As environmentalists all around the world discuss effects of global warming and climate change, an ecorestoration company called Planktos is thinking about dumping iron dust in international waters to facilitate plankton growth. This will in turn help reduce global warming effects.
The process is mainly known as ocean seeding. By dumping the iron dust, the company expects planktons to grow more. The planktons will help suck harmful CO2 out of the earth’s atmosphere, decreasing the CO2 effects in earth’s atmosphere.
The dumping will be done mainly in the international waters off the island of Galapagos. The Planktos will be using a 115-foot (35-meter) research ship for this purpose. I think this is a great idea. At least someone is trying to do something about the global warming problem.
However, the project was highly criticized by the US EPA. In May, the US EPA warned the firm about this project. The EPA basically told them that the company needs a permit to do this. If Planktos plans on using it’s US registered research vessel Weatherbird II, it will need permit from US EPA to operate in the international water.
The Company CEO argues lawfully that a permit will only be needed when more than 1% of toxic material is dumped in the ocean floor. In this case it’s well below the set limit. the CEO Russ George mentioned recently that the amount dumped is going to be:
roughly a billion times below regulatory limit
US EPA encourages other nations as well as US and Canada to keep a close eye on such future projects. Some people are criticizing the project by saying that it will lead to toxic algae blooming all over. This is extremely controversial as of now. According to Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist of the Woods hole institution mentions:
Only carbon that reaches the deep sea is isolated from the atmosphere long enough to impact atmospheric CO2 and hence climate.So there is little evidence to go on when making claims about the efficacy of a commercial operation.
The ecorestoration company officials defended their iron dust project through emails and phone interviews with National Geographic. According to them, they have already looked into various aspects of the project. One thing I can vouch for is that the oceans have the answers to global warming. The should harvest the ocean floor with iron dust.
Image Credits: Treehugger, Flickr , Coexploration
