Posted on 07/10/2008 5:37:37 PM PDT by markomalley
New Mexico Tech chemistry professor Oliver Wingenter and his colleagues believe modest fertilization of the Southern Ocean with iron might help slow some of the effects of global warming.
The concept of climate engineering – or geo-engineering – has scientists, activists and politicians debating the ethics and merits of environmental manipulation.
Wingenter has conducted ship-board experiments, fertilizing two small patches of the Southern Ocean with iron to study the atmospheric effects.
He said small-scale fertilization may abate the loss of Antarctic ice. The general principle involves seeding the ocean with a liquid slurry of iron sulfide.
German and Indian scientists are causing a furor by carrying out a massive iron-fertilization experiment in the Southern Ocean, which is the globe-circling ring of ocean just north of Antarctica.
They have proposed fertilizing 100 percent of the Southern Ocean, which they say would return the oceanic ecosystem to its natural balance.
They are examining how much carbon dioxide is drawn down from the atmosphere into the ocean.
Wingenter’s proposal is much different. He is firmly in the middle of the debate. Instead of creating an artificial “carbon sink,” his research shows that minimal iron fertilization will create brighter clouds, which will help keep the Antarctic atmosphere colder.
He proposes fertilizing less than 2 percent of the Southern Ocean with iron – but only after thorough computer modeling analyses can be completed and a slow field ramp up is implemented.
“We’re doing it slowly, in stages,” he said. “We’re not foolish here. We need to do the modeling and small-scale studies before the environmental situation becomes desperate.”
Wingenter is currently on sabbatical from his post as professor of chemistry at Tech. He, Tech student Juston Moore and Scott Elliot of Los Alamos National Laboratory are leading the effort to model Wingenter’s hypotheses.
His initial article elicited a written comment from his colleagues at the University of East Anglia in England, who disputed the veracity of Wingenter’s calculations. Their disagreement is about the margin of error. Their reply and Wingenter’s rebuttal will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Atmospheric Environment.
The science behind Wingenter’s proposal is like a domino effect. Phytoplankton consume iron, but the Southern Ocean lacks enough iron for the microorganisms to flourish. The plankton produces dimethyl sulfide, which evaporates and eventually becomes cloud-condensation nuclei. An elevated level of cloud-condensing nuclei in the atmosphere creates brighter-than-usual clouds, which reflect more sunlight back to space.
Wingenter hypothesizes that careful seeding could help suppress atmospheric warming around Antarctica.
That will be of great concern to coastal regions, because current forecasts predict the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could slide into the Southern Ocean within the next century, causing the global sea level to rise six meters.
Wingenter’s research aims to prevent that and buy time for the global scientific community and energy industries to mitigate the carbon-dioxide dilemma and to develop alternatives to fossil fuels.
Tech vice president of research and economic development Van Romero said Wingenter’s research is important for the understanding of complex global systems.
Iron fertilization is a hotly-debated issue among oceanographers. Some scientists propose wide-scale fertilization, while others consider it the worst form of geo-engineering.
Indian scientists say iron fertilization will encourage rapid growth of phytoplankton, microscopic animals that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Their goal is to fertilize the entire Southern Ocean. Experts largely suspect India and China will launch large-scale projects in an effort to buy carbon credits as they prepare to sign the Kyoto Protocol.
On the other hand, Ecuador wants to ban iron-fertilization altogether … presumably because the process might have an adverse effect on its fishing industry.
The United Nations is discussing iron fertilization and is considering a ban.
By fertilizing a small portion of the Southern Ocean, the increased level of iron will only be noticeable for one season, Wingenter said.
He said fertilizing 2 percent of a large test area, perhaps 10 percent of the Southern Ocean, would cost as little as $1 million to $2 million.
