Understanding the role of microscopic algae, the foundation of life, can help us develop restorative models of personal and planetary health.

Microalgae is an essential part of Earth's self-regulating life support system. Restoration is the next big growth industry. Innovative schemes and dreams using microalgae promise to help regreen the desert, refertilize depleted soils, farm the oceans and encourage biodiversity.

• Spirulina in space.
• Ecological communities on Earth.
• Spirulina community microfarms
• Farming natural alkaline lakes.
• Schemes for greening desert coastlines.
• Giant seawater farms.
• Algae biofertilizers restore soil fertility.
• Can growing ocean algae reduce global warming?
• The challenge of restoration.
  

An International Space Station to be built by NASA and collaborating national space agencies is underway. The permanent manned space station design originally incorporated a Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS), providing oxygen and food for humans living in space and recycling the wastes. Because early designs left limited room for plants, scientists looked at microalgae.

9.2. Artists conception of a space colony, depicting fields and ponds.

Early experiments demonstrated that shrimp and mice could live in a completely sealed environment with a food supply. Algae consume carbon dioxide exhaled by the shrimp and mice, and exhale oxygen for them to breathe. These experiments proved algae can make enough oxygen to keep animals alive in a small, closed system.1

Algae have a higher photosynthetic efficiency, releasing more oxygen and producing more food than any other plant. Nutrients will come from the carbon dioxide exhaled by humans and recycled human and food wastes. This solves the problem of disposing of wastes during space travel. Rapid growing algae turn waste into purified water, nutritious food and oxygen sufficient to support humans.

NASA-Ames Laboratory and the National Aerospace Lab in Japan proposed a food production system using spirulina and chlorella in a photosynthetic gas exchanger.2 Wastes are heated to very high temperatures, turning them from semi-solids to gases. These gas nutrients are pumped into the algae tank along with carbon dioxide exhaled by the astronauts. As the algae grows, it can be continuously harvested and made into various food forms. CELSS includes a special computer system for controlling this gas exchange system.3

9.3. A semi-closed microalgae gas exchange experiment by the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (courtesy of H. Shimamatsu).

Kennedy Space Center used spirulina to research growing fish on space stations. More ambitious NASA plans included a self-sufficient system to grow enough algae and plant crops to permanently support humans, using special lenses and optical filters to collect sunlight in space. However, the first international space station will be less ambitious. Instead of CELSS, rockets will shuttle supplies to the station and bring back wastes to Earth.

Terraforming Mars with blue-green algae
Possible life on Mars was announced in 1996 – or at least it may have existed once. A dozen space probes are heading there in the next decade. Scientists are talking about terraforming the red planet so humans can colonize it. “The recipe is simple. Add nitrogen and oxygen to the atmosphere; pump water to the surface; cook for decades, spicing first with cyanobacteria, then with all the rest of Earth’s plants and animals, adding them in the order they evolved here... Terraforming Mars would take 300 years at least.”4

Regenerative ecological systems need the efficiencies of microalgae living at the base of the food chain, from the the closed atmosphere of a space station to the ecological cycle of a developing world village.

Future solar powered communities would be designed for high productivity, simultaneously restoring the surrounding environment. Communities envisioned in Bioshelters, Ocean Arks and City Farming are coming, assert Nancy and John Todd. “New biotechnologies, information, and biological components are being assembled into ecosystems capable of providing a diversity of foods in relatively small spaces."5 In 20 years, new communities can provide an alternative to land consuming suburbia or the inner city asphalt jungle

Ecological communities will use information technology and can incorporate algae production and aquaculture along with organic gardens. On a small area, productivity can be optimized, freeing up croplands for common areas or forests. “An ultimate goal might be that for every acre which is farmed another would be set free."6

Spirulina lakes are found in Peru, Chile, Myanmar, Australia and stretch across the Sahara and East Africa, near millions of chronically undernourished people. For 20 years, scientists and visionaries have proposed harvesting algae from lakes in Ethiopia and Kenya.

