to learn how duckweed can be the solution to our climate crisis, so that we can finally get our governments to act and overcome the power of the fossil fuel industry by the mandate of that shared human knowledge.
