New York Times

By David Helvarg
April 30, 2022

The bull kelp forests off Northern California are sometimes spoken of as the redwoods of the sea. And like the redwoods, these forests are in danger. In less than a decade, these otherworldly undersea landscapes, lush with life, have all but disappeared along 200 miles of coast north of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.

The warming climate has set in motion this disaster and it is unclear whether it can be reversed as greenhouse gas emissions continue to flood the atmosphere. Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rose by 6 percent globally in 2021, the biggest increase ever, as the world began bouncing back from pandemic. These kelp forests are yet another ocean casualty of fossil-fueled climate disruption, along with habitats ruined by coral bleaching, rising sea levels, warming ocean waters and the pronounced loss of Arctic sea ice.

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