> I did try to run the following idea past a ocean biogeochemist: Use wind > power to pump deep (nutrient-rich) water up to the surface, to increase > primary productivity, potentially burying carbon as detritus and also > increasing food production. He was full of reasons why it wouldn't work > (eg if it had a significant effect, there would be the risk of anoxia > due to the organic fallout, with various unwelcome consequences).
How does the biological pump work without there being anoxia somewhere I wonder? You'd think that if there was always enough oxygen, then some enterprising bugs would fully consume the biomass and thereby all the CO2 would be released again. ------------------------------ OTEC sounds like it's a very similar idea http://www.nrel.gov/otec/what.html ------------------------------- http://www.nrel.gov/otec/what.html The above is a good and detailed report by the Royal Society, They are dismissive of lime stone addition, saying too much material would be required, and don't really discuss other options. They do say though that there is a large store of calcium carbonate in sediments (30 million Gt of carbon equivalent, for comparison current fossil fuel emissions are 7 Gt) and that over geologic timescales that should mean little acidification, but apparently proxy data are too poor and provide conflicting evidence about the pH of the oceans for periods in the distant past when CO2 was above 1000 PPM to say much about how this played out in practise. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. Global Change is a public, moderated venue for discussion of science, technology, economics and policy dimensions of global environmental change. Posts will be admitted to the list if and only if any moderator finds the submission to be constructive and/or interesting, on topic, and not gratuitously rude. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalchange -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
