Digital Transformation — Why It Matters with guest Anand Swaminathan

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Which is particularly strange because out in the open ocean, this seaweed is actually a good thing. An entire floating ecosystem, home to all sorts of marine life. So how did something so essential to ocean life become such a nightmare on land? Our own Daniel Piper has been looking into the Sir Gossum crisis and some pretty ingenious ideas for tackling it. Hint, the solutions involve rum and robots. So Daniel, when I picture the Caribbean, I think postcard white sands, turquoise water, a calm, predictable paradise. That is a pretty good description. I'm originally from Jamaica, so I've got a lot of images in mind. I think of an impromptu Sunday afternoon dip in the sea. I think of ordering the largest freshest snapper from the local fishermen for lunch. And I think of the pristine views from the sandy shoreline all the way to where the sun sets on the horizon. It is paradise. Truly, but Daniel, you saw a very different reality on the ground this summer, didn't you? Yeah, it did. In August, I went to see some family in Belize. And I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Normally, the sea would be overflowing with people enjoying the warm water. But this time, the beach was practically empty. Millions of tons of sargossum blanketed the shorelines. It's clogging waterways and wreaking havoc on the people and animals that live there. So I want you to take a look at this video of a beach in Placencia that I visited. Okay, we've got a tractor on the shoreline, pulling what looks like a flat bed. Oh, man. Okay, it is driving over these beds. So I'm guessing this is the seaweed. There's just so much of it. It's like a road that it's driving over right on the shoreline where the water meets the beach. Instead of the fluffy white sand at the water's edge, there were long stretches of seaweed piled onto the shore in heaps. It was like the beach was being smothered by it. At one point, I watched four men work for hours, shoveling sargossum into a flat bed truck. But with each heap they piled onto the truck, the waves just brought in another. It was like trying to mop the ocean. Endless and impossible. Growing up, it never used to be this bad. So for anyone who has never seen sargossum up close, Danielle, can you break down the biology? What does this plant actually look like? So imagine a bushy branch. Okay. It's yellowish brown, dark golden brown or even sometimes a little orange. On the stems are tons of tiny round, berry-shaped balls filled with gas. Those balls help the seaweed float on the water's surface. Out in the ocean, sargossum can form island-like masses called sargossum mats. Chuan-min who knows all about sargossum, he teaches optical oceanography at the University of South Florida. And he says these mats support all kinds of sea life. Sargossum is a habitat for many marine animals. If you happen to go to the sea, find some sargossum mats, you will find a small fish shrimp, those sort of animals. They attract large animals. So it's a critical habitat for the marine ecosystem. The way you and Chuan-min describe sargossum seaweed, it's an interesting paradox. On the one hand, you have this vital floating ecosystem, but on the flip side, it turns destructive when the balance breaks. So where does that tipping point actually happen? Yeah, sargossum is only beneficial in moderation, but too much of one thing at the wrong time can have really bad consequences. What the Caribbean is experiencing right now is an inundation of sargossum seaweed. Can you give us a sense of scale, like how much seaweed are we talking about? Lots. Imagine a massive floating mass that stretches from the Gulf of Mexico all the way to the mouth of the Conga River in Western Africa. That's about 8,850 kilometers, more than twice the width of the continental United States. And there is so much of it, you can actually see it from space. That mass is called the Great Sargossum Sea Belt, and a recent study led by Chuan-min found that the belt is growing by 13.4% a year. I had no idea that it was at this scale, and over 13% annual growth, that's just going to keep expanding. What's supercharging that rate? Two words, climate change. The burning of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide that traps heat in our atmosphere. The heat makes the earth warmer. The world's oceans absorb up to 90% of that heat, causing ocean warming. And those warm ocean temperatures are exactly what Sargossum mats love. So not unlike hurricanes, heat is fuel for Sargossum. But as you mentioned Daniel, this hasn't always been happening on this scale. When did things start to take a turn? A couple of things happened between 2009 and 2010. Stronger than usual winds were blowing increasingly westward. These winds, along with strong ocean currents, blew Sargossum seaweed away from the Sargossos Sea in the North Atlantic, and towards the Caribbean. The second thing, in 2009, the Amazon River flooded, depositing the highest amounts of nutrients into the ocean in 30 years, due to deforestation and fertilizer