Oceans are Contributing to Global Warming

The oceans are not converting CO2 into O2 like they used to, thereby allowing CO2 to build up in our atmosphere, helping to add to the current global warming trend we've been seeing and reading about.

Oceans are Absorbing Less CO2

Scientists have said that the amount of Carbon Dioxide(CO2) being absorbed by the world’s oceans has decreased.

Researchers of University of East Anglia measured CO2 absorption through more than 90,000 measurements from merchant ships outfitted with automatic instruments. CO2 uptake halved between between the mid-90s and 2000 to 2005 according to result of their 10-year study.

Scientists also believe if oceans absorb less CO2(Greenhouse gas) then Global Warming might get worse!

India to Test South Atlantic Carbon Sink in 2009

With continued global warming, related effects have been noted in the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon. Reports have flooded in over the past several years explaining just what has gone wrong. The journal Science recently published data showing that the Southern Ocean’s ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere had been reduced by 15% every decade since 1981.

Another report suggests that, since the 1980s, the ocean’s ability to metabolize carbon dioxide – which sat at 50 gigatons a year – has dropped 3 gigatons, due to the loss of phytoplankton. This corresponds to approximately half of all industrial and automotive emissions each year.

One way mankind can help the oceans absorb or convert CO2 into oxygen is by "fertilizing" parts of the oceans with a non-toxic iron sulfate which will promote the growth of phytoplankton.

India to Test South Atlantic Carbon Sink in 2009

India is planning to ‘fertilize’ – or seed – an area of the South Atlantic, off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, with 20 tonnes of non-toxic iron sulphate. At first, one worries about pollution, but you have to read on to see the brilliance of this. First of all, the ‘seed’ material is non-toxic, and therefore will not harm the ocean in any way. Secondly, the ‘seeding’ is intended – and proven – to raise the levels of phytoplankton – a tiny floating surface algae – that is responsible for 50% of the Earth’s photosynthesis, and thus, removal of 50% of the worlds carbon.

California based Planktos Inc., among others, have already tried this method, and found that it is indeed a viable method to help the environment. In fact, back in the early 1990’s, a region of the Pacific Ocean was ‘seeded’ with iron dust and saw a 20-fold increase in the local phytoplankton population, with a corresponding decline in atmospheric carbon dioxide by roughly 2,500 tons within a period of 2 weeks.

Since that time, the level of phytoplankton globally has dropped by 25%, and a renewal of said algae is hoped to restore a certain balance.

India Looks to the Sea to Cool Planet

The iron particles will trigger the bloom of phytoplankton or algae and microorganisms that can soak up carbon dioxide. Smetacek said results showed we “cannot afford” to ignore oceanic fertilisation as a mitigation measure.

Iron Sulphate - Wikipedia

In the finishing of steel prior to plating or coating, the steel sheet or rod is passed through pickling baths of sulfuric acid. This treatment produces large quantities of iron(II) sulfate as a waste product. Iron(II) sulfate is prepared commercially by oxidation of pyrite, or by treating iron with sulfuric acid.

This seems like the perfect way to help our oceans convert CO2 into O2, thereby helping to reduce global warming.

[edit on 21/10/07 by Keyhole]

Found some more information about "fertilizing" the ocean.

Debating Use of Iron As Curb Of Climate

The test was conducted southwest of the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean, which is a fairly barren area biologically. Over a region of 28 square miles, a team of scientists slowly poured into the sea 990 pounds of iron, which is thought to be a limiting nutrient in such unproductive regions.

Almost immediately, the waters bloomed with the tiny plants known as phytoplankton, and did so over more than 200 square miles, turning the sea from blue to green.

No scientist has criticized the experiment publicly, but experts are at war over whether the test simply sheds new light on marine ecology or points to an important way to battle the effects of global warming.

Dr. Adam Heller, a chemical engineer at the University of Texas at Austin who has promoted the fertilization idea in Washington, hailed the explosive rise in ocean productivity as "very significant, terribly significant." Dr. Heller said in an interview: "We now have some way to cope with global warming should it become a problem. I wish we had more ways."

But detractors of such global engineering say its prospect offers a false hope that threatens to encourage polluters and undercut international accords meant to curb emissions of carbon dioxide, which is released into the atmosphere by the burning of gas, oil, coal and wood and is considered a main culprit in global warming.

This statement above is the most ridiculous staement I have ever heard. Let's not try to prevent global warming, and all the hardships it will bring, by helping the ocean raise its phytoplankton levels because it will encourage people to keep polluting!

My god, how ridiculous is THAT statement!!!!!

"As a scientific experiment, these results are fascinating," said Dr. Michael Oppenheimer, chief scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, a private group in New York. "But as a potential solution to global warming, they have limited if any value, as far as our current understanding goes." Fierce side debates are also developing over the cost of a program — iron is cheap but megatons would be needed — as well as its possible benefit of stepping up the sea's productivity and enhancing fish harvests.

Both opponents and friends of sea fertilization tend to agree that at best, its widespread use would probably cut atmospheric carbon dioxide by 6 percent to 21 percent, not enough to end the problem but potentially sufficient to dent it.

This is what the article says about a second test that was done.

The experiment was redone in May and June 1995 by 37 scientists from the United States, England and Mexico, only this time the iron was dispersed in three infusions over a week to insure a more sustained release into the sea's surface. The test was financed by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research.

The fertilized patch lay some 800 miles west of the Galapagos and had an area of 28 square miles. As detailed in four reports in the Oct. 10 issue of the journal Nature, the effect was immediate and striking.

The sea exploded in a frenzy of phytoplankton growth and reproduction involving trillions of organisms, with the effect reaching its maximum extent some nine days after the start of the experiment and extending over an oceanic area that had expanded to some 200 square miles. The explosion was monitored mainly by measuring levels of chlorophyll, the green pigment of plants involved in the process of photosynthesis.

Over all, the iron produced more than 2,000 times its own weight in plant growth, an impossible feat for any fertilizer on land.

"Within one week, about two million pounds of phytoplankton had grown," said Dr. Kenneth H. Coale of Moss Landing, one the authors.

At the same time, levels of carbon dioxide in the sea water plunged more than 15 percent as the expanding jungle of tiny plants soaked up the gas. Since the atmosphere and the sea constantly trade the gas through mixing and diffusion, the explosive growth had a large effect on that exchange as well.

It seems to me like this certainly could help decrease the CO2 levels until alternate fuels are in place.

Cycles. Global warming, cooling , warming, cooling, warming.....


Been going on for millions of years.

Nothing new here!!!!!!

Please read this thread.

Debating Global Warming/ Derailing Threads

This topic of this thread is how the oceans are not converting CO2 into O2 like they used to, which causes a rise in CO2 levels, and warming of the planet due to this, and how we may be able to help the oceans convert CO2 into O2, and minimizing the warming affect this may have on our planet.

[edit on 21/10/07 by Keyhole]