Santa Barbara Permaculture Presents
Reverse Climate Change with Marine Permaculture
Strategies for Ocean Regeneration LECTURE
with Dr. Brian von Herzen of the Climate Foundation
Friday Evening Talk, May 31,
Fe Bland/BC Forum, SBCC West Campus
800 Block of Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93109
Please join Santa Barbara Permaculture as we host Dr. Brian von Herzen, Executive Director of the Climate Foundation, discussing Marine Permaculture, one of the key strategies featured in the ground-breaking and bestselling book Drawdown: the Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming.
With every breath we take, we can thank the ocean for the oxygen we breathe. Our oceans feed us, and contribute to the world’s economy in the trillions of dollars, and when healthy, naturally sequester enormous amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. But with rapidly rising temperatures and increased pollution, ocean ecosystems have been mightily challenged. Vast aquatic deserts, devoid of life, have formed across the globe.
Dr. Brian von Herzen has been studying the decline of ocean ecosystems for more than a decade. Astonished by the rapidity of their decline, von Herzen wants to change this by restoring marine life with thousands of new kelp forests along the worlds coastlines, with what he calls Marine Permaculture.
Recognizing plankton and kelp forests are key to ocean ecosystem recovery and that they require cool nutrient-rich waters to thrive, unlike the blanket of warm surface waters caused by global warming, von Herzen, along with his Climate Foundation team, invented Marine Permaculture Arrays (MPA’s). MPA’s are lightweight latticed structures, roughly a half a square mile in size, to which kelp can attach. Attached buoys rise and fall with the waves, powering pumps that bring up colder, nutrient-rich waters from far below to the surface platforms. Kelp soak up the nutrients and grow.
Once these kelp beds are established, other marine life returns, in time restoring an ecosystem that has benefits for people and the planet. Enhanced habitat for fish to thrive in and multiply, food security for growing populations, feedstocks for animals, kelp fertilizers for farm fertility, biofuels for energy, and of course, vastly increased sequestration of atmospheric carbon.
With reforestation of our oceans, Dr. von Herzen and the Climate Foundation feel we can solve global warming in our lifetime.
Dr. Brian von Herzen obtained degrees in physics, engineering and planetary science from Princeton and Caltech, respectively, where he was a Hertz Fellow. At Princeton, Brian worked closely with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI). His dissertation on global climate models validated orbital variation effects on climate. Von Herzen serves as Executive Director of the Climate Foundation and leads projects on land and sea with research groups in India, Africa, USA and the Pacific Ocean. Von Herzen serves as an advisor with the Drawdown Project. He also researched, developed and commercialized biochar reactors for improved sanitation in areas that have no way to effectively handle human waste, with additional benefits of biochar as a by-product used for increased soil fertility.
A Community Event Hosted by
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
Part of the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network Civics 101 for Climate Change series
Co-sponsors: Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, El Capitan Canyon Resort, SBCC Environmental Horticulture, Antioch University Santa Barbara, Blue Sky Biochar, Teeccino, Santa Barbara Aquaponics, & the Santa Barbara Independent
Marine Permaculture How it Works! Video:
Marine Permaculture in the Words of Brian von Herzen - Video:
Project Drawdown – 100 Solutions to Reverse Climate Change
Drawdown Podcast Interview with Brian von Herzen: