AnCaps
ANARCHO-CAPITALISTS
Bitch-Slapping Statists For Fun & Profit Based On The Non-Aggression Principle
 
HomePortalGalleryRegisterLog in

 

 More lunacy on the environmental front: Could fertilizing oceans reduce global warming?

View previous topic View next topic Go down 
AuthorMessage
CovOps

CovOps

Female Location : Ether-Sphere
Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator
Humor : Über Serious

More lunacy on the environmental front: Could fertilizing oceans reduce global warming? Vide
PostSubject: More lunacy on the environmental front: Could fertilizing oceans reduce global warming?   More lunacy on the environmental front: Could fertilizing oceans reduce global warming? Icon_minitimeThu Jul 19, 2012 1:53 am

Some hope fertilizing tiny, floating plants in the ocean, prompting them to suck carbon dioxide out of the air, could help solve global warming.

More lunacy on the environmental front: Could fertilizing oceans reduce global warming? 120718oceandiatomfertil



A new experiment confirms this controversial idea has some merit, although important questions remain.

Using an eddy in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, researchers used iron fertilizer — the sort used to improve lawns — to create a man-made algal bloom. In the weeks that followed, researchers say, this bloom funneled a significant amount of Earth-warming carbon down into the ocean's depths, where it will remain sequestered for some time, unable to contribute to global warming.

This experiment provides some important insight into this potential approach to combating climate change, said Ken Buesseler, of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, writing in the July 19 issue of the journal Nature.

A potential solution?
This general approach, modifying the planet to address climate change, is known as geoengineering, and, geoengineering proposals like iron fertilization tend to raise many uncertainties and risks. Other geoengineering ideas have included pumping aerosols into the atmosphere to block out solar radiation or tucking away excess carbon in underground reservoirs. [Top 10 Craziest Environmental Ideas]

Ocean fertilization is a controversial idea, prompting protest from those who fear the unintended environmental impacts it may have.

"Most scientists would agree that we are nowhere near the point of recommending [iron fertilization of the oceans] as a geoengineering tool. But many think that larger and longer [iron fertilization] experiments should be performed to help us to decide which, if any, of the many geoengineering options at hand should be deployed," Buesseler wrote.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48234493/ns/technology_and_science-science/
Back to top Go down
 

More lunacy on the environmental front: Could fertilizing oceans reduce global warming?

View previous topic View next topic Back to top 
Page 1 of 1

Permissions in this forum:You cannot reply to topics in this forum
 :: Anarcho-Capitalist Categorical Imperatives :: AnCaps In Science, Technology & Environment-