The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), announced in late July by Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., includes $369 billion in tax incentives to boost wind, solar and other clean energy. Although a step in the right direction, the bill will not by itself be enough to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050. To make bigger gains more quickly, we’ll need to directly remove carbon from the atmosphere.
We can start by focusing on the world’s largest carbon sink: our ocean, which absorbs over 90% of the heat generated by the burning of fossil fuels. If not for the ocean, the earth’s average temperature would rise from 57 degrees to 122 degrees.
The United States has begun to address ocean issues such as overfishing and pollution in its Exclusive Economic Zone, which stretches 200 nautical miles (230 miles) off the nation’s coastline. But sea level rise, saltwater intrusion, ocean acidification and other climate change impacts already threaten the ocean’s ability to capture carbon. In 2019, for example, scientists found that 95% of Northern California’s kelp forests had died off, due to a marine heatwave that led to a population boom for a species of kelp-eating sea urchin.
