Posted on 10/16/2012 10:44:29 AM PDT by Theoria
A private company backed by a controversial U.S. businessman has unilaterally conducted the world's most significant geoengineering project to date. Russ George, in conjunction with a First Nations village on Haida Gwaii, has dumped around 100 tonnes of iron sulphate into the Pacific Ocean in a technique known as ocean fertilization. The experiment, which is in violation of two United Nations moratoria, has outraged environmental, legal, and civic groups.
The iron sulphate was dumped into the Pacific back in July, but recent satellite images are now confirming its effects — an artificial plankton bloom that's 10,000 square kilometers (6,214 square miles) in size. The intention of the project is for the plankton to absorb carbon dioxide and then sink to the bottom of the ocean. George is hoping to cash in on lucrative carbon credits.
To make the project happen, George convinced the local council of an indigenous village to establish the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation. He told them that the project would restore salmon populations, leading the First Nations people to channel more than $1m of its own money into the project.
Critics say it is a "blatant violation" of United Nations rules, and the matter is currently under investigation by Environment Canada. Experts contend that the project violates the UN's convention on biological diversity (CBD) and London convention on the dumping of wastes at sea, which both prohibit for-profit ocean fertilisation activities. According to the Guardian, the news publication that broke the story, George claims that the two moratoria are a "mythology" and do not apply to his project. The Guardian reports:
George is the former chief executive of Planktos Inc, whose previous failed efforts to conduct large-scale commercial dumps near the Galapagos and Canary Islands led to his vessels being barred from ports by the Spanish and Ecuadorean governments. The US Environmental Protection Agency warned him that flying a US flag for his Galapagos project would violate US laws, and his activities are credited in part to the passing of international moratoria at the United Nations limiting ocean fertilisation experiments
Scientists are debating whether iron fertilisation can lock carbon into the deep ocean over the long term, and have raised concerns that it can irreparably harm ocean ecosystems, produce toxic tides and lifeless waters, and worsen ocean acidification and global warming.
"It is difficult if not impossible to detect and describe important effects that we know might occur months or years later," said John Cullen , an oceanographer at Dalhousie University. "Some possible effects, such as deep-water oxygen depletion and alteration of distant food webs, should rule out ocean manipulation. History is full of examples of ecological manipulations that backfired."
George says his team of unidentified scientists has been monitoring the results of the biggest ever geoengineering experiment with equipment loaned from US agencies like NASA and the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration. He told the Guardian that it is the "most substantial ocean restoration project in history," and has collected a "greater density and depth of scientific data than ever before".
"We've gathered data targeting all the possible fears that have been raised [about ocean fertilisation]," George said. "And the news is good news, all around, for the planet."
UN officials will be meeting in Hyderabad, India, later this week to discuss the issue, including possible upgrades to enforcement policies.
And as Silvia Ribeiro of the watchdog ETC Group has noted, "If rogue geoengineer Russ George really has misled this indigenous community, and dumped iron into their waters, we hope to see swift legal response to his behavior and strong action taken to the heights of the Canadian and US governments." Read more.
Top image via NASA. Inset image: Yellow and brown colours show relatively high concentrations of chlorophyll in August 2012, after iron sulphate was dumped into the Pacific Ocean as part of the geoengineering scheme. Photograph: Giovanni/Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center/NASA.
HA HA HA! I win! I win!... now what?
so the UN rules the world now?
Only one black guy in the entire movie and they make him wear a full metal mask and costume
This could turn out good or really bad
“ Some red tides are associated with the production of natural toxins, depletion of dissolved oxygen or other harmful effects, and are generally described as harmful algal blooms. The most conspicuous effects of these kind of red tides are the associated wildlife mortalities of marine and coastal species of fish, birds, marine mammals, and other organisms.”
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_tide
The culprit in this case is not even the global warming alarmists, it is the legal translation of their alarms into carbon-credit financial schemes.
Greed is not fiction, but it always requires opportunity and often truly free markets don’t create opportunities for it as much as does government meddling that creates artificial economic advantages. Wherever the government steps in, opportunity for greed and then greed itself often follows.
Screw the U.N.
U.S. out of the U.N.,
U.N. out of the U.S.
“The end result will likely be something of a population explosion among fish.”
I wonder how long the 100 tons of iron sulfate will last? So yes, more fish for awhile. But the “right” fish? And in the meantime does the natural rhythm and locations, etc. of commercial fish get disrupted? (Like the normal salmon fisheries being near the coast - but now 200 miles out of reach by the fishermen?). I have no idea on fishing, biology, etc.
But hope these guys looked into stuff more than just “Hey - ya know all that iron sulfate waste we’ve been paying to get hauled away? Lets dump it in the ocean somewhere and watch plankton grow.”
OTOH- if it works well - great! As another poster said, I guess we’ll find out. And as long as the guys waits to see what happens without dumping more and more in, whatever bad (or good) effects the stuff has will no doubt be limited in time and extent.
VERY well put!!
10,000 square kilometers is only 3,821 square miles.
wouldn’t it make more sense to spread the iron across the ocean than in one spot??
3861 actually...not 3821 (typo)
Well if the motivation is carbon credit cash...then I am not so confident they have looked into to it carefully.
How does this differ from our agencies deciding which animals are worthy of reintroduction into our wilderness lands? A private company chose to do this rather than get it approved by the Heritage Program beforehand?
Introducing wolf breeds to the forests or sinking a ship to encourage a coral reef to grow are similar, aren’t they? Many of our lakes have annual algae over growths due to fertilizers runoffs. Man messing with nature or should I say experimenting?
FU, UN! We'll make our own rules.
But isn’t this just the typical activity found in any free market system?
Bravo!
Thank goodness someone began to experiment.
CO2 is GOING to go up. India, China, et al, could care less what the environazis want. They will use coal because it is cheaper.
I think AGW is a hoax at present. However, there could be effects when CO2 is much higher.
Locking carbon up in plankton and sea life is a great idea.
If we discover problems, we can just stop the fertilization. Nature has run this experiment in many areas where land minerals are washed into the ocean and set off rapid growth of plankton.
Much the same scenario has occurred to me.
If this scheme works (sequesters large quantities of carbon), it could be worse than anything Goldfinger, Dr. Evil, Lex Luthor, or the Joker could come up with. Taken to extreme (and given the perverse incentives, and whack job characters involved, why wouldn’t it be taken to extreme?) it could trigger a new ice age. For once, the UN got something right. This madness needs to be stopped.
Sorry, but, the UN never gets anything right.
Note: this topic is from 10/16/2012. Thanks Theoria.
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