Tim Flannery on Seagriculture 🌊🌿

Hey guys, I’m Simon Crerar, founder of Impact&ble 👋

Today’s email started this morning in glorious autumnal sunshine outside the Port Hole Cafe in Cygnet, and was finished at my desk in Impact&ble HQ – also the home of Tasmaniac Distillers, which is rather dangerous!

I’m back on melukerdee country after two weeks away, at Climate Action Week in Sydney and the Seagriculture Conference in Adelaide last week: highlights below ⬇️

Thanks for your patience waiting for issue #2. I plan to send this newsletter weekly, but it’s been a hectic few weeks.

And welcome to new subscribers from Giant Leap, Greenhouse and Galah Press: and other folks working at places that don't start with G. It’s great to have you here.

Today’s newsletter is 1,301 words, and should take you five minutes max to read.

One Big Thing 1️⃣  – “Everyone can have an impact” 💥

Last week I interviewed Professor Tim Flannery for the Impact&ble podcast. A renowned environmentalist, Tim doesn’t really need any introduction, but for overseas readers – hi Enid, Dan, Jodie and Tom! – he is an author, explorer, conservationist and palaeontologist whose work spans from discovering new mammal species in Melanesia to founding critical environmental organisations like The Climate Council. He is the author of dozens of books, including The Future Eaters, which blew my mind on my first trip to Australia in 2003, and The Weather Makers, which scared the shit out of me when I read it in 2005. More recently, he’s published a bunch of awesome kids books, co-authored with his daughter and fellow scientist Emma.

You can read a transcript of our chat here ahead of the pod drop, coming soon. 

At Seagriculture, I was struck by Tim’s enthusiasm about seaweed's potential to address climate change.

Key Takeaways 🔑

→ On seaweed diversity: "Seaweeds are more genetically diverse than land plants. They've been around longer, diversifying for over 800 million years on the planet, producing a fascinating array of chemicals." 🌊🌿

→ On the methane-reduction discovery: "Rocky De Nys and a colleague decided to run an experiment with different kinds of seaweed. The result with red seaweed was so astonishing — 99% absorption of methane — that he refused to believe it. He actually went back and repeated the experiment multiple times." 🐮 💩

→ On the accelerating climate crisis: "We're seeing a level of warming that was just not anticipated. Some of my climate colleagues say it's as if we've had a decade's worth of warming in a couple of years.”🔥 🥵

→ On ocean conservation: "We need enormous areas of marine protection. We need at least a third of the oceans to be protected from human efforts because they can then act as seeding areas to bring sustainability back to the rest." 🐋 💙

→ On finding personal resilience: "I keep going with the big picture stuff, the climate work, but I also need something that provides immediate satisfaction — like my projects with Melanesian communities that create tangible, positive change." 🇵🇬 😀

Check out the full interview here to read Tim's thoughts on Australia's unique seaweed resources, effective climate leadership, and how everyone — regardless of profession — can contribute to solving our environmental challenges.

3 Important Insights from Seagriculture 🌊 🌿

1. “Cows are not going away any time soon. How do we make them better? You could change the diet. You could look at vaccines. Or you could work on feed supplements. Asparagopsis stores the bioactive that prevents assembly of methane in the rumen. 20+ published studies show a 90% reaction in methane. Unequivocally it works! This is not R&D anymore, this is commercial scale at impact. The question is not open to debate.” – Steve Meller, CH4 Global 🐄
   

2. “These types of businesses models are not traditional in the VC world, and they will struggle for investment and capital in the current market. Places like Singapore and Japan are pushing blue carbon. Japan in particularly, is a huge driver.” – Alexia Akbay, Symbrosia (Hawaii-based) 🌺
   

3. “Seaweed is becoming really cool. A decade ago people thought of it as a stinky thing on the beach. Now it’s talked about with excitement at house parties! There’s more marine scientists in Hobart than anywhere in the southern hemisphere. Look to the young people, they’re looking at the industry with fresh ideas.” – Tim Harmsen, Next Wave Seaweed 😎

After this – very busy – first month of working on Impact&ble full-time my brain is bursting with insights (and look tbh, slightly overloaded). Yesterday I chatted to Charlotte Connell, Greenhouse Climate Tech Ambassador, who played a key, catalytic role in Climate Action Week and the Climate Investors Forum in Melbourne last week.

I’ll feature take-outs from that chat in next week’s newsletter. In the meantime, here’s…

3 Key Takeaways from Climate Action Week 🔑

1. “The energy transition started a long time ago. 10 years ago we were only 10% renewable, over the last quarter 47% of our electricity came from renewable energy. We’re already well on our way, it’s just a matter of pace.”
   – Simon Holmes à Court, convenor Climate200 ⚡️
   

2. “How can we urge the public to stay the course when we live in an age of disinformation? Nuclear reactors are a new tactic to slow the transition. A serious, coordinated, well-resourced attack, and we don’t have time for that.”
   – Clover Moore AO, Lord Mayor of Sydney ☢️
   

3. “Last week’s tropical cyclone Alfred reminded us that we are exposed to weather likely to get worse over time if we do not cut our emissions.”
   – Matt Kean, chair Climate Change Authority 🌀

Over the Very Big Pond 🇺🇸

Uluu won the 2025 SXSW Innovation Award for sustainability solutions at the Austin, Texas festival, highlighting the Perth, WA-based startup’s work developing a seaweed-based alternative to traditional plastics. “This recognition at one of the world’s most influential innovation festivals is a testament to our team’s dedication to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in biotechnology and material science,” Uluu said of the win. Co-founded by Julia Reisser and Michael Kingsbury, last year Uluu secured its first commercial deal, making a board comb for iconic surf brand Quiksilver.

Congratulations legends! 👏

Quick Links 🔗 

→ Labor vows to establish federal EPA if it wins second term. The commitment may quell caucus angst about party’s environment credentials after the government went ahead with laws to protect Tasmania’s salmon industry from legal challenge over its impact on the endangered Maugean skate. Or maybe not?! 🗳️

→ "Make America Healthy Again" is dead. A must-read from Emily Atkin’s Heated. “The Trump administration’s recent actions at the EPA will result in skyrocketing rates of chronic disease and cancer —particularly in babies and pregnant people, populations particularly vulnerable to fossil fuel pollution.” Emily’s newsletter is brilliant. 🇺🇸

→ We are the 89%. A Who’s Who of news orgs are collaborating on The 89 Percent Project, a year-long exploration of the pivotal but overlooked fact that an overwhelming majority of the world’s people want their governments to take stronger climate action. 🙌🏻

What’s Next? 📧

What’s coming up in the newsletter over the next few weeks?

→ April 1: Geoneon’s Roxane Bandini-Maeder unpacks climate risk mapping.

→ April 8: Uluu’s Julia Reisser explains how she hopes to replace plastics at scale

And Finally… 🎬

I had a really good bit of feedback last time from my awesome former colleague at BuzzFeed Dan Oshinsky (ex-New Yorker, now Inbox Collective supremo). He asked: “How are you helping founders shape their stories of change?” 

My embryonic advisory firm – Impact&ble – is focused on helping founders at different stages leverage the power of storytelling to help them raise attention, and capital.

There’s an FAQ here.

If you have any questions on this, or feedback on anything in this newsletter, please email me at [email protected]. Thanks for reading, see you next week. 👋