Stephen A. Lawrence wrote: > > > > > Sounds awful and cruel I realize (reminds me of that whale briefly > > brought into existence together with the petunia pot in The Hitch > > Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, was that in the film Fred?), but... if > > our own survival is at stake, well... your thoughts welcome :) > > Sounds to me like Michel (Dave's Gender I. D. Problem) is acting out Arthur Dent's worst nightmare. I posted Michel an algae-confinement-fine mesh-floated-seine idea the other day, but living near the Seine I guess he thinks I'm in-seine. :-) The seas should contain adequate nutrients that can diffuse into the seines that can be tens of meters wide and thousands of meters long. The iron powder can be retained in the seine, with barges that reel it in and through for harvesting and iron replenishment. A whale of a lot better than torturing a declining population of whales.
Fred > > Michel Jullian wrote: > > Mmm, growing the algae without harvesting them _could_ be sufficient > > (pending calculations), but only for a one off operation: present > > excess CO2 sequestered into the living algae biomass increase, > > period. Could win the prize though. > > > > What surprises me most with this scheme is that one should need to > > bring fertilizers into the oceans, which already contain all the > > minerals you can dream of in amply sufficient concentrations. The > > increased growth action of the dust, if confirmed, might not be one > > of fertilization, maybe it increases photosynthesis by > > reflecting/diffusing the sunlight rather. > > Haven't been following this thread closely ... but a number of years ago > someone tried the experiment of seeding a small area of the ocean with > iron; it caused an immediate algae bloom. Apparently it's in short > supply. At that time it was proposed that bombing the oceans with iron > would suck a lot of CO2 out of the air. The problems with such an > approach, if actually tried on a large scale, are likely to be pretty > horrible, though, or so I would guess. > > > > > > Anyway, back to the harvesting hypothesis, whether or not we can > > stimulate growth one way or another. > > > > I have an idea for that, it's a bit... well here it is anyway. Highly > > efficient phytoplankton harvesters + phytoplankton -to-oil converters > > already exist actually, they are called whales :))) I guess you see > > what I am coming to: instead of harvesting the algae ourselves we > > would heavily repopulate the oceans with herds of whales (porn movies > > -or audio clips rather- featuring actors of the right species like > > they successfully use to repopulate pandas in China??), the whales > > would harvest the algae and process them into whale oil, and then we > > would harvest the whales and sequester the oil, plus use some of it > > as fuel. > > > > Sounds awful and cruel I realize (reminds me of that whale briefly > > brought into existence together with the petunia pot in The Hitch > > Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, was that in the film Fred?), but... if > > our own survival is at stake, well... your thoughts welcome :) > > > > Michel > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jones Beene" > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, > > February 16, 2007 9:43 PM Subject: Re: [Vo]: Russ George challenges > > Branson on ABC > > > > > >> Well, that sound-byte is a bit disingenuous, as Russ has "borrowed" > >> the (unpatented) idea and experimental results of the late John > >> Martin, who was less optimistic about the outcome ... JM was former > >> director of: > >> > >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moss_Landing_Marine_Laboratories > >> > >> ... and one assumes (hopes) that George would give credit to Martin > >> at some point in the process ... whether Martin's estate would win > >> or share in the prize is unclear. I think some of the personnel > >> from Martin's Moss Landing team are the same in any event. > >> > >> Martin's issued a caution regarding Global Warming consequences. > >> Before getting too enamored with the implications of those > >> successful iron fertilization experiments - which have been in the > >> public record for 16 years - one must face several caveats. > >> http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/oceangard/overview.php#n27 > >> > >> Though iron fertilization may be one of several effective method of > >> lessening the impact of global warming by increasing algae growth, > >> and CO2 uptake, the scientific evidence is incomplete and suggests > >> there may be unintended consequences, especially at the scale > >> necessary for global change. Of course if the Algae were harvested > >> as an oil substitute - then that would probably help immensely, but > >> just growing it without harvesting as R George is proposing - is > >> not sufficient. > >> > >> Methane BTW is a far more worrisome threat than CO2, being twenty > >> times more potent as a greenhouse gas and the Arctic (vast areas of > >> Siberia Canada, Alaska) is now releasing much more of it than > >> anyone ever thought possible - so perhaps that gas should be > >> addressed first - big prize or not. > >> > >> > >> > >> Jed Rothwell wrote: > >>> Russ sez he can sequester carbon. Here is a direct link to the > >>> vid, from Tom Valone: > >>> > >>> www.planktos.com/media/rg_kgo_small.wmv > >>> > >>> - Jed > >>> > >>> > >
