Scientists Plan To Deliberately Alter Ocean Chemistry

by Emilio Lizardo | January 26, 2009 at 03:57 am

479 views | 63 Recommendations | 18 comments

Here they go again!

An international consortium of ocean scientists composed mainly of Germain and Indian researchers are planning a highly controversial move this week to dump as much as 20 tons of Iron Sulphate into the Southern Ocean. By doing so they hope to cause a huge bloom of plankton which they expect will be large enough to be visible from outer space.

They are planning to creat this gigantic plankton bloom in hopes that the plankton will remove a great deal of CO2 from the atmosphere, thereby reducing the level of global warming.

Scientists plan to dump iron in sea to feed plankton

Scientists are planning this week to start a highly controversial experiment in changing the composition of the oceans, in apparent contravention of international law.

The experiment – to be conducted in the Southern Ocean – aims to create a bloom of plankton so big that it will be visible from outer space. But, at the last minute, the scheme has sailed into an international storm as environmentalists have called for it to be abandoned. The researchers – mainly from Germany and India, but including two Britons – plan to add some 20 tons of iron sulphate to a 186-square-mile patch of ocean about half way between Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, to demonstrate a way both of combating global warming and of saving the whale.

As the waters are short of iron, this is expected to lead to an explosive growth of plankton, which will take up carbon dioxide from the air. The scientists hope that, when the plankton die and their bodies sink deep into the ocean, they will take the carbon with them, keeping it out of the atmosphere for centuries. Applied on a large enough scale, they believe this could help stave off climate change, while increasing food for whales. Commercial firms have already announced plans to make money from such schemes.

But other scientists are deeply concerned that the practice could have devastating unintended effects on the oceans, including killing off large areas of sea, and releasing methane and nitrous oxide, which are even more potent causes of global warming. They also fear that the plankton could absorb sunlight, heating up surface waters and hastening climate change.

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Maireid Sullivan

at 04:08 on January 26th, 2009

Thanks for the alert!

This looks like an unregulated scheme with unpredictable, potentially horrific outcomes.

Who exactly are these supposed scientists? And who gave them the authority to carry out such an extraordinary exercise? I am alarmed to read that "Commercial firms have already announced plans to make money from such schemes."

Please post updates if you can!

Emilio Lizardo

at 04:18 on January 26th, 2009

I have added a link which readers can visit for some more information and more links to the original article which appeared in Nature a week or so ago.

The story, as I understand it is that the ship has sailed for its destination loaded with a cargo of 20-tons of the the sulphate, and that they intend to 'deliver' it as described in the article.

It is so controversial because the experts seem to about equally divided on whether it wil improve the Earth's ecological health or damage it even worse than it is now ...

Uwe Paschen

at 05:35 on January 26th, 2009

It will not happen Maireid, it was dismissed has an idea last October in Japan and recent research Publications have proven it to be useless.

Uwe Paschen

at 04:14 on January 26th, 2009

An International Conference on that was held last October here in Okinawa.

It has been proven now that the Plankton does not work for to solve this and they fund that Fish Would do much better if we put a moratorium on Fishing.

See post on the subject bellow.

http://my.nowpublic.com/environment/eating-fish-kills-saving-our-oceans

Thank you for keeping the issue up to date Emilio.

Emilio Lizardo

at 04:19 on January 26th, 2009

Happy to be of service, Paschen.

Thanks for stopping by !

Rhonda J Mangus

at 04:40 on January 26th, 2009

Emilio, sharing Maireid's thoughts, thanks for this story!

Emilio Lizardo

at 04:51 on January 26th, 2009

I agree as well - who gave these guys authority to start deliberately messing with the ocean ecosystem like this ?

Of course, anybody old enough to vote should realize by now they ( the govt ) don't always tell us ( the masses ) everything ...

So, one might be inclined to surmise from this that maybe things are so far gone now that it doesn't matter if they make it worse, because the ocean's ecosystem has already fallen off the cliff into catastrophe ...

Who knows - but it is a uniquely helpless feeling watching these scientists conducting their experiments ...

