Dispatch from COP28

Size Matters

Here at COP28, there are tens of thousands enjoying the cool air conditioning. There are also endless heated conversations about whether our planet has any hope left. Keep in mind this is the 28th COP meeting, so it's been 28+ years of hot air.

What might be done to keep our planet in the Goldilocks Zone where it is not too hot, not too cold, but just right? Should we be persuaded to only argue about the pros and cons of continuing the fossil fuel age? The UK Royal Society more than 15 years ago published their horrifying science that if, by some miracle, fossil fuels stopped instantly, the legacy CO2, yesterday's CO2, will take 1000-3000 years to return to pre-fossil fuel cool ages. So ranting and pointing fingers and making demands to kill fossil fuels while useful in the very very very long term is fossil folly for the next 1000 years!

What can we do now with immediate effect?

Truly the most important cooling process for this Blue planet are the white tops of clouds. Clouds need biogenic nuclei to form tiny droplets of water that make up the cloud. Indeed at the heart of almost every of these raindrops, there is a tiny speck of plankton. Plankton inhabit the blue part of this warming world, you know the 71% that is oceans. Thus, plankton is the key. Plankton power, cooling power, has been decimated by our CO2. 50% to 90% of plankton are gone, but we have the incredibly immediate means to bring them back to historic levels of health and abundance. With the return of our plankton-powered cloud machines, we will feel immediate cooling, and that means within months, not decades.

Since we put into orbit in 1978 the first plankton pasture satellite, in response to the glaring collapse of ocean plankton blooms, we've gained an incredible body of knowledge and know-how that today allows us to safely and sustainably restore our oceans to their historic levels of health and abundance, and cooling power.

Just a few months ago, the European Union's Nature Restoration Law was passed, and it changed everything regarding ocean plankton pastures. It is now AGAINST THE LAW in Europe to not engage in dynamic and meaningful immediate restoration of the oceans. Up until this breakthrough new EU law to restore nature, the Seas and Trees, the world of ocean restoration was being cynically and sinisterly spin mastered by those whose only goal in the world of climate change has been to kill the fossil fuel industry. They fomented myriad negative storylines about how restoring Nature's Seas and Trees will only let the dastardly fossil fuel producers and users off the hook, their green gibbet.

While ocean pasture restoration will immediately produce a superabundance of cooling clouds, it accomplishes this miracle by repurposing billions of tonnes of Yesterday's CO2 into replenished ocean life. That life will also serve in the form of billions of additional fish that swim into our nets and onto the plates of humanity everywhere, enough to be a big part of ending world hunger. If the plankton are not restored then our legacy of 2 trillion tonnes of yesterday's CO2 will become acid in the ocean, destroying life.

So it seems that the best prescription for this ailing Blue Planet is the natural one Mother Ocean and her sister Mother Earth worked out long ago. Oceans share moisture that falls upon the Earth to help the grass of pastures grow, in return, Earth must share mineral dust, to help the grass/phytoplankton of ocean pastures to grow.

Just half a shipload of Mother Earth's best iron-rich red dust is needed to restore the world's oceans! Considering the world uses 25,000 shiploads of this same dust to make our steel, one might think we could spare half a shipload to restore Mother Ocean and preserve our beloved Goldilocks Zone.

Everywhere I go here at COP28, the young people are all talking about how important the oceans are to this Blue 'changing' Planet and the travesty of ocean solutions being kept behind impenetrable seawalls by previous COP meetings.

Follow #oceanpasturerestoration it is the true force in nature, and it has the capacity to save us all!