Oceanic Trenches Provide "Carbon Sinks"

The climate secrets of the deepest part of the ocean, the Marianas Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, have been probed by scientists.

The international team used a submersible, designed to withstand immense pressures, to study the bottom of the 10.9km-deep underwater canyon.

Their early results reveal that ocean trenches are acting as carbon sinks.

This suggests that they play a larger role in regulating the Earth's chemistry and climate than was thought.

While this has been studied in other parts of the ocean, such as the abyssal plain - the large flat area of the ocean that lies between 4.6km and 5.5km of depth - the role deep sea trenches play in the carbon cycle has until now remained largely unknown.

"What it means is that we have carbon storage going on in these trenches that is higher than we thought before, and this really means that we have a carbon dioxide sink in the deep ocean that wasn't recognised before."

The next stage for the team is to quantify their results and work out exactly how much more carbon is stored in deep sea trenches compared with other parts of the sea, and how much carbon turnover by bacteria is being carried out

Source - BBC

Although I have no doubts that dumping billions of tons of pollution into our enviroment is a bad thing, what this report shows (without mentioning it directly) is that we still don't know how the planet actually operates and therefore cannot accurately moderate our impact.

Those who are pushing the agenda about dealing with climate change are doing so without the full picture. This is a new science and while I do think it is important to study, it is too soon to make sweeping changes to our laws as a result.

Personally, I wish the MSM would link together the carbon reforms and tax schemes with these stories. Point out that the steps being taken are in fact knee-jerk reactions (at best) to a problem that no-one truely understands.