Clips

Kelp has built-in environmental benefits that are even more timely in the face of our climate crisis. It can potentially absorb and sequester up to a gigaton of carbon under the right conditions. It’s a human superfood (Bood also harvests macro and bull kelp for local restaurants), and scientists are experimenting with using some type of kelp and other algae as cow feed to reduce methane emissions, according to Kerry Nickols, PhD, associate professor of biology at California State University Northridge. Compared to, say, redwood trees, kelp grows quickly under the right conditions. “It can grow up to two feet a day,” Nickols says. “There are certain systems that lend themselves better to exploitation because they grow faster, they renew faster,” adds Philippe Cousteau, an environmentalist and La Mer ambassador. If the word exploitation makes you cringe, it’s meant positively. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t be changing our consumption habits. But we need to look for alternatives that allow us to rebuild nature. The environmental movement as a whole has been historically one of negativity and deprivation. It’s been a movement of no, don’t do that, stop doing that...which has failed. How do we stop thinking about what we would like the world to be, and start accepting how the world is, and working within that system?” Cousteau says. -- Elle Magazine