use. Meanwhile, the ocean in 2009 was slightly warmer than usual. It was like this perfect cocktail of things that caused an overgrowth of the seaweed. This all happened again in 2010. And by spring of 2011, the Great Sargossum Sea Belt entered mainstream conversation. Yeah, so I mean, that was 15 years ago. What's happened since then? Okay, so this year is on track to be the second largest Sargossum year on record after 2025. You got a taste of what this actually looks like when it washes ashore on your trip to Belize this summer. How is it impacting life in those areas? Yeah, so it impacts everything from the environment to the economy and even people's health. And I'm going to talk about all these impacts, starting with sea life. So large amounts of Sargossum on the beach can smother turtle nesting sites. If they're a small turtle, they cannot move. They don't have the strength to get out. That's so sad. You're losing critical nursery habitats. The hatchlings, I'm guessing, are trapped before they can even reach open water. Yep, I know. And tourism in the Caribbean is also deeply affected by the Sargossum bloom. And Danielle, you saw this, you know, essentially ghost beach effect happening firsthand in Belize. I did. And what's worse than that is that it's affecting people who live there. Decomposing Sargossum can cause respiratory issues for coastal residents. If Sargossum reaches the shore within the first two days of decaying, it breaks down and produces a gas. It really emits that hydrogen sulfide gas in heavy concentration you smell it. That it may be toxic to a human being. Yes, hydrogen sulfide, the classic rotten egg smell. It's awful. Even at low concentrations, it can cause eye, nose and throat irritation. Even headaches, nausea, and dizziness. And because heat accelerates the decomposition of Sargossum, people in close contact, like the cleanup crew I saw during my trip, face the highest risk for health impacts. Last year, at least one school on the French island of Martinique had to close due to the toxic fumes. And this year, people on that island were so upset about the toxic gases that officials on the island had to open a shelter to temporarily house people who were affected. Wow. So it's moved from an environmental issue to a public health crisis. Yes. And let's not forget, there's a climate impact as well. as well. Hydrogen sulfide is a greenhouse gas, and so is methane, which Sargawesome also limits when it breaks down. Okay, so let's recap where we're at. Sargawesome season is a natural reoccurring event. The plant itself is harmless and even supports life in our oceans, but high temperatures from ocean warming and nutrient runoff from deforestation is supercharging its growth, and that growth is smothering ecosystems, shutting down local economies and off-gassing toxic fumes into coastal communities, impacting health, tourism, ocean life, and emitting methane, which worsens climate change. Do I have that all straight? You got it. Wow, that brings us to the big question. How do you stop an ocean-sized invasion? Yep, and that's a good question. One of the big problems is that it can be difficult to predict when and where Sargawesome will wash onto beaches, so the first line of defense is better monitoring. There are online tools that forecast the location, movement, and amount of Sargawesome in real time. Chuan Min and his team developed one of them, the Sargawesome watch system. We provide Sargawesome maps at different resolutions and frequency to help all countries, all groups, to at least learn where they can find the most Sargawesome, to provide them a large picture, so they can better prepare. I mean, advanced warning for coastal communities before a bloom hits their beaches is huge, you know, time to deploy physical barriers even, but of course forecasting only solves half the problem. Once it arrives, how do you safely clear millions of tons of biomass off the water? Well, there is one recent project that's been underway to try to tackle this, and it involves, stay with me, robots. So if you're seeing the film Wally, you know where we left Planet Earth to a bunch of little Wally robots, going, "Wow, they kind of cleaned up the ocean." That was our kind of original vision was to create a Wally-type robot to interact with the Sargawesome seaweed and sink it into the devotional collective and take it ashore. Wally, I love Wally, so do I. That's my gallon, a professor at the University of Exeter. He's the co-founder of a marine robotics and clean technology company called Siegen. Might developed a robot called the algore. It glides along the ocean, collects Sargawesome seaweed, then dives down deep to release it. We can sink into the deep ocean as a carbon dioxide removal and clean up strategy, in which case the seaweed is, we would sink in waters over at least 2,000 meters deep, and then the seaweed would go into what's called the slow carbon cycle. Danielle, can you break down the physics of what happens when you sink this organic matter 2,000 meters deep? Okay, so at the upper layer of the ocean, carbon dioxide is high, and Sargawesome uses that carbon dioxide to grow. The