He summarized his research in a 2007 article published in Atmospheric Environment. In that article, Wingenter explained his preliminary proposal. Citing other oceanic and atmospheric studies, he estimates that fertilizing 2 percent of the entire Southern Ocean would result in a 2 degrees Celsius decrease in average temperature over the Southern Ocean.
“My proposal must only be viewed as a stop-gap measure,” Wingenter said. “The real cure for global warming will come only when we curtail emissions of greenhouse gases.”
Law of unitended consequences...
The article states:
The science behind Wingenter’s proposal is like a domino effect. Phytoplankton consume iron, but the Southern Ocean lacks enough iron for the microorganisms to flourish. The plankton produces dimethyl sulfide, which evaporates and eventually becomes cloud-condensation nuclei. An elevated level of cloud-condensing nuclei in the atmosphere creates brighter-than-usual clouds, which reflect more sunlight back to space.
Problem is - to much cloud-condensing nuclei can inhibit the droplet growth necessary for the processes that eventually grow droplets to a size large enough to fall out - rain.
I would hope they have already evaluated this potential affect.
Another Bozo heard from.
This would be the same computer models that are telling us the earth is warming?
WTF. Are we so worried about reducing CO2 we dont care about the ECO system of the Oceans around the world. It could take decades to determine this effect on the enviroment.
This is in league with throwing virgins into the volcano.
You're thinking of "fertilizer" in very narrow terms. Sure, fertilizer on crops usually contains lots of nitrogen, because it is often not present in the soil in a form that the plants can use at high enough concentrations to allow unhindered growth.
As the article says, iron sulfide is the fertilizer in this case, since that is what limits the growth in that part of the ocean.
Nothing new in this, except maybe the humor of seeing people who yell, "The Earth is too big for humans to ruin" suddenly become hysterical at some ocean fertilization. Of course, ocean dumping of particulate iron (oxides, sulfides, etc.) had been curtailed a great deal from previous levels...over the objection of the same people who now complain about this. (Of course, this is targeted application.)
The hypocrisy has gotten so bad on both sides now, right and left! I get to witness it every day...and I just have to laugh.
Get your myopia off my ocean!
Everything Libs do ends up in the Unintended Consequences File.
Go home and stay away.
Unfortunately, we'll probably get both.
It’s not nice to (try to) fool Mother Nature.
She always has the last word!
sounds like this guy is just pissing in the ocean... oh wait, he is...
t
Absolutely mans best intention can screw up the enviroment.
But there are some things that directly effect global change that we have absolutely no control over. Solar temperature for instance.
Global cooling, Global warming, and now Global change is an Earth old problem just look at tree growth rings. And it will continue to exist long after mankind is gone.
Yes everyone has a responsibility for stewardship of the enviroment but lets not frack everything up trying to fix something thats to big for mankind to solve.
IMO runaway global population is the biggest problem.
First they kill off all the fish, then they go to work on exterminating every living thing on land.
Morons.
I think time will show that the oceans are cooling all by themselves.
These men are fleas crawling up an elephant's hind leg with rape on their minds--same mentality; same arrogance; same intransigence; same (non)reality.
vaudine
[massive iron-fertilization experiment]
So their solution is turn our oceans into salty rusty water?
It’s a waste of man hours and resources. No hypocrisy here. I just think it is stupid. I am sick and tired of hard-working people having to watch their tax dollars pi$$ed away for this idiocy. IN like manner, I don’t to pay a mechanic to try to repair my engine when my engine is performing as engines do.
I urge mental competency tests for people like Winteger or whatever his name is. Fertilize the oceans, yes indeed. (smirk)Isn’t there some guy who wants to do something with the atmosphere? Maybe in a short while one of these nuts will want to bombard the sun with gamma rays or something.
Seriously, what could possibly go wrong with this brilliant idea? </sarcasm>
Gee, I bet this’ll be just as successful as that brilliant idea they had to use old tires as artificial reefs....
BTW, some of the iron-fertilizing projects have encountered problems, but this one seems to have been succeeding.
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