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Transcript/Script((PLAYBOOK SLUG: LOGON REMOVING OCEAN CARBON
HEADLINE: LogOn: California Startup Removing Carbon From Ocean
TEASER:
PUBLISHED AT: 01/30/2924 at 8:30am
BYLINE: Genia Dulot
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE:
VIDEOGRAPHER: Genia Dulot
VIDEO EDITOR:
ASSIGNING EDITOR: Stearns
SCRIPT EDITORS: Stearns, Reifenrath
VIDEO SOURCE (S):
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO _X_
TRT: 1:58
VID APPROVED BY: Reifenrath
TYPE: TVR
EDITOR NOTES:))
[[((INTRO:)) Capturing and removing carbon from our environment is one way scientists are combating climate change. A tech startup in Los Angeles is developing ways to draw carbon dioxide from the ocean. Genia Dulot has our story in this week’s episode of LogOn.
((NARRATION))
This pilot project at the Port of Los Angeles can remove from the ocean as much as 100 tons of carbon a year. It is run by the startup firm Captura.
((FOR RADIO: Steve Oldham is Captura’s CEO.))
((Steve Oldham, Captura CEO))
“The ocean is huge. It covers 70% of the surface of the planet. If we can demonstrate that you can use the ocean to remove CO2 from the atmosphere this way, the potential is very large.”
((NARRATOR))
Oceans are already absorbing about one-third of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, says Captura co-founder Harry Atwater, also a California Institute of Technology researcher.
((Harry Atwater, California Institute of Technology))
“If we can undo that ocean acidification by decarbonizing ocean water, that water on the surface acts effectively as an absorbent for further drawdown of carbon dioxide.”
((NARRATOR))
Captura's system uses only electricity and salt water.
Building on results in Los Angeles, the company is moving to open a facility in Norway that could capture 1,000 tons of carbon a year. Both Atwater and Oldham say we will need to remove billions of tons of carbon from oceans to substantially slow climate change.
((Harry Atwater, California Institute of Technology))
“Nowadays, as we use fossil fuels and we emit CO2 into the atmosphere, we are releasing of the order of 40 gigatonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. That’s causing the accumulation and the rise in CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. So we have to basically undo that. So it's a big scale, that involves basically developing prototypes, that we can scale larger and larger and larger. So that, in fact, is the mission of Captura.”
((NARRATOR))
The Captura executives say the biggest challenge for technologies that remove carbon is doing it fast enough to keep pace with climate change.
((Genia Dulot, VOA News, Los Angeles))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Location (dateline)Los Angeles
BylineGenia Dulot
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