theory is that once the algore sinks the Sargawesome down past a certain depth, extreme pressure will pop those berry-shaped balls that keep it afloat, causing the seaweed to lose buoyancy and sink rapidly to the ocean floor, where cold temperatures and low oxygen slow down decay. Carbon is then locked away in the sediment at the bottom of the ocean. That carbon can move between rock, soil, and water over millions of years, and the algore, inspired by the Manter Ray, repeats that dive and resurface cycle four to six times an hour, powered entirely by solar energy. It's a fascinating concept, you know, essentially fast tracking biological carbon capture, but I'm guessing there are some red flags about dumping millions of tons of organic matter into the deep ocean floor. Yeah, so not everyone agrees that this is a good idea. There are questions about impacts on deep sea environments and marine food systems. Some are also concerned that sinking Sargawesome could lead to oxygen depletion and ocean acidification. What does Mike have to say about these criticisms? He doesn't agree. He says the marine biological sink is an entirely natural process that has been going on for billions of years. As for the other possible impacts, the sea gen says they are running trials with the algore to measure and to see what happens, and Mike says they'll make adjustments if it causes unintended problems, but he also said that the algore does more than just sink Sargawesome. It can collect it. Think of the algore as a vacuum cleaner or an ocean rumba, if you will. Gliding atop the water surface and sucking up seaweed, then bringing it to shore where people can use it. Okay, I love the idea of Sargawesome sucking ocean rumba, but what could we possibly use that kind of volume of seaweed for? I am glad you asked. Wait, have you checked out Tang luck yet? If not, let me show you around. 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The town of Tulum, Mexico, just opened its first plant to turn Sargason into concrete. It's called Sagacreto, and has already been used for the exterior floor of the Maya train station in Tulum. But I want to introduce you to someone that's working on a solution that's tackling two climate problems at once, Sargason Overgrowth, and Overdependence on fossil fuels. I'm Dr. Regina Henry, CEO and founder of Rum and Sargason Incorporation. In 2019, Regina was lecturing at the University of West Indies in Barbados on renewable energy. Around the same time, Barbados vowed to be fossil free by 2035. One of her students made a point that made Regina pause. One of my students said, "What are we going to drive?" And I said, "There's so many EVs around Barbados, and I guess we all be driving EVs." And she said, "I can't afford an EV." And I said, "Oh, yeah, me either." I mean, the upfront cost of EVs are expensive, and it's not always an option for many communities around the world. Mm-hmm. But that conversation got Regina and her students thinking about the energy transition and the Sargason crisis. That summer, they explored how to transition the transportation sector away from fossil fuels. They ran a series of experiments and developed a new kind of fuel, and here are the three things they used. Rum, which is an icon of Barbados, Sargason, which is the represents the ocean, another icon of Barbados, and then the Barbados Black Valley Sheep, which is internationally seen as an icon of Barbados. Dare I say iconic sheep, Danielle? Okay, so rum, Sargason, and sheep. Walk us through how these three things turn into fuel. I have a feeling it involves poo, doesn't it? Indeed it does. What they're doing is making biofuel. That's a combustible fuel made from organic matter, or biomass. In this case, the organic material is the Sargason. Regina gathers it right off the beach. Okay, so we're at Machiba Beach. Besides all that seaweed, they also use rum wastewater, which has a high sugar content, and they use cheap poop, which has bacteria in it. Both of those things help to break down the seaweed. And then they feed it into this big black contraption called the biogas digester. All right, that's ready in. Bugs will go. This is ready. Biogas will emerge. All this makes bio methane. Walk us through the carbon balance here. You know, why is burning bio methane from Sargason so fundamentally different from burning conventional natural gas? Well, it releases fewer greenhouse gases than leaving the seaweed to rot on beaches. And since it produces less emissions, Sargason biofuel is better for the climate than fossil fuels, because the carbon they emit is carbon that was absorbed by the plants used to make them. The carbon molecules in our Sargason Max rotten on the beach is here, and it's not going anywhere. It's already in the biosphere. And so global climate change is caused by fossils when you bring carbon up into the atmosphere that was already put away. Our carbon, we're just cycling carbon when that was over. already here. And so our solution, especially in places like Barbados, where we could control mostly supply chain, will eventually be carbon negative. So satisfying when lifecycle math equals carbon