Episode 08: Harnessing Kelp and the Oceans for Gigaton-Scale Impact with Marty Odlin, CEO of Running Tide

Solving Climate, Naturally

In this episode, we speak to Marty about the urgency of the climate crisis and the role that ocean ecosystem restoration and carbon sequestration have to play in solving it. Having grown up around commercial fishing and received formal training as an engineer, Marty is combining his passion for our oceans with his technological know-how to build Running Tide, working to scale our ocean’s ability to sequester carbon, create more resilient shorelines, and provide nutritious food to our changing and ever-more populous planet. Kelp as a natural climate solution is still new, and largely untested and Marty speaks to both the opportunity and challenge of his work to test and drive this solution forward.

Topics covered in this episode:

- Marty’s personal journey

- How technology, data science, and automation play a role in oyster farming and kelp deployment

- Marty’s views on how tackling climate change is the “largest industrial effort in history”

- How kelp works as a form of carbon removal

- The science behind kelp sinking - what we know, what we don’t know

Want to learn more? Check out these resources:

- Running Tide

- This startup grows kelp then sinks it to suck carbon from the air (CNN)

- Carbon removal ‘is the biggest industry in the history of the world,’ Running Tide CEO says (Yahoo Finance)

- Companies hoping to grow carbon sucking kelp may be rushing ahead of the science

- Book recommendation: Freedom’s Forge by Arthur Herman

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Episode recorded on: November 19, 2021