ENVIRONMENTALLY SPEAKING

Clarice brings Marisa a hot take from Denmark.

Researchers at Aarhus University are testing whether the open water between offshore wind turbines, which is now treated as a mostly unusable zone, could be used to grow seaweed.

The article describes it as a reuse story. The seaweed could help absorb nutrient pollution (nitrogen and phosphorus, the drivers of harmful algal blooms), and it could be sold as a food crop, such as sugar kelp.

Marisa hears a warning in that framing. Rhode Island and Virginia fishermen were told they could keep fishing between turbines, with about one nautical mile of spacing. So if Denmark treats those areas as unfit for regular vessel traffic, what does that say about the promises made here?

From there the conversation widens:

• Is the space between turbines becoming the ocean’s version of Route 66, a corridor we’re scrambling to find a use for?
• Does every leftover space have to become production space, or could rewilding be an option?
• Why do we accept cell antennas on rooftops but resist solar panels there, and push energy infrastructure into deserts and open ocean instead?
• Marisa’s central point: “NIMBY” is only ever used as an insult, and it’s now used to shut down legitimate conservation objections. If every objection is written off as NIMBYism, the ocean gets industrialized, and people will eventually ask where the conservationists were.

Mentioned in this episode

• Article on the Aarhus University seaweed farming project: [LINK — needed from Clarice]

Contact
Questions or want to keep the conversation going?
Desautel Browning Law: 401-477-0023 | desautelbrowning.com