With war spreading in the Middle East, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine still raging and China threatening to invade Taiwan, the world has arguably not been closer to the brink of nuclear war in generations.
Researchers have once again sounded the alarm about the risks of nuclear winter: Imagine an Earth hidden from the sun with as much as 165 million tons of soot and 16 degrees Fahrenheit lower than the average global temperature.
Everything off A nuclear war could shrivel global harvests, reducing global calorie production by 90 percent, agricultural and atmospheric scientists say.
But an international team of researchers has found a salty, tasty answer: Massive seaweed farms, strung along the ocean’s surface with ropes and buoys, could help save as many as 1.2 billion lives.
An all-out nuclear war could reduce global calorie production by 90 percent, but an international team of researchers has found a salty, savory answer: Massive seaweed farms tied with ropes and buoys along the ocean’s surface could help save as many as 1.2 billion lives
These fifteen U.S. cities are likely targets of a nuclear attack – based on population density, air distance to a strategic military facility, emergency preparedness and ease of evacuation – according to an analysis conducted by independent financial experts at 24/7 Wall Street .
The team estimates a life-saving average yield of no less than 33.63 tons of dry kelp, or seaweed, could be grown annually – on only a modest ocean surface and on a reasonable budget.
“If you use the more productive areas, you need about 416,000 square kilometers of ocean,” the study’s lead author, environmental scientist Dr. Florian Ulrich Jehn, told DailyMail.com, “which is about the size of Colombia.”
Dr. Jehn, head of data science at the Colorado-based Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALL), worked on the project with Louisiana State University’s Department of Ocean and Coastal Science, a German astrophysicist, and scientists from both Texas and the Philippines.
The economic cost of this crash program to keep billions fed during a harsh nuclear winter, said Dr. Jehn, would amount to less than previous successful American programs.
“In the article we compare the scale-up with aircraft production in the US during World War II,” said Dr. Jehn in an email interview.
“We estimate that the scale-up is likely to require fewer resources and therefore should be feasible,” he added, “but this is still a work in progress.”
One factor that Dr. Jehn is still ambiguous, even though his team is still crunching the numbers, was something in such a scenario the actual price of seaweed could increase.
The study’s lead author, environmental scientist Dr. Florian Ulrich Jehn, told DailyMail.com that the project would require about 416,000 square kilometers or 160,619 square miles of ocean “about the size of Colombia.” Above, fishermen harvest ‘maesaengi’ seaweed off the coast of South Korea
Dr. Cheryl Harrison, who directs Louisiana State’s Biophysical Ocean Modeling Lab, said vertical ocean convection is well documented during the winter months at high latitudes, but a nuclear winter would bring the cycle closer to the equator, which would benefit kelp farming .
Their research, published this month in the journal The future of the earthused oceanic climate models of the dramatic changes that would occur during a real nuclear winter.
“As the surface of the ocean becomes cold, the water becomes denser, causing it to sink, creating vertical circulation,” co-author wrote Dr. Cheryl Harrison told DailyMail.com.
The result would be a convection-like churn that would drive nutrient-rich water from the depths of the ocean to the surface – effectively fertilizing the regions needed for this massive aquatic farming program.
“This is formally called ‘penetrating convection,'” explained Dr. Harrison explains, “and is the reverse of the convection that happens on your stove when you cook pasta, where sinking cold water instead of rising hot water drives the vertical circulation.”
However, people don’t have to imagine a future where they spoon salty, wet sea plants onto their plates for every meal, these researchers emphasized. Only 15 percent of the food currently eaten by humans would transition to kelp. This would usually concern animal feed and biofuels
Dr. Harrison, who heads Louisiana State University Biophysical Ocean Modeling Laboratorysaid this process is well documented during the winter months at high latitudes, but a nuclear winter would bring the cycle closer to the equator.
“In nuclear winter it stays cold for years, so it just keeps going, blowing up deep water and the nutrients there,” as she put it by email.
‘Because it is dark and cold, these nutrients are not used up as quickly by phytoplankton, the algae that form the basis of the ocean food web.’
More human-friendly ocean vegetables, such as seaweed, do the trick, according to Dr. Harrison ‘does well under these conditions, making it a great alternative food source.’
However, people don’t have to imagine a future where they spoon salty, wet sea plants onto their plates for every meal, these researchers emphasized.
Because the iodine in seaweed can be toxic to humans in such large quantities, the kelp’s contribution to the food web would likely be more indirect.
Seaweed farms would, they estimate, replace only 15 percent of the food currently eaten by humans, but would largely be diverted to animal feed and biofuel production.
The researchers believe that as much as 50 percent of current biofuel production and 10 percent of livestock and other needed livestock feed could be provided by this Colombian archipelago of kelp farms.
The project also has fewer apocalyptic, worst-case scenarios, Dr. Harrison Living Sciencenoting that it could more likely also serve as humanitarian aid disruptions to the global food supply chain.
Everything from a massive asteroid impact or a gigantic volcanic eruption to a regional crop failure or a local drought could be offset with a similar seaweed farming program.
“Throughout history, major outbreaks have caused famine, both regionally and globally,” noted Dr. Harrison op.
“Either way, we need a plan to feed ourselves in these sudden sunlight reduction scenarios.”