Iron Solution to Global Warming
By tony leather, 20th Jul 2012 | Follow this author
| RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/5h0svg93/
Posted in WikinutNewsEnvironment
Prof Victor Smetacek - German Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research - led the new research, which clearly demonstrated that iron fertilisation would make a good and cheap geo-engineering method of addressing global warming,
Iron Solution to Global Warming
According to a major new study, dumping iron into the sea can bury carbon dioxide for centuries, potentially helping reduce climate change impact. Much of the oceanic algae - blooms when iron filings are added to their environment - subsequently dies and falls into the deep ocean, taking lots of CO2 with them
Prof Victor Smetacek - German Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research - led the new research, which clearly demonstrated that iron fertilisation would make a good and cheap geo-engineering method of addressing global warming, encouraging deliberate enhancement of carbon storage within the oceans at some date.
UK science academy the Royal Society concluded in 2009 that while first priority has to be the cutting of emissions, much careful research into geo-engineering solutions needs be done in case drastic measures one day become our only option.
Warming B
The research team led by Smetacek introduced seven tons of iron sulphates into the low iron level ocean close to Antartica, this action addition of adding this missing nutrient element prompting, within only one week, a massive bloom of growing phytoplankton. These, mostly diatom species, started dying off by the end of their third week, sinking to the sea-bed and taking their incorporated carbon with them to the ocean depths.
The experiment location was carefully chosen, sited inside a 60km-wide self-enclosed ocean eddy acting as a gigantic laboratory, and after monitoring nutrient and plankton levels from the surface to the depths for a full month, the team concluded that large quantities of algal bloom had settled on the sea bed almost 4,000m below, which meant that the carbon is likely to be stored away from the atmosphere for hundreds of years.
Warming C
Many other experiments have indicated iron prompting phytoplankton blooms, but this is the first showing the storage of the carbon, and the team believe that oceanic iron fertilisation could bury at least 10% of the annual CO2 emissions which accumulate in the atmosphere. This action could possibly prevent the earth reaching that predicted tipping point, leading to runaway global warming.
Whist it is undoubtedly true that this ocean iron fertilisation is much cheaper than other possible geo-engineering methods, it is clear that more experiments will be needed, over longer periods in order to establish exactly what proportion of the algal bloom reaches the sea bed, and therefore just how effective the technique will be at CO2 reduction. It may be a step in the right direction, but is certainly not the whole solution. Watch this space.
Comments
20th Jul 2012 (#)
Yes, dear Tony this thing seems to be the cheaper and practical method of reducing the global warming! as concluded by you, this may not be the permanent solution but then it can be a nice beginning! Thanks a lot!
Reply to this comment