Comments on: Rule Three of Offsets: No Geo-engineering http://climateprogress.org/2007/07/26/rule-three-of-offsets-no-geoengineering/ The Latest on Climate Science, Solutions, and Politics Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:01:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1 By: Alex http://climateprogress.org/2007/07/26/rule-three-of-offsets-no-geoengineering/#comment-4860 Alex Mon, 30 Jul 2007 02:48:27 +0000 http://climateprogress.org/2007/07/26/rule-three-of-offsets-no-geoengineering/#comment-4860 I don't agree with the blanket statement that iron fertilization doesn't work to sequester carbon. There's a reason why the deep ocean contains 85% of the world's carbon reservoir, and that's from the biologic pump stimulated by iron fertilization. Recent science has demonstrated this by measuring sinking particulate carbon at depth using sediment traps. Ken Buesseler's April 2007 paper in Science shows up to a 50% carbon export at depth from the surface. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/316/5824/567?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=buesseler&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=date&resourcetype=HWCIT Does that mean that anyone can go sprinkle iron off the back of a boat and claim carbon credits? Of course not. There are quite rigorous methods by which the Kyoto Framework approves carbon credits, and any serious commercial endeavor ought to engage in the formal process of CDM certification. If iron fertilization can be proved to work effectively and safely, then it should be pursued if international regulations can prevent less than credible speculators from mucking things up. I seriously doubt whether Planktos has the level of scientific rigour necessary to prove they have sequestered anything. The fact of the matter is that with CO2 emissions increasing exponentially faster than anyone expected, we're going to need a CO2 sequestration practice that has been tried and tested by natural processes over the last 2 billion years. I don’t agree with the blanket statement that iron fertilization doesn’t work to sequester carbon. There’s a reason why the deep ocean contains 85% of the world’s carbon reservoir, and that’s from the biologic pump stimulated by iron fertilization. Recent science has demonstrated this by measuring sinking particulate carbon at depth using sediment traps. Ken Buesseler’s April 2007 paper in Science shows up to a 50% carbon export at depth from the surface. http://www.sciencemag.org/ cgi/ content/ abstract/ 316/ 5824/ 567?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=buesseler&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=date&resourcetype=HWCIT

Does that mean that anyone can go sprinkle iron off the back of a boat and claim carbon credits? Of course not. There are quite rigorous methods by which the Kyoto Framework approves carbon credits, and any serious commercial endeavor ought to engage in the formal process of CDM certification.

If iron fertilization can be proved to work effectively and safely, then it should be pursued if international regulations can prevent less than credible speculators from mucking things up. I seriously doubt whether Planktos has the level of scientific rigour necessary to prove they have sequestered anything.

The fact of the matter is that with CO2 emissions increasing exponentially faster than anyone expected, we’re going to need a CO2 sequestration practice that has been tried and tested by natural processes over the last 2 billion years.

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