Geoengineering

As we all know, climate change is happening because greenhouse gas emissions, primarily carbon dioxide, are trapping heat inside our atmosphere. The result is the general warming of our planet. Contrary to popular belief, this does not mean all regional climates around the world will become warmer. Instead, climate change will affect weather patterns, i.e. precipitation shift, temperature variation, and changing wind patterns, etc.

I bring this up because there are many theories on how to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Obviously the best place to start is to emit less carbon in the first place (think cap and trade or carbon taxes). However, many believe the situation is so dire that we need to begin removing carbon from the atmosphere in a process known as sequestration.

This week, a group of German and Indian scientists embarked on a mission to implement a sequestration strategy known as iron fertilization. The process consists of spreading iron into iron-deprived ocean waters that will, in turn, spur the growth of plankton that "eat" carbon. When the plankton die, the theory goes, they will sink to the ocean floor, forever trapping the carbon it "ate." At this point, however, scientists don't know how effective this strategy really is, hence the experiment.

The catch is that over 200 countries agreed to a moratorium on this activity. No one knows what the effect will be, intended or otherwise. As our world moves closer to environmental disaster, it will be interesting to see what types of things nations or NGO's start to do.