How Marlon Brando’s private island inspired a plan to suck carbon pollution from the air
CNN · Hilary Whiteman, Laura Paddison ·
A pristine atoll in the Pacific Ocean once owned by late acting legend Marlon Brando is the birthplace of a new carbon removal technology.
A pristine atoll in the Pacific Ocean once owned by late acting legend Marlon Brando is the birthplace of a technology that could help solve a problem created far beyond its sandy shores.
Alex Gagnon and fellow oceanographer Julian Sachs, co-founders of Seattle-based Banyu Carbon, were on Tetiaroa island, north of Tahiti, a decade ago researching the impact of ocean acidification on coral reefs, when they realized what they were doing could help tackle a global crisis.
“We were having to move a lot of carbon in and out of seawater,” explained Gagnon, who’s also an associate professor at the University of Washington. Gagnon said he and Sachs asked themselves: “What if we turned it backwards to actually pull carbon dioxide out of the air?”