Climate

Will stashing more CO2 in the ocean help slow climate change?

Seaweed farming, iron fertilization and direct capture are among the strategies being tested

An illustration of ocean waves in the style of "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" painting.

Ocean carbon dioxide removal could draw the greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere to help slow climate change.

Deb JJ Lee

By Carolyn Gramling

The ocean is Earth’s climate hero.

For decades, ocean waters have helped hold back the juggernaut of global warming, absorbing at least a third of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activities since the Industrial Revolution began.

Now, the world may ask the ocean to do even more.