2,500 people weigh around 190 tons – the same as a blue whale. But whales are more than just heavy.
They bind vast amounts of CO2 in their bodies and take it down with them to the bottom of the ocean when they die.
The high-iron content of their excrement, meanwhile, provides a rapid growth environment for phytoplankton, which absorb around 40% of all CO2.
Whaling has decimated the population by about 66-90% in the last millennium. The previous century alone saw the practice release some 70 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
What we need is more whales – and more phytoplankton. How?
Restoring the whale population through future carbon offsetting initiatives could have a massive impact.
