Galapagos experiment sparks alarm (iron seeding, geo-engineering) - BBC

[Eugene]

Source: BBC News

Last Updated: Thursday, 21 June 2007, 14:17 GMT 15:17 UK

Galapagos experiment sparks alarm

A US company plans to dump iron filings into the sea
off the Galapagos Islands in an experiment to remove
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

But the plans have alarmed the US government and
conservationists.

The firm Planktos intends to sell carbon credits
to individuals who want to offset their personal CO2
emissions, the Telegraph newspaper reports.

But opponents say the dumping of iron filings without
a permit is illegal under US and international law.

-snip-

But environmentalists say the effects of such an
experiment on the Pacific ecosystem have not been
properly researched.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6226674.stm

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Related: Mass dump of iron filings 'to remove CO2' - The Telegraph

[n2doc]

1. Outrageous scam

I have looked at their web site and can come to no other conclusion. A few things DU'ers should know. First, the US has done at least 4 major (many square kilometer) ron addition experiments. Every one showed an increase in phytoplanton, every one showed minimal amounts of carbon exported away from the surface. Most carbon was cycled in the surface layer. Second, even these minimal effects were achieved only with dissolved iron, and much of that rapidly left the surface and sank to the lower ocean. Iron does not stay dissolved for long. Now, the Planktos folks are cagy about what form of iron they will use. If they are sprraying pieces of iron metal, this will be effectively useless as no planktonic organism can use it. If they are spraying iron oxides (the form in dust) most will sink to the bottom as Fe oxides are heavy. I really doubt that they are using a colloidal suspension (the only way to at least keep Fe in the surface layer for some length of time, other than using a dissolved solution) as that is hard to do and they would undoubtedly crow about that.

Also, Their web site seems to be oriented towards the "carbon credit" scam that is attracting a lot of attention nowadays. IMHO most such "credits" are just feel good crap that does nothing to reduce CO2 levels. The proposed cruise fits that model to a T.


Remember- The oceans are huge. Even doing this particular "experiment" will require the release of tonnes of CO2 from the ship, as well as all the previous releases associated with mining, processing and transporting the iron. I will bet that they will never release a budget with all of these terms in it...

[Dogmudgeon]

2. The 4th IPCC Report relies heavily on carbon credit economics

It is a popular dodge because the price of carbon credits is not supposed to rise too fast. It gives another 20-30 years of business as usual.

But of course, the carbon market (so-called) is already inflating like the Dutch tulip market in 1636 (well, maybe 1633 at this point). Buy 'em now, folx -- and to hell with the atmosphere, there's some big money to be made!

Several of the IPCC's members have backed off of the plan, a central part of their Policy Recommendations for Remediation.

--p!