Climate solutions involving the oceans The Cambridge University Centre for Climate Repair is highlighting the relative lack of focus on the oceans (the Earth's largest carbon storage) in discussions of natural solutions aiming to slow climate change and store carbon. In a recent article, former UK Chief Scientist Sir David King and his co-author Jane Lichtenstein point to three issues deserving more attention: - The crucial role of large oceanic animals such as the great whales in cycling massive quantities of nutrients (digested food) within the oceans, which was grossly impaired during the whaling era. Large areas of the oceans are now effectively deserts. - New ways to increase the biomass of near-surface marine organisms, such as plants, animals and microorganisms whose remains become stored in ocean sediments as "blue carbon". - The possibility of increasing cloud cover to decrease absorption of sunlight by expanding areas of ice-free Arctic Ocean and meltwater puddles on the surface of the sea ice. The ongoing use of Arctic sea lanes is adding to this problem by darkening the ice surface with soot from burning fossil fuels. https://theconversation.com/oceans-and-their-largest-inhabitants-could-be-the-key-to-storing-our-carbon-emissions-180901 https://www.climaterepair.cam.ac.uk/