Six Degrees Could Change the World

OverviewOverviewVideoVideoPhotosPhotosInteractiveInteractiveSix Degrees: The BookSix Degrees: The BookStopping The Mercury's RiseStopping The Mercury's RiseSimulating Volcanic EruptionsSimulating Volcanic EruptionsLenses In SpaceLenses In SpaceReplanting ForestsReplanting ForestsSeeding The Oceans With IronSeeding The Oceans With IronTurning Pollution Into Baking SodaTurning Pollution Into Baking SodaCreating Artificial WeatherCreating Artificial WeatherDeserts And Islands Into MirrorsDeserts And Islands Into MirrorsSIX_HTML_solutions-4

Seeding the Oceans With Iron

In the 1980s, oceanographer John Martin analyzed nutrient levels in seemingly desolate stretches of the oceans, and concluded that a scarcity of iron was limiting the growth of the microscopic plant life known as phytoplankton. Since phytoplankton, like other plants, consumes carbon dioxide, Martin was struck with an idea that promised not only to revive aquatic ecosystems but curb global warming in the process. He wanted to seed the oceans with large quantities of iron, artificially stimulating phytoplankton blooms that would sequester carbon and, as the tiny plants died, drag it down to the ocean bottom. “Give me a half a tanker of iron, and I will give you another ice age,” he once argued. Since Martin’s death in 1993, others have become enamored of the so-called “Geritol Solution” for global warming. Proponents argue that 15 tankers steaming across the polar oceans all year with a projected cost of about $10 billion, would be enough to absorb most of the 3.5 gigatons a year increase in carbon dioxide emissions expected between now and 2020. Critics argue that artificially inducing large phytoplankton blooms could have disastrous ecological consequences, such as the creation of toxic tides that would endanger fish, marine mammals, and birds.

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