Monday, November 26, 2007

Fertilizing the Sea

Um… OK.

Governments meeting to discuss whether the oceans should be used for experiments aimed at “fixing” carbon from the atmosphere heard that an Australian company is planning to dump 500 tons of industrially-produced urea - a substance that naturally occurs in urine - into the sea between Philippines and Borneo.

The meeting of members of the London Convention, the UN treaty on dumping at sea, heard that Ocean Nourishment Corporation of Sydney was in discussion with the Philippines government to pump nitrogen-rich water into the sea to stimulate algal blooms.

The idea is to pump the urea into barren areas of the ocean on the edge of the continental shelf to stimulate the growth of plant plankton.

Phytoplankton absorb carbon dioxide from sea water. Fish eat them and when they die some fall to the bottom, potentially removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Maybe this is what the MMSD is trying to do in Lake Michigan.

(5) Comments
Posted by Owen at 2309 hrs
Off-Duty + Technology

  1. When are we humans going to learn that 95% of these ideas end up fucking things up worse?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 26, 2007 at 2313 hrs


  2. All righty, then.  [crossing Borneo off of potential cruise destinations…]

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 26, 2007 at 2326 hrs


  3. When will people learn of the real danger? Don’t they realize that the atmosphere is almost 21% oxygen and that oxygen is the one of the most corrosive chemicals known to man?  Wake up people; babies are inhaling oxygen with every breath.  This chemical eats through metal and yet we allow it to be simply dumped into the air.

    Posted by Random10 on November 26, 2007 at 2345 hrs


  4. Random10, you’re forgetting that Carbon Dioxide is worse than Oxygen, it’s Oxygen plus Carbon!

    Oh, the horror!

    Posted by Matt on November 27, 2007 at 0847 hrs


  5. No kidding.  Anything we can do to get rid of that poison known as CO2.  I’d stop exhaling, but then I’d die and wouldn’t be able to judge other people and berate them for destroying the environment with their exhalations.

    Posted by David on November 27, 2007 at 1141 hrs


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