Assessing environmental impact comes first. A pioneer in spirulina farm design, lake ecologist Alan Jassby believes harvesting wild spirulina is too simplistic, since natural growth is unpredictable, the density too low for efficient harvesting, and continual harvesting could exhaust lake nutrient sources. Half of the world’s flamingos live in these lakes. They are a tourist attraction, contribute to lake ecology and should be protected. Wild algae must be checked for contamination by toxic algae and pollutants that pose a public health hazard.9

The best approach is using cultivation ponds beside these lakes. Without disturbing the larger ecosystem, these farms can share the resources with the wilderness sustainably. How to distribute spirulina to people with little money to afford it? A project cooperatively sponsored by governments, international agencies and business could provide for needy local people. The case of isolated Myanmar should be examined: 100 tons of spirulina per year is harvested from lakes (Chapter 8) and nearly all is distributed in the local economy.

In Central and East Africa, 30% of the people may be infected with AIDS. Here is a solution: lakes filled with blue-green algae. If sulfolipids can stop the AIDS virus, an international effort against AIDS could mobilize to develop lake cultivation, extracting sulfolipids for an anti-AIDS drug. The algal byproduct would be 65% protein, rich in vitamins and minerals – still the most nutritious food.

Farming East African lakes could create opportunity: 1) as the source of a potential AIDS drug, 2) for export to the West for hard currency, 3) as the source of a new food to help feed Africa, and 4) to relieve environmental pressure on other food growing areas.

Large areas cannot be reforested if millions of people surrounding them cut down their forests for food and fuel. Economic opportunity zones alongside reforestation zones will be critical to the success of reforestation. In areas with depleted natural resources, microalgae can create opportunity with a fraction of the land and water as conventional crops. Several restoration projects have been proposed.

Once scientists learn to successfully cultivate microalgae in seawater, new food growing areas can use the more than 10,000 miles of accessible desert coastline in hot climates: Mexico, Peru, Chile, West, North and East Africa, Egypt and the Arabian peninsula and India.

In Spirulina, Production & Potential, Dr. Ripley Fox envisions building huge seawater farms along desert coastlines.10 He proposes a network of 25 farms, 120 hectares each, providing 10 grams a day for 30 million children, the number at high risk of dying from malnutrition and related diseases. He claims the construction and operating cost would be less than one day of the 100 day Gulf War.

Each farm would have twelve 10 hectare ponds lined with plastic film to make them watertight. Floating paddlewheels circulating the ponds would be powered by nearby solar ponds producing electrical energy, a technology pioneered in Israel. The main nutrient, carbon dioxide gas, would be recovered from fuel-fired power, chemical and heavy industries that normally release into the atmosphere.

Using tax incentives, governments would encourage industries to collect CO2 in pressurized tanks and transport them on unused military transport ships to algae farmsites. Drying would be accomplished by huge solar drying tubes, 2 meters in diameter and 500 meters long

Dr. Fox suggests these farms be owned by international, humanitarian non-governmental organizations, and financed by governments by monies destined for military budgets. A network of distribution centers in malnutrition zones would distribute the dried algae.

Some of these schemes may be able to use nitrogen fixing blue-green algae cultivated in Asian rice paddies to increase rice production. A 1981 U.N. FAO report Blue-Green Algae in Rice Production documented the possibilities of blue-green algae replacing chemical fertilizers and rebuilding the structure of depleted soils.11

In India, blue-green algae is grown in shallow earth ponds. When the water evaporates, the dried algae is scooped up and sold to rice farmers. This natural nitrogen source is only one-third the cost of chemical fertilizer and it increased annual rice yield in India and several other countries an average of 22%. Where chemical fertilizers are not used, algae gives the same benefit as 25 to 30 kg of chemical nitrogen fertilizer per acre. Where chemicals are used, algae reduces the chemical dose by the same amount. However, use of algae fertilizers in India is limited by the low cost of petrochemical fertilizers. Even more discouraging, many banks will not make loans to farmers if they don’t use conventional fertilizers.

