Restoring Our Climate to Secure Our Future

you know. It's interesting, Carol. We talked about technologies that can actually help us avoid a catastrophe when it comes to climate change, and the author who's going to be joining us in just a second, Peter Fakowski, argues that there are actually technologies out there that are safe and effective in reducing carbon Yeah, this is an interesting dude. He's an m I T. Educated physicist and engineers worked for NASA. Uh. He's also worked at the fair Child Slumberg,

a AI Intel lab in Palolato, California. So he looks at this from a very it sounds like scientific way. So let's get to Peter. He joins us now via zoom from Los Altos, California. Peter, it is good to have you here with us. We've only got a certain amount of time. Climate anything with the climate is a big topic that you could spend hours on. Tell us about your thesis. What is climate restoration? Well, climate restoration

is very interesting. It's the it's the goal of restoring the climate that humans have actually survived long term, and so it's much more radical than the conventional thinking of trying to reduce the damage. It's uh, it's the engineering idea of we want to restore what works for human beings well, and it turns out that we have the technology and the finance to do it. We just need to start talking about it because we've been talking about

a much worse goal. What's interesting is I've never heard of this technology that you argue we have right now. Ocean pasture restoration for example, synthetic limestone manufacture, seaweed permaculture, and methane oxidation. These are the four technologies you say that can help us get us there. Let's start with ocean pasture restoration. How does it work? Yeah, so the four methods. First of all, the reason that you have an heard about them is that we haven't had to

goal of restoring the climate yet. These have all been around for quite a while. Um Ocean pastor restoration also called ocean iron fertilization. It is this the same process that Nature uses to uh to cool the planet before ice ages, and so nature removes a trillion tons of C O two before for each ice age. There have been ten in the last million years. And we know how to do the same thing. And the idea is UH. We all know that photosynthesis like trees, absorbs CO two.

But the trouble with trees, of course, is that they end up dying after a few decades and the carbon goes back into the air when the trees wrong. In the ocean, when plants grow, they sink and so and then there's no oxygen in the deep ocean, and so the carbon. They take the carbon with them as they and of course a lot of the plants are eaten by fish and all the detritus sinks into the deep ocean. And as I said, that's how nature uh cool the planet for our ice ages. And so the way this operates,

and it was tested ten years ago. It was tested also by Mount Pinatubo thirty years ago. UM is uh local, it's localized, and it's intermittent. So you do it. They do it in eddies, which are about a hundred miles in diameter in the ocean. And UH. The eddy contains the iron. The iron is phenomenally small amount. It's like a hundredth of a teaspoon per square meter, and um, within days it turns green from blue. Blue is beautiful, but it's not green. Green is where you have photosynthesis.

And then within another week or so fish start coming in and feeding on there on the the luncheon counter there, uh, and and off you go. When it was tested, they were told that they just a question a hundred million tons of CEO two. That sounds like a lot. What's interesting is you know, and we're gonna continue the conversation just a moment and maybe talk about some of the other methods and just got about a minute here and then we'll continue on the other side of the break.

But I do wonder at the same time, do we not also though you need to think about reducing our carbon footprint? Yes, we absolutely do. Well, yes, and no that we we need to reduce our carbon footprint. Worrying is really less effective than doing it, and so I've focus on just do it. Uh. You know, I'm planning to have an electric car be my next car when

my current car wears out. And I think probably a lot of the people listening are already planning on that, so that transition is happening, but we haven't been thinking about actually restoring the climate. And especially for our young listeners, plan on being around rather than giving up the ghosts, because if you plan on being around, then you'll pay attention to these big four solutions. I want to continue with that and talk seaweed permaculture and exactly what it

is and how it gets carbon out of the ecosystem. Yeah, seaweed permaculture is a variation on on the iron fertilization. So as I said, Uh, the important thing in the ocean is when you grow plants, when they die, they sink with is no oxygen and the oxygen stays out. And with seaweed permaculture, the for the nutrients that are missing are brought up from the deep ocean in a large pipe solar powered, takes very very little energy, and

then um, the seaweed grows. Some of the seaweed is used, uh is actually harvested and sold for products, some of which sell for a thousand dollars a ton um. And uh, probably half the seaweed ends up falling deep into the ocean. UH, some of it cut, some of it just naturally falling, and it's fairly simple. The difficulty is you've got they build a structure that this the help grows on and

and that takes some technology. But just like the the iron fertilization, it's uh, that's a commercial product, and so so it pays for itself a peter you spent, it's a commercial product. Let's talk an end there because I'm wondering, if this is so effective, where's the money in it? And I asked that in the you know, the question not in a cynical way, but in a way that motivates companies to do this to make sure that we

have a future. Yes, it's an interesting challenge because uh, you know, of the we have are the four U pathways and they're all self financing UM and this is the same model that put a c O two into the air. That is, we had companies selling us heat and energy which had a by product putting CEO two up with these for products, the the uh, the seaweed, the limestone, the ocean fertilization which leads to fish. You get product which has a byproduct of pulling CEO two out.

Right Now, the challenge is UM and This is something that we're dealing with right now, is we're afraid to list these on the on the open market because the customers I canna say, wait a minute, my retirement depends on it. And so we want to make sure that people doing this are primarily interested in restoring the climate for our children and grandchildren, only secondarily interested in making money. Well, it almost sounds like you've gotta have governments involved who

recognize these methods and before it gets too late. Peter Fakowski, thank you so much, founder uh In Shermany Meritus, a Foundation for Climate Restoration. Check out his book that has got the title of Climate Restoration in it. Thanks for listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Download the podcast iTunes, SoundCloud, or Bloomberg dot com, and you can also listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern on Bloomberg Radio or watch us on YouTube search Bloomberg Global News