Planktos, With Plans to Dump Iron in Oceans to Fight Global Warming, Shuts Down in Face of Funding Crunch

I am extremely skeptical of any plans to fight global warming using large scale environmental engineering. You’ve probably read about a few of the wackier ideas like the artificial trees that absorb CO2 (actually a very cool idea), the plan to release massive amounts of sulfur into the air to bounce the suns rays back into space, and constructing giant sun blockers in space to shade the planet.
The company Planktos wanted to dump tons of raw iron into the ocean to boost the growth of plankton which would in theory capture large amounts of CO2. They got as far as putting together a small test study but luckily have been forced to shut down due to their inability to raise more capital.

I thought this idea was a bad one ever since reading it somewhere on the blogosphere a few years ago. I checked out their booth at Chicago Greenfest and have had my fingers crossed that they would fail to launch.

The idea of dumping a ton of iron into the ocean is a terrifically bad one, potentially on rank with bringing rabbits and cane toads to Australia. I think we need to be wary of any large scale environmental engineering projects. Nature is too complex for us to get close to understanding the potential effects of trying to tinker with it on a grand scale. Yeah, we might think dumping iron into the ocean could boost plankton levels with no bad side effects, but what if we found it also boosted the growth of some choking sea weed or fish lice or a nasty bacterial bloom. Or what if it actually sped up the release of CO2 from the oceans?

Treehugger just posted something on the ties between an excess of phytoplankton and nutrients and the formation of oxygen deprived dead zones in the ocean. Here’s a snip:

A team of marine ecologists at Oregon State University has determined that the increased occurrence of dead zones may be directly tied to global warming. As Kenneth Weiss reports in the Los Angeles Times, the researchers believe that stronger winds, brought about by higher land heat, are prolonging the natural process of upwelling, which brings deep nutrient-rich waters to the surface.

Upwelling is a crucial process because it provides the raw nutrients for phytoplankton to grow, creating a rich source of food for filter feeders and small fish and, in turn, larger fish and other organisms higher up the food chain. Off the coast of Oregon, however, it becomes a case of too much of a good thing: Stronger and more persistent winds prolong the process, resulting in a surplus of nutrients and phytoplankton that isn’t consumed - as a result, this large amount of food eventually sinks to the seafloor and rots, leading to the formation of low-oxygen, or anoxic, regions.

If Planktos had been able to get their project going they very could have exacerbated an already growing problem of ocean dead zones.

Planktos blamed the big bad “anti-offset crusaders” for leading the opposition to their work and for killing the chances of finding funding. That’s crap, I’m about as pro-offset as you can get and have been gunning for them to be shut down since I first read about their plans. Certified, high quality carbon offsetting that have verified additionality and a quantifiable impact are an important tool in the fight to save the world. Shady, ill conceived offset schemes like Planktos are the enemy of the good offsets and just muddy the waters in an already confusing industry. Good Riddance.