Having just written a post on Carbon trading, a tiny news item piqued my interest.
The idea behind the experiment is very simple. Iron is one the vital ingredients for the phytoplankton growth. But iron is a mineral of short supply in the oceans. So, a company named Planktos are dissolving about 100 million tons of powdered iron in the ocean, and hope the plankton growth surges. The plankton uses the carbon-dioxide during its lifetime, and it is hoped when the plankton dies the carbon sinks to the bottom and is buried there forever. About 20% of the plankton 'fed' are expected to be 'buried' in the seabed.
The entrepreneurs hope to prove the experiment of iron-fertilization and then sell the carbon-offset to industries that are eager to buy carbon-credits.
The rallying pitch of the experimenters is the cost of carbon offset in very low compared to growing trees and other cleaning technologies.
This is precisely the point we had mentioned in the yesterday's post. Commercialization of the conservation efforts will blind to absurdity. Trees may be a little expensive option, but who said trees were the only meant to suck up carbon. Don't they have any other uses? Don't they help in habitat, ecology, rains, soil erosion, floods, saving other species, food chain and timber also. Or for the sheer beauty of it. Or the friendship at the least.
The biggest problem in the natural systems like afforestation or this experiment is the carbon absorption is not quantifiable. So you are chasing hypotheses. The utility can never be proven because it is part of a large dynamic system. So, it would not be surprising the experiment come out with flying colors and companies pumping money in to these schemes since this works out cheap - at the cost of environment. We are not even considering the collateral impact on the environment and natural cycles.
This "monetization of environment" as it is getting popularly termed is a great hoax. Lot of people will make lot of money by destroying their own home.
This fertilization experiment is totally absurd. Period. Carbon-credit is absurd. Period. Possibly, the carbon-credit advocates are alien prodigies bent on destroying the earth. They will possibly buy an intergalactic ticket with the money they make and rest will be left back hoping they had done something sensible.
Two Must-Read items:
Real Climate : Thin soup thin story
Financial Times: Industry caught in Carbon smokescreen
:) Falkor
Resource: A brief intro by FT on Carbon offset
The idea behind the experiment is very simple. Iron is one the vital ingredients for the phytoplankton growth. But iron is a mineral of short supply in the oceans. So, a company named Planktos are dissolving about 100 million tons of powdered iron in the ocean, and hope the plankton growth surges. The plankton uses the carbon-dioxide during its lifetime, and it is hoped when the plankton dies the carbon sinks to the bottom and is buried there forever. About 20% of the plankton 'fed' are expected to be 'buried' in the seabed.
The entrepreneurs hope to prove the experiment of iron-fertilization and then sell the carbon-offset to industries that are eager to buy carbon-credits.
The rallying pitch of the experimenters is the cost of carbon offset in very low compared to growing trees and other cleaning technologies.
This is precisely the point we had mentioned in the yesterday's post. Commercialization of the conservation efforts will blind to absurdity. Trees may be a little expensive option, but who said trees were the only meant to suck up carbon. Don't they have any other uses? Don't they help in habitat, ecology, rains, soil erosion, floods, saving other species, food chain and timber also. Or for the sheer beauty of it. Or the friendship at the least.
The biggest problem in the natural systems like afforestation or this experiment is the carbon absorption is not quantifiable. So you are chasing hypotheses. The utility can never be proven because it is part of a large dynamic system. So, it would not be surprising the experiment come out with flying colors and companies pumping money in to these schemes since this works out cheap - at the cost of environment. We are not even considering the collateral impact on the environment and natural cycles.
This "monetization of environment" as it is getting popularly termed is a great hoax. Lot of people will make lot of money by destroying their own home.
This fertilization experiment is totally absurd. Period. Carbon-credit is absurd. Period. Possibly, the carbon-credit advocates are alien prodigies bent on destroying the earth. They will possibly buy an intergalactic ticket with the money they make and rest will be left back hoping they had done something sensible.
Two Must-Read items:
Real Climate : Thin soup thin story
Financial Times: Industry caught in Carbon smokescreen
:) Falkor
Resource: A brief intro by FT on Carbon offset
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