Reminds me a little of what the Martian scientists did to Pierce Brosnan and the reporter on their spaceship in that Tim Burton movie, Mars Attacks ...

seb.james

at 06:21 on January 26th, 2009

I love it how everybody is complaining about global warming, and saying we need to be green and so forth, but when somebody comes up with a possible way of saving us from the CO2 that we create, they shun them back to the research labs. It's pathetic.

Uwe Paschen

at 06:27 on January 26th, 2009

No it is not pathetic "seb.james" the research that was done on this was dismissed has it was broth before a panel of experts and some rather in depth research has proven that it won't work and may even harm rather then help. Further in Recent publications and updates on some long term research to that regard do state rather clearly and is supported by the Science community as to what would work, that however does not suit the large businesses and Government nor the consumers. See the link I cave in an earlier comment.

Emilio Lizardo

at 10:27 on January 26th, 2009

Mr. James,

Maybe many of us just have a 'gut feeling' that the scientific community has already demonstrated beyond any shadow of a doubt the profound depth of their short-sightedness and lack of understanding of basically any situation more complex than the common hangnail ...

Many of us know the kind of damage these well-intentioned ( we all hope ) fools are capable of and it scares the heck out of us !

eastvanray

at 11:15 on January 26th, 2009

Only bad decisions can come from bad research but what is worrying is the contempt that many seem to have for scientists in general. It was scientists that brought our attention to climate change and who continue to monitor and attempt to find solutions for it. Without a lot of formal training in oceanography I really can't comment on the value of what this group of scientists are proposing but I hope we do not close our minds to possible solutions out of fear and our own ignorance of complex science.

Emilio Lizardo

at 14:46 on January 26th, 2009

Contempt ? Let's look at it for a moment ...

Well, let's take Einstien for example - greatest scientist, by all accounts, of the 20th century .

He was so smart he gave us the atomic bomb ...

Now, what's so contemptible about that ?

Uwe Paschen

at 15:57 on January 26th, 2009

Emilio, Einstein did not give us the Atom bomb, he gave us the equation and Hahn gave us the Atom bomb. With this sort of reasoning we will end up having to abolish forks and knifes since you can use them to eat food as well as kill some one. Einstein his equation did also give us Radio-Therapy to heal people. Science is not the problem here, it is human miss use of the knowledge or the tools at hand given to us through science and Engineering.

Science gave us Electricity and different ways to produce it as well as a warning that some methods will harm our environment such as Coal generated power and those warning came already in the late 19s century, yet we do use coal even though we know it destroys us. Does that make Science bad? No, it makes those consumers bad that demand more and more power and won't care about the warning attached to it. And it makes the Politician that have been elected by the consumers bad for giving in to the demands in order to get elected and re-elected. Then as things start going wrong we blame science that did warn us though in the first place.

Same for the Atom bomb, it was people such as Einstein that warned the US Government not to go ahead with the test nor use this bomb for it is to devastating and who disregarded that warning, Science or Politics and the Consumers that wanted blood?

harringtola

at 11:53 on January 26th, 2009

Great story. thanks for reporting. Looks like potential but What a major event this would be. This is the kind of action that should not be taken without some world governing groups approval. We need some type of governance when the action could have a global reaction.

Washington DC (not verified)

at 12:46 on January 26th, 2009

I'm not a chemist, but I wonder what's going to happen to all those sulfate ions that will be in the water from the additon of the iron sulfate? My guess is that they'll combine with other ions in the water to make sulfuric (e.g., battery) acid or something related to it.

Emilio Lizardo

at 14:47 on January 26th, 2009

Good point !

Sounds tasty ...

Uwe Paschen

at 15:22 on January 26th, 2009

This is what they are planning and why they are doing it. Science not madness.

http://my.nowpublic.com/environment/earth-oxygen-levels-are-dropping-plankton-save-humanity

djermano

at 05:38 on January 27th, 2009

To bad they are not using algae instead. It would grow, and could be harvested for its oil. The Algae would eat up the CO2, and we could use the algae oil as a clean energy alternative fuel. It would not contaminate the Ocean, and would also feed fish stocks.

As far as Einstein is concerned he made a mistake....he admitted it...and I agree.. We are much smarter than that guy. Ban nuclear weapons.

Rev.