Hubris of technology

The first comprehensive survey of plans to remove CO2 from the atmosphere by seeding the oceans with iron or other nutrients shows that even widespread fertilization would remove only modest amounts of CO2 from the air over the next century.

The summary of existing studies said ocean fertilization also carries a risk of causing unintended long-term harm to marine ecosystems. For instance, not all algae blooms are good, some are toxic and studies have shown some of these to contain dangerous neurotoxins.

Ocean fertilization involves dumping iron and other nutrients into the ocean to trigger the growth of phytoplankton, which consumes CO2 as it grows. But the summary, released at a conference on climate geoengineering schemes in California, said the risks of ocean fertilization probably far outweigh the rewards, as it is extremely difficult to assess the impact of the technique over wide swaths of ocean.

Any new technology must be weighed thoroughly before being adapted. Instead of blindly unleashing new technologies, it may be a good idea to check the damage we do instead of falling back on the promise of new saviour technologies!