Balancing Hope With Hurdles: How To Cover Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal

Solutions journalism is often rooted in optimism, but how do you tell hopeful stories without glossing over formidable challenges? Marine carbon dioxide removal pushes this tension to the limit. Approaches like Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement are *geophysically* plausible at massive scale, yet face massive scientific, political, and social hurdles that could prevent deployment. In this session, two leading scientists — Dr. Jaime Palter and Dr. David Ho — will present their research on marine carbon dioxide removal, and engage in moderated conversation and Q&A to support journalists interested in covering the topic. We'll unpack how journalists can translate these highly technical concepts, balance hope with hurdles, and tell nuanced stories that help the public understand both the potential and the obstacles of ocean-based climate solutions.

This session is presented by the University of Rhode Island's Metcalf Institute and the Solutions Journalism Network.

Jaime Palter is a Professor of Oceanography at URI's Graduate School of Oceanography. For over twenty years, she's researched the role of ocean circulation in the climate system. Her recent research evaluates the potential for marine Carbon Dioxide Removal to play a role in climate change mitigation. Since coming to URI in 2015, she has taught hundreds of undergraduates about the science of climate change and the suite of solutions that can help society chart a path to a safer future.

David Ho is a climate scientist and marine biogeochemist whose research focuses on air-sea gas exchange, the ocean carbon cycle, and marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR). He is a Professor in the Department of Oceanography at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, a Visiting Faculty in the School of Ocean Futures at Arizona State University, and a co-founder of [C]Worthy, a non-profit research organization focused on developing open-source tools for monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of mCDR.

When: Oct 7, 2025 @ 1 p.m. ET

Register here.