negative. Have they tested this yet? Yes, they did. It can be used as a fuel in the tank of a car. Ligina's team developed a conversion kit to help people do this. It just takes four hours and she says any car can be converted to run on Sargasm. The kit costs around $2,500 US dollars, which is equivalent to about $3,500 Canadian dollars. What it is is you take a gasoline or diesel car, you put a kit in the car, you install a kit in the engine and in the controls, and Yopka becomes a hybrid. And I just want to stress the importance of this conversion kit. Imported fuel accounted for almost 95% of Barbados energy mix in 2019. So this solution could help foster energy independence and reduce their reliance on imported oil and gas. But they also figured out a way to use it to power generators that charge electric vehicles. It took a lot of experimentation and testing, but Ligina described the moment that they had a breakthrough. It was kind of scary and it was high stress on a two o'clock in the morning when Nika finally started charging on the Sargasm biogas. It was just like a moment of absolute gratitude. Okay, this sounds amazing. What are the challenges or obstacles to take this solution, you know, up to scale? So one challenge is finding and obtaining a place to store and produce the biofuel. And for that, you need funding. Ligina says she'll get that done no matter what it takes. My first plant I'm going to go after to build. And if I end up just bootstrapping this thing for myself by 2028, we'll have the first plant. It'll be small. It'll be a 250 kilowatt biogas plant, which is equivalent of around the power required by 200 homes. Okay, so starting small, but I got to say, Ligina is determined. Absolutely. And Ligina says all this work could be an important part of the solution to the Sargasm crisis as well. This Atlantic Sargasm belt is a crisis and is a crisis of the change in climate. And so whatever miracle people expect that somehow won the ittle disappear. Right now, I think all the hotels are pretty insolent and it's probably not going to happen. Yeah, this is such an important reality check. You know, waiting for a natural reversal isn't a strategy, but adaptation is. And when you look at the local innovations, like the biofuel or ocean robotics, it shifts the narrative. What do these solutions mean to people in the Caribbean? Obviously, I can't speak for everyone, but for people like Ligina and I, the Caribbean is our home. Those beaches mean so much to the communities that live there. Listen to Ligina describe a recent visit to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, where she was at a beach that had no Sargasm on it. I was staying at a place where going to sleep to the sound of waves breaking and waking up to the sound of waves and chickens. And it was just paradise. And it just took me right back to my childhood by my father's family in Tobago. That description brings up so many memories of my own childhood. And it's what I want for future generations in the Caribbean, where they can enjoy beaches free of climate-fueled crises. Danielle, this was exceptional reporting. Thank you for taking us to the frontlines of this crisis and the science and innovators fighting to fix it. You're welcome, Joe. What really stays with me after hearing these stories of local innovative solutions is the sheer necessity behind them. The Caribbean produces just 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it sits right on the front line of climate disasters. These communities didn't create the problem, but they're being forced to solve it with local engineering and local agency. And something else on my radar. Countries are gathering in Armenia for the UN biodiversity conference. Remember that big promise made by 200 countries in Montreal back in 2022 to protect 30% of the planet's land and waters by 2030. Well, four years later, it's report card time. And there's one number that jumped out at me. Right now, only 10% of the world's oceans are protected. Because protection means more than drawing a line on a map. It's monitoring wildlife, preserving habitats, and enforcing rules, and all of that costs money. So some of the big questions at this meeting will be how to close that gap and who's going to pay for it. And we'll be watching 2030 is getting awfully close. That's it for this week. You can see the video I made called This Seaweed Invasion is so big, you can see it from space on YouTube and TikTok. Look for the CBC news feeds. You can find what on earth wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are in your feed every Saturday. As I've been working on this story, I've heard from so many people about their experiences with Sarg awesome. You may have seen some of the stuff yourself on your travels to the Caribbean. If you know someone who's encountered it or might be curious about what's going on with the invasion and solutions, share this episode with them. The what on earth team includes Molly Siegel, Danielle Piper, Nick Logan, Rachel Sanders, Matthias Wolfson, GP Mendoza, and Catherine Wolfson. I'm Johanna Wackstaff. We'll see you next week on what on earth.