Well, with high CO2, the buzz in pasture science journals is the improvement of pasturelands. Dryland grasses benefit from high CO2 and the period of ground cover is greatly extended.

The immediate consequence of that has been a diminishment of Aeolian dust. That lack of Aeolian dust is a wonderful boon to pasture on land because it's topsoil blowing away, but it's tragic for the oceans because it's a source of iron for the oceans. It's the primary cause of the collapse of primary productivity in the oceans.

Maybe it's all about salmon. Maybe the name Haida Salmon Restoration Corp. was chosen with some wisdom and intelligence. The village is not a geoengineering business. It's trying to feed its people, trying to solve the problem of 70 percent unemployment, grasping for a ray of hope. It's doing this in its traditional territory. This is the Haida ocean. They are taking care of their own home. Why can't they take care of their home? Why is this branded as a malevolent, controversial, geoengineering scheme?

Can ocean fertilization really help combat climate change on any significant scale?
The major mechanism for controlling CO2 is solubility in water. Anthropogenic CO2's destiny is to dissolve in water. The only source of a nonpolluting amount of energy to match the fossil fuel that won't add more CO2 to the atmosphere is sunlight and photosynthesis. The photosynthetic potential of plankton in the ocean, if restored to 50 years ago, is more than sufficient to manage a large part of the anthropogenic CO2 problem.

9 Comments

1. 1. raymclennan 06:51 PM 10/24/12

   This man has committed ecologic terrorism with huge ramifications and he should be charged and prosecuted for ocean dumping.
   We have time and time again found out what happened when we try and improve on nature, it goes horribly wrong!

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2. 2. fchow8888 07:37 PM 10/24/12

   Sometimes science progresses by taking risks. Jenner with the smallpox vaccine. The Manhattan Project (with some scientists betting the detonation would be hot enough to ignite the atmosphere and kill everything on the planet). You cannot do everything by simulation on a PC. There is no substitute for asking nature herself a question, and yes, sometimes that's a risky thing.

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3. 3. JimLem 10:36 PM 10/24/12

   I'm glad he is pushing forward with experiments. A few angry people should not block research into science that we might need in the future.
   
   And, I'm pretty shocked at the one-sided coverage up until now. If you read other articles in the past week, none of them had any kind of balance and obviously didn't even try to present his side of the story.
   
   That supports his claim that the press has twisted the issue.
   

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4. 4. em_allways_right 02:21 AM 10/25/12

   I am more concerned w. all the other things that people are dumping into the ocean - not some rust dust.

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5. 5. ironjustice 10:25 AM 10/25/12

   Compared to all the drums of toxic waste dumped into the ocean over the years , this project is a drop in the bucket. 'Disposal' companies were paid to dispose of the waste and they've been simply dumping it into the ocean for decades.

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6. 6. Daniel35 04:12 PM 10/27/12

   Since apparently we can't stop burning carbon fuels, at least in time to prevent severe warming, it seems like Iron fertilization is the best option. Sure, plankton gets eaten and some CO2 is emitted, but until we get better data, I think more ocean life of any kind means more carbon-containing waste and corpses go to the ocean floor. Opposing this seems like supporting the human-created epocalypse.

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7. 7. LacklandWilliamsMeadeCNCI 02:30 PM 10/28/12

   100 tonnes of Iron (III) Sulfate turns to be one helluva tectonic laxative!! 7.7 Magnitude Earthquake registered at on Queen Charlotte Fault on October 27, 2012. Sure there was an algal bloom in August, 2012 after the Iron Sulfate dumping from a fishing boat in July, 2012, but it turns out this Iron Sulfate stuff goes right to the fault cracks in the plates and is slippery like graphite in a rusty car door lock!! I think we've got Earth Grease!!
   Patent it!!

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8. 8. raymclennan 02:47 PM 10/28/12

   We as humans have arrogance to think we know how to make nature better and fix everything we have broken! Scientists paid by capitalists spend so much trying to see if the can, and no time thinking about whether they should!

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9. 9. StateOfTheArtist 11:10 PM 1/20/13

   Russ George is an enviromental hero and everyone should be kissing his butt. If PLANKTOS had been allowed to roll out large scale ocean fert 7 years ago when they were trying rather than being villanised as they were, we wouldn't be in quite as deep schtuck as we are today!
   NOW we are within 2 years of complete loss of artic summer sea ice, this lost reflectivity doubling global warming from what greenhouse gases alone are doing.
   NOW we have to furiously "geoengineer" with sulphate aerosols in the Arctic stratosphere and other SERIOUS geoengineering techniques WITHIN THE NEXT 5 YEARS if we wish to avoid the rapidly escalating release of several thousand gigatons of methane locked in and under the siberian continental shelf submarine permafrost which is melting furiously NOW. THAT scenario has global average temperatures up by some 10 deg c and the planet sterile of all higher life forms by 2050.
   Doubt any of this?
   -Check out the Arctic Methane Emergency Group (AMEG), and the Arctic News blogsite.
   
   We need ocean fert. ocean biomass, animal or vegetable, dead on the sea floor or swimming...
   -is carbon not in the atmosphere or acidifying the oceans!

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