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Leaders in carbon offsets and sequestration say
marine-based âblue carbonâ projects are the next big idea
The concept finally clicked for boat broker Dave Mallach a few months ago, while he was reaching for soap. He’d had a statistic burning a hole in his brain since January 2020, when JetBlue Airways announced that it would become carbon neutral on all domestic flights, offsetting annual emissions of 15 billion to 17 billion pounds of carbon. Back then, he’d thought, If they can do that, the boating industry can do that.
A year went by, and Mallach felt guilt and complicity. He says that during his career of a little more than two decades, he’s sold more than $50 million worth of boats, most of them 40-knot motoryachts that burn around 150 gallons of fuel an hour. “I just realized, either directly or indirectly, that I didn’t know anyone who had put more carbon into the air than me,” he says. “I didn’t know what to do about it. Then in the
Seaspiracy, a follow-up to his award-winning, incendiary film on factory farming,
Cowspiracy (2014).
The new documentary follows
Seaspiracy director and assistant directors Ali and Lucy Tabrizi as they reveal the extent of the ongoing global threat to ocean life. According to Netflix, the filmmakers discover an “alarming global conspiracy” that links the intersecting issues contributing to oceanic destruction.
“The rate of destruction in our oceans is outpacing our knowledge of its wonders,” said Lucy in a statement shared to Instagram.
“It’s crucial that we engage in this urgent conversation to protect the most incredible habitat on earth before it’s too late… And this film will spark that.”