FERTILIZE PLANKTON?

GEOENGINEERING MIGHT WORK BUT THAT IS NO REASON TO DO IT! FIX THE CAUSE, NOT THE EFFECT!

Scientist unveils plan on climate change
August 20, 2007 (AP via Yahoo News)

WHO
Oliver Wingenter and collegues; Ken Caldeira, Carnegie Institution

Lots of science fiction, few science facts. (click to enlarge)

WHAT
Wingenter proposes fertilizing ocean plankton to stimulate the release of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) that, by accelerating cloud formation, would offset the harmful effects of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and impede climate change.

WHEN
Wingenter’s hypothesis was developed in 2002 and put forward in the July 2007 issue of "Atmospheric Environment." (NewEnergyNews: Wait ‘til you see the centerfold!)

WHERE
- Wingenter teaches at New Mexico Tech.
- The idea comes from studies of plankton’s capacity to scrub GHGs from the atmosphere, ongoing in the Southern Ocean.

WHY
- Happily, Wingenter is having trouble finding funding.
- Other geoengineering poppycock: spewing aerosols into the atmosphere to deflect the sun or placing satellite mirrors to reflect the sun.
- Geoengineering is an excuse NOT to deal with the production of GHGs.

Scientists are just beginning to understand the slowed growth of plankton.

QUOTES
- Wingenter: "I'm just hoping that this is something that will give us a little more time…"
- Caldeira: "It might be relatively benign…It might not. We just don't know."