Fertilizing the Seas for Climate Mitigation—Promising Strategy or Sheer Folly?Author(s): Noreen ParksSource: BioScience, Vol. 58, No. 2 (February 2008), p. 102Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological SciencesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1641/B580204 .

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As the effects of global warmingappear more ominous, and the

world community makes minimalprogress in curbing fossil-fuel emis-sions, geoengineering schemes for cli-mate mitigation are taking on newallure. One proposal, “fertilizing” oceanwaters with micronutrients such as ironor nitrogen to stimulate the growth ofcarbon dioxide–guzzling plankton, isspurring commercial projects targetedon the global carbon-credits market.Fearing that ill-conceived commercial-ization could drive development of thisstrategy before its impacts and feasibil-ity are adequately evaluated, scientists,policymakers, and environmentalgroups are calling for clear policy guide-lines to regulate ocean fertilization.

The dozen experimental releases ofiron in relatively small areas of openocean between 1993 and 2005 pro-duced mixed results—measuring the effects of iron seeding in moving waterproved especially difficult. KennethCoale, director of Moss Landing Ma-rine Laboratories and chief scientist onall US-led iron expeditions, explainedthat these efforts were designed to ad-dress questions about past climate.“None assessed the ecological conse-quences of much larger-scale or fre-quent fertilization efforts for climatemitigation,” he said.

Nevertheless, the idea excites someentrepreneurs who are eager to exploitprospects for selling carbon credits tothe burgeoning numbers of people andcorporations seeking to offset their car-bon footprints. Last spring, California-based Planktos, Inc., announced plansfor several iron-seeding ventures, be-ginning with the dumping of 100 met-ric tons over a 10,000-kilometer stretchof international waters west of theGalápagos Islands. When the Environ-mental Protection Agency (EPA) in-formed Planktos that the project mightrequire a permit under the US Ocean

Dumping Act (which governs activitiesof US-registered ships, even outsidefederal waters), company officials re-sponded that they would use a foreign-flagged vessel, effectively flouting EPA’sauthority.

In October the Australian-basedOcean Nourishment Corporation, withthe intention of triggering planktonblooms in the Sulu Sea near the Philip-pines, started trial releases of nitrogen- containing urea without permissionfrom the Philippine government. Thegovernment is investigating the incident.

A symposium at Woods Hole Ocean -ographic Institution (WHOI) in Sep-tember 2007 considered the scientific,economic, and legal questions raised byocean fertilization. Researchers pon-dered whether broadscale efforts mightcause harmful algal blooms, generateexcess greenhouse gases, turn marinemidwaters eutrophic, negatively affectfisheries, or lead to other adverse, un -anticipated consequences. John Cullen,an oceanographer at Dalhousie Univer-sity, warned that the combined impactsnot only might wreak havoc but alsocould be impossible to trace to a singleliable party.

Margaret Leinen, chief scientist forthe start-up company Climos, believesprivate enterprise could help answercritical questions by responsibly carry-ing out more research, while profitingfrom the sale of carbon credits. Climoshas adopted a voluntary code of con-duct for ocean-fertilization activitiesand a methodology that, according tocompany officials, is “based on prece-dent established by the Kyoto Protocol’sClean Development Mechanism.”

In November, members of the inter-national Convention on the Preventionof Marine Pollution by Dumping ofWaste and Other Matter—an agree-ment now ratified by 82 countries—unanimously endorsed a statementprepared by its scientific advisers,

cautioning that large-scale ocean fertil-ization is not yet justified, because ofgaps in scientific knowledge. Signatorynations should “use the utmost cautionwhen considering [such] proposals,” thestatement read. Convention representa-tives agreed to discuss the issues furtherand decide on regulations at a meetingin 2008.

Lacking enforcement authority, theconvention relies on member countriesto enforce its provisions. In the UnitedStates, that responsibility rests with theEPA. Elizabeth Kim, head of theagency’s Ocean Dumping ManagementProgram, told WHOI conferees that thegovernment supports research intotechnologies such as ocean fertilization“if the risks are evaluated and found tobe acceptable.” There have been no ap-plications for permits for ocean seed-ing, the EPA reported, but Leinen saidagency officials told her the process willbe similar to that for other permittedactivities.

Nonetheless, the enforcement ques-tion remains open. “If a US ship re-flagsand conducts activities on the high seas,there’s not a lot the government cando,” said Lisa Speer, a policy analystwith the Natural Resources DefenseCouncil. “The worst possible thing wecould do in the name of climate mitiga-tion would be to invest in somethingthat doesn’t work and has big, unantici-pated impacts on the global commons,”she cautioned at the WHOI sympo-sium. “The world community needs toknow there’s been an open, transparent,scientifically informed evaluation ofthis idea before we move ahead with experiments on a mass scale, and commercialization.”

Noreen Parks (e-mail: nmparks@q.com) is a

freelance science and environmental writer who

lives on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.

doi:10.1641/B580204Include this information when citing this material.

Fertilizing the Seas for Climate Mitigation—Promising Strategy or Sheer Folly?NOREEN PARKS

Washington Watch

102 BioScience • February 2008 / Vol. 58 No. 2 www.biosciencemag.org

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