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Fragilariopsis kerguelensis, a type of phytoplankton on the Kerguelen plateau that has a silica shell - Source: Reuters -
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An Australian research body has called for more research into
the risks of large-scale ventures to fertilise oceans to boost
natural absorption of carbon dioxide.
Following are responses from Dan Whaley, CEO of California-based
Climos, which is developing methods to release trace amounts of
iron to trigger blooms of tiny phytoplankton in the vast Southern
Ocean.
Phytoplankton naturally absorb large amounts of CO2, trapping the
carbon inside their cells.
When they die, the phytoplankton fall to the ocean floor,
locking carbon away for years.
Q: Are you confident iron fertilisation, on a long-term
basis, will lead to significant and measurable capture of
atmospheric CO2?
A: Phytoplankton productivity and its subsequent transport to the
deep ocean is responsible for the majority of long-term storage of
atmospheric CO2 on earth. We think that experiments by the
oceanographic community at larger scales and longer timeframes can
help us understand whether this can be meaningfully increased by
humans.
Q: Is your current research looking at the risks, or
side-effects, that the Australian report mentions?
A: To date, the primary question has been "does it work?" Without
this, there was no reason to proceed. Clearly, moving forward the
impact of this technique has to be studied in parallel to its
effectiveness.
Q: How are your own plans to launch experiments in 2010 in
the Southern Ocean coming along? Still on track? If so, how large
will these experiments be in terms of sq km?
A: The first window for a project is 2010. The next generation
projects that have been discussed by oceanographers are at the
scale of 100km in diameter up to about 200km.
Q: Do you agree there is a finite limit to the amount of
carbon sequestered by ocean iron fertilisation? (The report says
about one billion tonnes is about the limit for iron
seeding.)
A: Iron fertilization is no silver bullet for climate change -
which underscores the severity of the problem we have, and the
urgency for immediate emissions reductions worldwide. World leaders
here (at UN climate talks) in Poznan and next year at Copenhagen
must find a way to force the largest emitters to agree to caps on
emissions as soon as possible.
Scientific studies outline a potential between one billion tonnes
of carbon (3.7 billion tonnes of CO2) to about 1.8 billion tonnes
(6.6 billion tonnes of CO2) of carbon annually done over extended
timeframes. You won't find numbers anywhere near this large with
any other single approach.
Iron fertilization must be considered alongside other techniques in
the solutions portfolio - let it compete on its merits.
Q: How do you answer the critics who say humans have
done enough damage to the environment and shouldn't be
re-engineering the environment to fix a man-made problem,
particularly since we don't fully understand the
consequences?
A: This point of view prejudges iron fertilization as dangerous,
when in fact we know it's something that nature does herself and
has done at much larger scales for much longer times in the
geologic past.
It's important to remember that if there is ever anything that
we find that leads us to believe that long term it's either
ineffective or a bad idea, it can be stopped. We know from the
geologic record that the ocean relaxes to the previous state.
Q: Briefly explain how Climos is working with the
scientific community and regulators in trying to research iron
fertilisation to test impacts and ensure measurable CO2
capture.
A: Over the last year regulators at the London Convention have
looked closely at OIF (ocean iron fertilisation) and decided that
legitimate scientific research should move forward. Our goal at
Climos is to provide the substantial capital and logistical support
required for scientists from the oceanographic community to be able
to do more comprehensive tests.
Q: Lastly, explain why you think this is essential, why
it's not the scary science many believe.
A: Phytoplankton are nature's way of sequestering CO2 to the deep
ocean, where nearly ninety percent of earth's carbon lies. Further,
most everything we put up in the air is going to the deep ocean
eventually. The only question is how long it takes.
Over the last billion years, nearly 90% of all carbon has wound up
at the bottom of the ocean - 50 times what exists in the
atmosphere. Phytoplankton productivity is what put it there.
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