Seaweed to Provide Hair Dyes and More

Well, well, I've just read the next article on today's The Engineer digest and it rather puts the kibosh on the wind power idea for that factory !

Not that I'm a fan of wind farms - I think they look hideous and the amount of land that has to be torn up to put in the pylons is rarely accounted for in the CO2 balances.

Yes, yes. That's all well and good and a hearty congratulations all around.

But what about those of us who are balding? What sort of green solution is out there for us, eh? Are we to wear a blob of seaweed atop our heads as an all-natural toupee?

"Will it deplete the stocks of seaweed..?"

Seaweed harvesting can be done sustainably or it can be done wrong. There was some commercial seaweed harvesting here at one time; they made some mistakes so something was learned at a cost. The type of seaweed in that case were long 'blades' attached to the bottom by a holdfast. They had to develop technique to cut the top part without yanking the holdfasts from the bottom.

Same applies to other types: Some grow just stuck onto rocks in shaggy bunches, and there is a sustainable approach to harvest of them - it stands to reason, your harvest per area shouldn't exceed the capacity to regrowth. If the folks involved in this are concerned about ecological sustainability, I assume they would do studies to support their expected harvest and production plan.