Undercurrents: May 2024
Seaweed Generation's roundup of company news and perspective on all things climate.
Blythe Taylor, Chief of Staff
The global average temperature over the last 12 months has been the highest on record at 1.61°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average. Climate change and biodiversity loss is a global battle impacting all of us, and needs to be fought at an international level. But it’s important to acknowledge that there isn’t going to be one global solution to this problem. That mythical silver bullet just isn’t a realistic option. What might just work though, is a proliferation of local projects - groups of inspiring people looking to address the issues that matter to them and make a real impact.
We hope that our robots can be the linchpin in a global network of local projects, and together we become greater than the sum of our parts.
Whether it’s biodiversity, water chemistry or ecosystem health, all water ecosystem based projects need to monitor the environment, establish baseline data and track change. The consequences of human activity and climate change on aquatic ecosystems are clear to see, but we lack the data and understanding to remedy it. It’s why at SeaGen we’re building low cost local monitoring solutions with easy data access for global impact. These solutions and subsequent data sets, will allow us to observe and assess any waterspace, identifying the issues and opportunities to ensure an informed and measured response.
Our CSO Professor Mike Allen had the pleasure of seeing this firsthand at the Devon county show. Now, for our non-UK community, a county show is a quintessentially British phenomenon. Think large marquees filled with livestock, prize winning Victoria sponge cakes, and tractor demonstrations attended by 100,000 curious people. They are truly joyful occasions. But even here in these bucolic surroundings, the impacts of our changing climate are being highlighted.
The show introduced a new area for 2024 called The River Discovery Zone, where landowners, farmers, businesses, and community groups, showcased the work being done to improve the health of our waterways and ecosystems.
Some amazing projects were there, including Bigbury Net Zero, a group seeking to reduce the carbon footprint of their area, while tackling habitat loss in the estuaries of South Hams; and Till The Coast Is Clear, a community interest company featured on BBC Countryfile, committed to enhancing the environment by removing plastic from Devon shorelines. These organisations have passion and purpose, what they lack is the technology to prove their projects are having genuine impact which could secure future funding. We’re confident that our robots can be that solution. In the meantime Mike wanted to show you some of his show highlights!
Mike chatting with President of the Devon County Show, Michael Caines MBE DL.
Progress and Press
New SeaGen team member Eli Hastings
This month we welcomed Eli to the team. With over a decade of software experience ranging from finance to EV charging, Eli’s generalist background enables him to approach challenges at SeaGen from many angles.
Latest SeaGen Podcast - ‘Earth has its way of dealing with it, we've just got to help'
With Co-founders Paddy Estridge and Mike Allen and special guest, Dr Christopher Pearce Principal Marine Geoscientist at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC).