Twenty one years ago, on this day, April 16th, 2004, Science published a new study…
Effects of Ocean Fertilization with Iron To Remove Carbon Dioxide from the Atmosphere Reported
April 16, 2004
Dumping iron in the ocean is known to spur the growth of plankton that remove carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere, but a new study indicates iron fertilization may not be the quick fix to climate problems that some had hoped.
Scientists have quantified the transport of carbon from surface waters to the deep ocean in response to fertilizing the ocean with iron, an essential nutrient for marine plants, or phytoplankton. Prior work suggested that in some ocean regions, marine phytoplankton grow faster with the addition of iron, thus taking up more carbon dioxide. However, until now, no one has been able to accurately quantify how much of the carbon in these plants is removed to the deep ocean.
New data, reported in the April 16 issue of the journal Science, suggest that there is a direct link between iron fertilization and enhanced carbon flux and hence atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, but that the quantities that can be removed are no greater than natural plankton blooms and are not large enough to serve as a quick fix to our climate problems. https://www.whoi.edu/press-room/news-release/effects-of-ocean-fertilization-with-iron-to-remove-carbon-dioxide-from-the-atmosphere-reported/
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 380ppm. As of 2025 it is 427ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that the international process for “mitigation” was only slowly being repaired (all eyes on Paris, November 2015), so there was ongoing interest in these sorts of technofixes/drawdown schemes
What I think we can learn from this is we will dream up every unicorn technology we can to avoid confronting the trajectory we are on.
What happened next Paris saved the world. Everything is fine..
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
April 16, 1980 – Melbourne Age reports “world ecology endangered”
April 16 2006 – Ian Macfarlane says renewable support schemes are “Mickey Mouse”
April 16, 2008 – Aussie trades unions, greenies, companies tried to get CCS ‘moving.’