In this episode of Plan Sea, hosts Anna Madlener and Wil Burns are joined by several guests to discuss new initiatives to improve data management and transparency in the carbon dioxide removal (CDR) industry. Jacki Long is an ocean scientist and co-founder of Submarine Scientific, a scientific consulting company focused on ocean modeling, expert verification support, and system wide strategy development for ocean-based carbon dioxide removal (oCDR). Jacki joins the Plan Sea hosts to discuss Submarine’s work pioneering a new initiative to standardize emerging data from ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) field trials. In collaboration with Carbon to Sea and the National Ocean Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Submarine’s data protocol is undergoing an open comment period through March 7th, allowing researchers, partners, and community members to submit feedback. 

Brad Rochlin and Tannis Thorlakson join to discuss their work at Cascade Climate, a philanthropically-backed nonprofit working to accelerate natural climate interventions such as enhanced rock weathering (ERW). Brad and Tannis share insights from Cascade’s development of a data quarry method that could fill an important gap in existing carbon data quantification methods — and ultimately unlock greater scientific understanding of ERW.

During the episode, the guests and hosts consider how these data standardization and sharing efforts — across the OAE and ERW fields — are laying the foundation for enhanced research efficiency and increasing public trust in CDR methods as potentially viable solutions to slow the impacts of climate change. The ongoing work from Submarine Scientific and Cascade Climate aim to help researchers share learnings in real time, improve collaboration, and support data transparency. 

ACRONYMS / CONCEPTS:

• CDR - carbon dioxide removal
• ERW - enhanced rock weathering
• OAE - ocean alkalinity enhancement
• IP - intellectual property (29:38) 
• NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (38:28)
• CDRXIV (pronounced “see-dee archive”) (38:46)
• Hourglass (Listen to a previous episode here) (38:53)
• R&D - research & development (43:43)

Plan Sea is a semi-weekly podcast exploring ocean-based climate solutions, brought to you by the Carbon to Sea Initiative & the American University Institute for Responsible Carbon Removal.