Hey you, put down that California roll! Seaweed may be destined for greater things than sushi and sliming up beaches. Environmental scientists at the climate change conference in Bali are suggesting that huge seaweed farms may be a quick way to create "carbon sinks" that suck up CO2. While we're used to thinking of forests as the best way to absorb greenhouse gases, certain types of seaweed can soak up 5 times more carbon than terrestrial plants, and it grows as fast as, well, a weed. There are still bugs to work out - seaweed has a much shorter lifespan than,say, a Douglas fir, and once it dies the CO2 typically goes back into the atmosphere. However, using seaweed as a carbon sink would open up a whole lot of new space to grow in.
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