'Thar She Grows'

I remember reading years ago about how large parts of the oceans are fairly lifeless because of the lack of Iron—needed as a trace element in plant life. The possibility was raised of adding iron to the water so that CO2 would be trapped in biomass. It was a possible answer to fears of global warming.

I never heard any more about it. But apparently it wasn't forgotten, and experiments have been ongoing. There's an interesting article in TechCentralStation.

...The latest results, just published in Nature, respond  to criticisms skeptics raised at the very idea of reducing atmospheric CO2 by raising the iron level of sterile expanses of cold salt water far offshore. It indeed appears that circumpolar waters that lack only iron run-off from the land might be turned into the equivalent of offshore national forests that sequester carbon in seas instead of trees.

Many greens screamed that the very idea was a snare and a distraction, diverting the world from the canonical solution of curbing energy consumption and taxing or rationing fossil fuels. It was one of the rare instances in which National Review, not The Nation, came to the fore as an early advocate of innovative intervention in curbing climate change -- the first experiments in the Pacific were hailed under the rubric 'Thar She Grows'...

Not only may we be able to reduce greenhouse gas, but there could in the future be lots more fish! Yum. And there are whole constellations of people and groups who hope to use "global warming" to hog-tie capitalism and America. The thought of spoiling their fun is delicious...

Posted by John Weidner at May 1, 2004 08:29 PM | TrackBack