Officials with The Nature Conservancy, the University of Virginia and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science under William & Mary are working with the state to launch the first carbon credit program linked to seagrass.
Blue carbon is the term for carbon captured in coastal and ocean ecosystems, such as mangrove forests and tidal marshes, according to the National Ocean Service.
Seagrass meadows, in particular, are good at taking up and storing carbon in the seabed, where it decomposes much more slowly than on land, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
For the past quarter-century, officials then embarked on a strategic recovery, including planting seeds and conducting research.
Virginia lawmakers passed a law allowing a blue carbon market for aquatic plants in 2020, the same year they voted to join the much larger and well-known Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
France and the European Union are investigating why a massive swarm of dead fish was released by a huge trawler in the Atlantic Ocean off France, after an environmental group released dramatic video and photos of the incident.
When Nikita Dhawan first saw Shankar at the zoo in India’s capital last August, she said her “heart broke.” The 26-year-old African elephant had chains around his legs and was living alone in a dismal enclosure.
What’s happening in the Great Lakes during those long, frigid months when they’re often covered partially or completely with ice? “We’ve been ignoring winter on the Great Lakes for so long,” said Ted Ozersky, a lake biologist with the University of Minnesota Duluth, who announced the “Winter Grab” expedition Thursday.
The ice rinks that play host to figure skating and speedskating competitions at the Beijing Olympics will also be putting a major environmental problem on the world stage — the potent greenhouse gases often lurking in refrigerators, air conditioners and other cooling systems. Four newly built rinks at the Games will use alternative carbon dioxide cooling systems with far less of an impact on global warming than the artificial refrigerants used in such appliances, though other rinks will still use such refrigerants.