Tim Flannery: Can seaweed help curb global warming?
提姆 法蘭內利: 海草能協助抑制全球暖化嗎?
Explorer and professor Tim Flannery seeks to grasp the big picture of planetary evolution and how humans can affect it -- for better or for worse. Full bio
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some remarkable qualities.
of that seaweed,
as atmospheric CO2,
成為大氣二氧化碳,
of climate change.
safely away in the seaweed,
it's not far away --
也應該快腐爛了——
back to the atmosphere.
就會被釋放回到大氣中。
if we could find a way
我們能夠找到一種方法,
to solving the climate problem?
有顯著的貢獻吧?
of the climate challenge.
氣候挑戰的另一半了。
we have delayed so long,
and very difficult things at once.
兩件非常非常困難的大事。
and clean our energy supply
以及使能量供應更乾淨,
significant volumes
大氣中大量的二氧化碳。
of the CO2 we put in the air
大氣中的二氧化碳大約有 25%
by human standards, forever.
會持續到永遠。
in addressing the climate crisis
really don't make sense
some greenhouse gas into the atmosphere,
一些溫室氣體到大氣中,
by drawing it down."
溫室氣體,特別是二氧化碳,
of greenhouses gases, particularly CO2,
that we'll pay for that service
of the climate challenge.
at times, I hear people saying,
有時,我聽見人們說:
about the climate crisis."
我們能解決氣候危機。」
nights too, I can tell you.
我也有睡不著的夜晚。
for this humble weed, seaweed.
這個不起眼的海草來到這裡。
the challenge of climate change
及在我們的未來中,
we need to do over the next 80-odd years
剩下這八十多年間,
out of the atmosphere every year.
三十億噸的二氧化碳。
that they baffle us.
讓我們覺得不知所措。
tell us we need to do.
in terms of telling the story
in climate change work
做的所有倡導都失敗了,
to address climate change.
氣候變遷上都失敗了。
and greenhouse gas concentrations.
scientific announcements that we've made,
所有的重大科學宣佈,
we face with climate change.
氣候變遷有多危險。
greenhouse gases at a large scale?
將溫室氣體減量?
into drawdown.
很深入的研究。
smelling like roses at the end of the day.
and biological pathways.
of getting the job done.
that's needed to drive them, the sun,
photosynthesis in plants,
植物的光合作用,
and capture the carbon.
以及捕捉分解出的碳。
they're not bad at all.
但其實一點也不。
that we have to actually pay
that's required to do the job
of a chemical pathway,
「直接空氣捕獲」,
to take CO2 out of the atmosphere
大氣中的二氧化碳,
or manufacture plastics.
are drawing down a gigaton of CO2 a year.
每年減少十億噸二氧化碳。
a lot more hope, I think,
about reforestation, planting trees,
of this problem by using trees?
把這個問題給「種」掉嗎?
for a number of reasons.
little tiny things,
都是種子,非常小的東西。
before they've reached
已經被大量利用。
you see that it's so heavily utilized.
we get our forestry products from it,
取得林木產品,
and water and everything else.
水,以及所有其他的運用。
to deal with this problem,
來處理這個問題,
an existing industry,
找到一個解決方案,
about 70 percent of our planet.
in regulating our climate,
海洋扮演了很重要的角色。
the growth of seaweed in them,
海洋中的海草生長,
to develop a climate-altering crop.
來開發出能改變氣候的作物。
different kinds of seaweed,
genetic diversity in seaweed,
而且它的歷史悠久;
multicellular organisms ever to evolve.
多細胞生物之一。
kinds of seaweed now
用在特定用途上,
pharmaceutical products.
to take a seaweed bath,
但你可以試。
but you can do it.
about seaweed farming.
就是規模擴展性。
nine percent of the world's ocean
of all of the greenhouse gases
超過五百億噸。
when I first read it,
我覺得太棒了,
全球海洋的 9% 是多大。
nine percent of the world's oceans is.
four and a half Australias,
to that at the moment?
海洋中的海草養殖場呢?
do we actually have out there?
and therein lies some hope.
所以還是有希望的。
that's currently under construction
建造中的海草養殖場,
things about seaweed.
關於海草的有趣資訊。
growing on that rack,
25 公尺的架上生長。
from anything you see on land.
看到的東西很不一樣。
seaweed is not like trees,
海草和樹木不同,
and branches and bark.
is pretty much photosynthetic,
海草每天能成長一公尺。
is cut that seaweed off --
就是把海草切斷——
out of the atmospheric system
森林大火、蟲害等等,
about forest fires, bugs, etc.,
going down into the depths.
a vast biological desert.
就是一個浩瀚的生物沙漠。
that were used up long ago.
很久以前就用光了。
of clean, renewable energy,
to irrigate your seaweed crop.
so many benefits.
甚至能拯救地球的解決方案。
planet-saving solution.
about at this scale
the least of our problems.
that will happen.
我最擔心的其中一件事,
when I talk about this,
in the deep ocean.
into the deep ocean,
海草丟入深海中,
already reaches the deep ocean,
很多海草已經沉到了深海中,
about a novel process here;
這個過程並不是新的;
enhancing a natural process.
seaweed farms will need to be mobile,
必須要是活動式的,
across vast areas of the ocean,
廣大海洋的各處,
a big stinking pile in one place.
創造出一個巨大的海草堆。
to char the seaweed --
mineral biochar
to contemporary seaweed farming.
現代海草養殖。
they are huge.
not just seaweed farms.
只是海草養殖場。
is something called ocean permaculture.
and seaweed all together.
甲殼類,和海草。
makes the seawater less acid.
for growing marine protein.
讓海中的蛋白質生長。
of the world's oceans
擴展到全球海洋的 9%,
in the form of fish and shellfish
產生出足夠的蛋白質,
in a population of 10 billion
高品質蛋白質
protein per year.
we can feed the world,
可以供應食物給世界,
is going to be challenging.
many billions of dollars
給這些解決方案,
to get to the gigaton scale.
達到十億噸的規模。
that this is going to happen
out of the air,
從空氣中除去,
adverse consequences.
還會有各種內亂。
to dealing with this problem
可以處理這個問題的人,
to being economically sustainable.
朝向經濟永續性邁進。
a carbon-emitting economy
that we've put into the atmosphere,
把這些氣體送入大氣,
can be done over 30 years,
a century, to 1919,
a canvas and wood biplane.
和木頭做的雙翼飛機。
you'd be seeing jet aircraft.
were horses in 1919.
我們能做的很多。
that we can find a solution.
相信我們能找到解決方案。
is bring together all of the people
how to build structures offshore,
建造結構的工程師、
how things are done.
six-billion-dollar-a-year,
是每年六十億美金,
which has got so much potential,
amounts of investment?
would be on that stuff,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Tim Flannery - EnvironmentalistExplorer and professor Tim Flannery seeks to grasp the big picture of planetary evolution and how humans can affect it -- for better or for worse.
Why you should listen
A noted explorer who has published more than 140 peer-reviewed papers and named 25 living and 50 fossil mammal species, Tim Flannery has conducted research for more than 20 years in New Guinea and surrounding countries. He has served on the board of WWF International, the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, and as an advisor to the National Geographic Society. His books include The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People (which has been made into a three-part documentary series) and The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth, which has been translated into more than 20 languages.
Flannery is the cofounder of the Australian Climate Council, which provides authoritative information, advice and solutions about climate change for ordinary citizens, and chair of the Ocean Forests Foundation. In 2007 he established and chaired the Copenhagen Climate Council, and in 2011 he was appointed Australia's first Climate Commissioner.
Tim Flannery | Speaker | TED.com