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So what can we do about it? Is anyone still seriously working on iron fertilization to encourage phytoplankton growth? [0] The main arguments I've heard agains

So what can we do about it? Is anyone still seriously working on iron fertilization to encourage phytoplankton growth? [0] The main arguments I've heard against it is that we don't know what the effect will be on the ecosystem: > The side effects of large-scale iron fertilization are not yet known. Creating phytoplankton blooms in naturally iron-poor areas of the ocean is like watering the desert: in effect it changes one type of ecosystem into another Well, guess what? We're going to affect the ocean ecosystems negatively if we don't reduce atmospheric CO2, and I don't see that happening any time soon. How about we just go for broke and try it out on the off chance it helps things? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_fertilization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_fertilization

nikdaheratik 10y ago
It's not a great solution for a variety of reasons. First, it costs energy to extract the iron and dump it in areas of the ocean, so we'd have to do this in a way that generates less CO2 than it sucks out from the plankton (in which case, why do we need the plankton?). Second, it will cause large blooms which suck all of the O2 out of the water and fish will die off in those areas. Third, if we don't go ahead and reduce emissions, this will maybe buy time but not solve the actual problem. These sorts of solutions are only a good idea if we finally get moved over to a low carbon economy and still find we can't reduce warming any other way.