How the Next Big Thing in Carbon Removal Sunk Without a Trace

With support from Microsoft, Stripe, and Shopify, Running Tide billed itself as on the cutting edge of carbon removal. In the end, it resorted to dumping thousands of tons of wood chips in the sea.

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center.

The town hall in Akranes, on the west coast of Iceland, filled quickly as locals streamed in to the residents’ meeting. The mood was happy, positive, relaxed. In between speeches, a woman sang folk songs while her family played guitar and melodica. Yet when the guest speaker, an American named Marty Odlin, took the stage, he struck a deadly serious tone.

“We woke up Godzilla,” he told the assembled residents. “It’s burning down forests and towns and stealing fish and doing all sorts of terrible things. It’s ...