L 18 7:55 AMJul 18 7:55 am Comment <http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/18/a-fresh-look-at-iron-plankton-carbon-salmon-and-ocean-engineering/#commentsContainer> A Fresh Look at Iron, Plankton, Carbon, Salmon and Ocean Engineering <http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/18/a-fresh-look-at-iron-plankton-carbon-salmon-and-ocean-engineering/?module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=technology&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs®ion=Body> By ANDREW C. REVKIN <http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/author/andrew-c-revkin/>
- - - Video of the 2012 Haida iron fertilization effort Two years ago this month, an edge-pushing environmental entrepreneur <http://www.loe.org/series/series.html?seriesID=27> and a company formed by a Native Canadian village set off a wave of international protest by dispersing a pink slurry of 100 tons of iron-rich dust <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/science/earth/iron-dumping-experiment-in-pacific-alarms-marine-experts.html> over one of the 60-mile-wide ocean eddies <http://www.researchgate.net/publication/252383340_Iron_transport_by_mesoscale_Haida_eddies_in_the_Gulf_of_Alaska/file/3deec5297b996a55fa.pdf> that routinely drift across the salmon feeding grounds of the Gulf of Alaska. Their goal, in the face of steep declines in Pacific salmon catches <http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sockeye-salmon-adult-populations-in-widespread-decline-1.1136426>, was to trigger a plankton population explosion with the infusion of iron, a vital nutrient that’s lacking in those waters. Volcanic eruptions <http://news.sciencemag.org/2010/10/how-volcanoes-feed-plankton> had been shown to do the same thing. Why not humans? The plankton bloom, in theory, would nourish millions of juvenile fish that circulate in the Gulf before returning to the coast to spawn. Along with a boosted catch, a second hoped-for payoff was the sale of carbon credits on international markets aimed at offsetting greenhouse gas pollution by financing projects that absorb heat-trapping carbon dioxide — typically by planting trees but in this case through spurring plankton growth. More than $2 million was invested in the project through the tribal company, the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation <http://www.haidasalmonrestoration.com/index.php/about-us/our-story>. The protests <http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/oct/15/pacific-iron-fertilisation-geoengineering> mainly came from groups and scientists critical of geo-engineering, large-scale efforts to harness or control the shared environment to serve human needs — particularly if the efforts were private. They asserted the project violated international ocean-dumping rules and a moratorium on ocean fertilization. Russ George, the iron-dust entrepreneur (who is now in a legal fight with some of his former partners <http://newenergytimes.com/v2/sr/companies/RussGeorge/2013/20140224HSRC-vs-Russ-George-counterclaim.pdf>), has defended the effort as stewardship, not pollution. Don’t count on a quick resolution of either the litigation or any prosecution arising from a long-running investigation by Canada’s environment agency <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/ocean-fertilization-experiment-loses-in-bc-court-charges-now-likely/article16672031/>, which has asserted in court that the project violated Canadian law. But now that independent scientists have appraised the 2012 iron pulse, and millions of young salmon that were at sea that summer are heading up streams, and into nets, it’s at least possible to begin assessing outcomes and lessons from this freelance effort at treating the open sea like a farmer’s field — and a carbon safe-deposit box. READ MORE… <http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/18/a-fresh-look-at-iron-plankton-carbon-salmon-and-ocean-engineering/?module=BlogPost-ReadMore&version=Blog%20Main&action=Click&contentCollection=technology&pgtype=Blogs®ion=Body#more-52728> -- *_* ANDREW C. REVKIN Dot Earth blogger <http://www.nytimes.com/dotearth>, The New York Times Senior Fellow <http://www.pace.edu/paaes/faculty-and-staff>, Pace U. Academy for Applied Env. Studies Cell: 914-441-5556 Fax: 914-989-8009 Twitter: @revkin <http://twitter.com/revkin> Skype: Andrew.Revkin Music: "A Very Fine Line <http://veryfinelines.com>" CD -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to geoengineering+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to geoengineering@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
