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Iron fertilization of equatorial oceans would make for very high albedo algae blooms. The ocean absorbs the vast majority of absorbed solar radiation. It has be
by galangalalgol 3y ago
Iron fertilization of equatorial oceans would make for very high albedo algae blooms. The ocean absorbs the vast majority of absorbed solar radiation. It has been pointed out that at low angles it reflects almost all light, but that is when the energy has gone through the most atmosphere and the water or land would absorb much less anyway. Napkin math scaling up previous fertilization experiments indicates about 1.5 billion USD per however long the blooms last, to trigger a snowball earth. We'd stop when it got cold enough.
- junofan 3y agoEasily verified from ice core data. The UN Convention on Biological Diversity banned large-scale iron fertilization experiments in 2008. Cynically, I don’t think anyone’s figured out how to make money on it either.
- pjc50 3y ago> UN Convention on Biological Diversity I really wish people would stop inferring financial motives when other, far more obvious motivations are right there.
- ben_w 3y agoIf the 1.5 billion USD per event estimate is correct, it has to be banned because it's cheap enough that people don't need to make money on it — it's about what Oxfam raises every 18 months.