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Experts say this form of carbon offsetting could strengthen the fight against climate change, but it must be used responsibly. You may have heard people say that trees are the lungs of the earth – and they're not wrong. Forests play a key role in our fight against the climate crisis because they are able to absorb carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen through photosynthesis. But while our green spaces are scarce, have we been overlooking another resource? Enter: blue carbon.
When we use this term, we are talking about carbon sequestered by coastal and marine ecosystems such as mangroves, salt marshes and sea grass. Like trees on land, these so-called "blue forests" can absorb and store carbon, but they do it much faster. Seagrass can capture this element up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests, and although it covers less than 0.1 % of our oceans, the vegetation accounts for 10 to 18 % of global carbon storage in the seas. The bad news is that we are losing blue carbon systems at an alarming rate. As many as 67 % of mangroves, at least 35 % of tidal marshes and about 29 % of seagrass meadows have already disappeared due to many factors such as coastal development, fishing, pollution, climate change and natural disasters. ((Eleanor Butler)