Algae can also increase plant growth, such as the green algae clamadamonas, rich in polysaccharides, which help recondition soil fertility and build soil structure to retain more moisture. Algae have plant growth regulators, and by inoculating soil with algae, plant productivity can be enhanced. Scientists are looking at DNA engineering of blue-green algae to improve their nitrogen-fixing efficiency.12

Algae biofertilizers can be used for rice paddy cultivation. They can inoculate soils to increase food productivity along desert coastlines, near alkaline lakes and in villages. Used as biofertilizers, algae offer yet another way to help feed people through soil renewal, providing economic opportunity without resorting to the vicious cycle of chemical fertilizers, soil exhaustion, and dependence on imports.

Most scientists agree several actions can halt the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere: 1) stop adding chlorofluorcarbons (CFCs) to the atmosphere to halt ozone layer depletion and global warming; 2) restrict methane and carbon dioxide emissions which contribute to global warming; 3) stop destroying forests and coral reefs because their stored carbon is released into the atmosphere; 4) limit human and livestock populations that stress the carrying capacity of the natural environment; and 5) plant forests to remove carbon from the atmosphere to be stored in trees and to release oxygen.

A novel idea is raising ocean productivity to remove massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Phytoplankton absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide. Some scientists proposed enriching the ocean with iron particles. This would stimulate algae blooms and photosynthetic plant growth which fixes carbon in organic forms, leading to eventual storage as minerals in coral reefs.13

In a dramatic experiment in 1996, researchers spread 1000 pounds of iron particles across nearly 30 square miles of ocean near the Galapagos Islands. "In a single week we created a new world in the middle of the ocean. We turned a patch of clear blue ocean water into a big green hayfield, just like going from a desert to forest." The plankton consumed more than 4 millions pounds of carbon from the atmosphere.14 However, scientists remained skeptical of dumping iron all across the world's oceans because of unpredictable effects on global ecology and because it might still prove ineffective at cleaning enough carbon dioxide to slow down global warning significantly.

We are discovering ways we can work with the original photosynthetic life form to restore this planet. As this new vision of the world unfolds, the few ideas mentioned here will blossom. Earth’s biosphere depends on the balance of gases in the atmosphere, as described by James Lovelock in his Gaia theory. He believes how we grow food has the greatest impact on planetary ecological decline.

"Bad farming is probably the greatest threat to Gaia's health. We use close to 75 percent of the fertile land of the temperate and tropical regions for agriculture. To my mind, this is the largest and most irreversible geophysical change that we have made... Could we use the land to feed us and yet sustain its climatic and geophysical roles? Could trees provide us with our needs and still serve to keep the tropics wet with rain? Could our crops serve to pump carbon dioxide as well as the natural ecosystems they replace? It should be possible but not without a drastic change of heart and habits."15

More and more people realize they can affect global food patterns by changing their own habits. Eating lower on the food chain, they eat less meat, more organic vegetables and grains and perhaps even algae. They are healthier, they help reduce environmental damage, and their choices can help return cropland and grazing land back to new forests.

Choices are making a difference already
Consumer purchasing decisions make a difference. Studies show people will pay more for natural and environmentally friendly food. Green business is becoming good business. A recent study on consumer purchasing decisions found: "One-third of Americans say that after price and quality, a company's socially responsible business practices are one of the most important factors in deciding whether or not to buy a brand. In fact, social responsibility was slightly more influential than advertising. This signals a change in public opinion."16

Entering this new millenium more of us understand that Earth’s biosphere, our environment, is not just an issue, it is the entire context for our society and economy. Recent books like The Web of Life by Fritjof Capra promote a new understanding of living systems and ecological policies to build and sustain communities without diminishing opportunities for future generations.17 Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken, Amory and L. Hunter Lovins documents how a revolutionary new business model, based on ecological design and proper valuation and conservation of natural resources, is transforming leading industries.18

People understand the connection between personal health and the planet's health, and they are making choices to help restore our health.

Microalgae like spirulina, are essential resources for individual and planetary health and restoration. The oldest photosynthetic life form is back. It represents a return to the origins of life.