Microsoft intends to lock 12,000 tons of carbon to the bottom of the ocean, using algae!

Despite co-founder Bill Gates being an ardent spokesperson for the detriments of climate change, tech giant Microsoft still laments a tremendous carbon footprint. The company's success in the last few years only spiked emissions, declaring a 21% increase to nearly 14 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent released in 2021. There are only about a 100 countries that have yearly emissions higher than this!

However, Microsoft has acknowledged that this is reprehensible and has committed to switching to cleaner alternatives to mitigate the enormous impact the company's functioning has on the environment. As part of their declaration to become carbon neutral by 2030, they have partnered with Running Tide.

Since most of us aren't familiar with Running Tide's work, here is a lo-down of what they do. The company manufactures "carbon buoys" that are seeded with an algae species that help fix carbon from the upper ocean carbon cycle. This allows the algae to grow, and within three months, the buoys get so heavy they sink by about a kilometre to the bottom of the ocean.

The algae mass then gets buried within the ocean floor or eaten by deep-sea marine life. Either way, this helps remove carbon from the fast carbon cycle — where carbon moves through Earth's organisms — for hundreds to millions of years, the company claims.

Using this technology, Microsoft intends to remove up to 12,000 tons of carbon equivalent within two years. This process will also help enhance the ocean's alkalinity, offsetting the rapid acidification we aren't currently witnessing. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has already decreed that this technology is crucial, and we must remove up to 10 billion tons of carbon into permanent storage to limit warming to 1.5°C.

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