National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Photo: Plan to Dump Iron in Ocean as Climate Fix Attracts Debate


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A phytoplankton bloom swirls in the waters off islands in southeast Alaska. Nutrients such as iron encourage the tiny marine plants to grow. Studies show the plankton, like trees, remove carbon dioxide gas from the atmosphere, and so could serve as natural carbon sinks.

But a plan by a U.S. firm to profit by seeding plankton blooms with iron and selling co-called carbon credits is polarizing experts, many of whom worry that the environmental impacts of such a project are still poorly understood.

Photograph by Bill Curtsinger/National Geographic/Getty Images