September 28, 2007
She Swallowed The Spider To Catch The Fly…
BY: MattyBone
So let’s get Matty in the loop on iron fertilization. My coworker Kevin first told me about it earlier this week, but I’d love for some folks to weigh in and let me know their take on the science and politics of this sketchy-sounding idea.
The best link I could find on the subject was a background paper called “How far can we go in manipulating the oceans to reduce CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere?” from the Alfred Wegener Institute and EUR-Oceans in Berlin.
Here’s a pithy excerpt:
Despite the great natural potential of the oceans to uptake atmospheric CO2, our current knowledge indicates that seeding iron on the oceans or dissolving more carbon dioxide into the depths do not seem conceivable solutions to solve our CO2 problem. However, given the current situation, taking no action may lead to even greater risks. We need to decrease our emissions of carbon dioxide and will probably have to adopt multiple strategies.