Save the whale, save the planet
Save the whale, save the planet. It seems that whales might be helping to slow down climate change. Science News reports that 'Sperm whales in the Southern Ocean deserve credit for their fine work pumping iron for climate change.
'Of course the whales breathe, but earlier calculations overlooked the potential for whales to offset their emissions by introducing extra iron into the upper zone of water, Lavery said October 13 at the Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in Quebec City, Canada. The extra iron that whales bring up from their deep feeding encourages plankton growth. That growth traps carbon, much as human-run iron-enrichment experiments in the ocean might, Lavery and her colleagues contend.
According to the team’s calculations, sperm whales in the Southern Ocean should rank as carbon neutral at least. The animals may even be capturing a net 5 million metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere per year, Lavery says.'
So every time the whalers kill a whale they may well be contributing to climate change.
I hope Sweden, who appears to be abusing its position as President of the EU at the moment to help force through Denmark's demands to kill more whales in Greenland, takes note and steps back from its crusade to have more whales die.
It would seem that Sweden is whale enemy no 1 at the moment.
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