More on the Carbon Off-set Con Game

Scientists wary sprinkling iron into sea blunts carbon buildup

Margaret Munro
CanWest News Service
Thursday, January 10, 2008

It sounds so easy. Sprinkle iron dust on the ocean, plankton will bloom and suck massive amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere and into the deep sea.

Geoengineering plans to fertilize the oceans with iron - including a proposal backed by Vancouver financier and former sports mogul Nelson Skalbania - are being sold as one of "the powerful, profitable and planet-friendly" tools in the battle against global warming.

Many scientists have serious doubts, saying there is little proof iron fertilization locks carbon into the deep ocean.

And in the latest salvo in the long-running controversy, leading oceanographers say it is "premature" for ocean fertilization companies to sell carbon offsets to investors or consumers looking to reduce their carbon footprint. (To Continue: Scientist Wary... )

My Comment: There is no proof that sprinkling iron dust in the ocean does any thing to reduce carbon in the atmosphere. This article states that recently in the journal Science, 16 oceanographers from the U.S., Europe, New Zealand and Japan, say there is, as yet, "no scientific basis" for issuing carbon credits for ocean iron fertilization. Despite any evidence that this process has any effect, several companies are doing it and using this process as the basis for the carbon off-sets that they sell. Not only that, this process my have “unintended biogeochemical and ecological impacts” say the scientist.

The next time some self-righteous celebrity excusses his private jet by claiming he purchases carbon off-sets keep this in mind.

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