Imagine if you could create a completely natural carbon pump, storing and sinking carbon and increasing natural carbon absorption from the oceans. Seems like the future? It’s already here, and if you’re lucky you can see one swimming around one off your nearest coast.
Whales actually store carbon. In pre-industrial times, whales sunk up to 1.9 million tonnes of carbon each year: equivalent to removing as many as 410,000 cars off the road. With the reduction of whale populations in some areas of up to 90%, if we want to make use of this natural carbon removal solution we need to focus on the importance of protecting them.
In fact, it is estimated by the International Money Fund (IMF) that the value of restoring global whale populations to pre-industrial levels would be worth of to $1 trillion dollars in terms of carbon sequestration, fisheries and ecotourism benefits. They even went so far as to recommend that the protection and restoration of whale populations should be a part of the 2015 Paris Agreement for climate change.
For a climate-stable earth our natural systems need all the help we can give them.
Learn more: Nature’s Solution To Climate Change