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Source: The Toronto Star. Editorial. June 21 2007

Dangerous plankton plan

US based company ignores EPA concerns

Seeding the oceans with iron-rich dust to promote blooms of CO2-eating plankton has great potential environmental benefits, but the I-dare-you-to-stop-us stance of Planktos Inc., which plans to stimulate a bloom near the precious Galapagos Islands off South America must be stopped until more is known about the potential benefits and dangers.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warned Planktos that it has serious concerns over the company's plan to spread 45 tonnes of iron in an effort to trigger a massive bloom over 10,000 square kilometres. Planktos, which has offices in San Francisco and Vancouver, says it will simply use a foreign-registered vessel, removing any EPA jurisdiction.

Environment Canada to this point has said nothing publicly about the Planktos plan.

In large numbers, plankton functions as a floating forest, breathing in carbon dioxide and returning oxygen. The organisms float around for months, but ultimately die and sink to the bottom, forming chalk deposits.

According to Planktos, marine photosynthesis consumed about 50 gigatons of carbon dioxide per year in 1980. For a variety of reasons, that capacity has dropped off by nearly 25 per cent in the Pacific Ocean in the past 25 years, causing a reduction of about three gigatons in CO2 consumption each year.

Planktos said it simply wants to restore and then maintain plankton growths in areas that have seen the greatest reductions, especially the west coast of South America.

Of course, Planktos isn't doing this out of the kindness of its heart. It plans to sell the carbon-eating capacity as CO2 credits, just as tree planters get reforestation credits.

Critics say the increased plankton will raise the acidity of the ocean, potentially harming coral reefs. That, in turn, could further deplete dwindling fish stocks along coasts where people depend on fish to survive.

These concerns are not insurmountable, but Planktos can't be allowed to ignore the concerns of the EPA. If there's any chance the cure could end up being worse than the ailment, the go-slow warnings must be heeded.

Source: The Toronto Star

Related: Iron Versus The Greenhouse

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