Marufish BLoG

Can smoke and mirrors ease global warming? By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent, Oct 27, 2008 OSLO (Reuters) - Backers of extreme technologies to curb global warming advocate dumping iron dust into the seas or placing smoke and mirrors in the sky to dim the sun. Splinters of ice peel off from one of the sides of the Perito Moreno glacier in a process of a unexpected rupture during the southern hemisphere's winter months, near the city of El Calafate in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, southern Argentina, in this July 7, 2008 file photo. But, even though they are seen by some as cheap fixes for climate change when many nations are worried about economic recession, such "geo-engineering" proposals have to overcome wide criticism that they are fanciful and could have unforeseen side effects. "We are at the boundaries, treading in areas that we are not normally dealing with," said Rene Coenen, head of the Office for the London Convention, an internation...

Chemicals being dumped in Sulu Sea? GMA News, 10/09/2008 04:27 AM ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines — Residents of Tawi-Tawi province have sought assistance over alleged dumping of tons of chemicals in the Sulu Sea as part of an "ocean cleansing" project of an international organization.Governor Sadikul A. Sahali claimed Ocean Nourishment Corp. (ONC) did not inform his office of the plan to dump tons of chemicals, specifically urea, into the province’s seas.The company, in its Web site http://www.oceannourishment.com/, described itself as "an ethical organization established with the dual goals of managing planet-wide greenhouse gas concentrations and providing protein-rich food for malnourished populations."Officials of the company listed on the Web site could not be contacted for comment. BusinessWorld also repeatedly tried to contact Malcolm I. Sarmiento, Jr., director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, to clarify if his agency has cleared ONC’s operati...

Chemicals being dumped in Sulu Sea? The Nations, Thursday, October 9, 2008 ZAMBOANGA CITY — Residents of Tawi-Tawi province have sought assistance over alleged dumping of tons of chemicals in the Sulu Sea as part of an "ocean cleansing" project of an international organization. Governor Sadikul A. Sahali claimed Ocean Nourishment Corp. (ONC) did not inform his office of the plan to dump tons of chemicals, specifically urea, into the province’s seas. The company, in its Web site http://www.oceannourishment.com/ , described itself as "an ethical organization established with the dual goals of managing planet-wide greenhouse gas concentrations and providing protein-rich food for malnourished populations." Officials of the company listed on the Web site could not be contacted for comment. BusinessWorld also repeatedly tried to contact Malcolm I. Sarmiento, Jr., director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, to clarify if his agency has cleared ONC’s operatio...

Is ocean fertilization really a viable way to slow down global warming? Asks Julie from Bloomington, Indiana By Monica Heger , posted August 11th, 2008. Ocean fertilization, the process of seeding the ocean with iron to instigate rapid algae growth, called an algae bloom, has been studied as one way to fight global warming. The idea is that through photosynthesis, the process by which plants use sunlight and carbon dioxide to generate their own food, the algae will remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, storing it harmlessly in the ocean. But despite this seemingly simple solution , recent research has demonstrated that ocean fertilization may do more harm than good. “If someone can get it to work correctly, [ocean fertilization] could be very useful,” says Michael Lutz, of the Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami, Florida. “It’s just the odds of that happening are pretty freaking low.” The main problem is that in order to effectively st...

'Ocean fertilisation' or extreme pollution? JULIO GODOY BONN, GERMANY - May 30 2008 16:05 Mail & Guardian Online When some multinational companies dump chemicals into the sea, they call it "ocean fertilisation". This practice is near the top of the agenda at the United Nations conference on biological diversity in Bonn that ends on Friday. "Ocean fertilisation simply means dumping into the ocean particles of iron, nitrogen or urea allegedly to transform the ecological balance of particular marine habitats, to encourage additional phytoplankton growth, and increase absorption of carbon dioxide," says Saskia Richartz, ocean expert at Greenpeace. Practically all developing countries want the UN conference to approve a global moratorium on ocean fertilisation until scientific evidence can prove that the practice does not bring new pollution risks. But some industrialised countries, led by Australia, want to avoid a strong ban. Phytoplankton collectively acc...