Fertilizing Oceans Seen Fruitless in Climate Fight

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
OSLO | Mon Jan 31, 2011 12:39pm EST

OSLO (Reuters) – Fertilizing the oceans to boost the growth of tiny plants that soak up greenhouse gases is unlikely to work as a way to slow climate change, a U.N.-backed study showed on Monday.

Such “geo-engineering” schemes would be hard to monitor and were likely to store away only small amounts of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, according to a report by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.

“Geo-engineering schemes involving ocean fertilization to affect climate have a low chance of success,” according to the 20-page study by the Commission, part of the U.N. Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The review, by scientists in seven countries, said 13 experiments in recent years showed faded optimism that iron dust or other nutrients could spur growth of microscopic marine plants and permanently suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Read the rest…

Note: Newswire stories are provided as a courtesy of OceanDoctor.org. Content of these articles is provided by external sources.