Amazing discovery of green algae which could save the world from global warming!!!

Amazing discovery of green algae which could save the world from global warming!!!

www.dailymail.co.uk

Melting icebergs, so long the iconic image of global warming, are triggering a natural process that could delay or even end climate change, British scientists have found.

A team working on board the Royal Navy’s HMS Endurance off the coast of Antarctica have discovered tiny particles of iron are released into the sea as the ice melts.

The iron feeds algae, which blooms and sucks up damaging carbon dioxide (CO2), then sinks, locking away the harmful greenhouse gas for hundreds of years.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow, now this sounds pretty promising, doesn't it! Well I guess Mother Earth always finds a way of her own to defend herself from us evil doers.



I didn't see this posted anywhere else on the boards so I decided to post it here. If this thread doesn't belong here, please move it to the right forum.

www.dailymail.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Um all green plants take in CO2 and then expel oxygen how could they say this was a find? Without CO2 all plant life as we know it would die.

Edit: I should point out they expel CO2 but only at night.

and that being the case the question is then when it sinks and there is no sunlight does it then expel the CO2 into the water?

[edit on 5-1-2009 by Darthorious]

Very interesting find, anything that can help promote algae growth and usage is great.

Actually 'global warming' ended in 1998 (google global cooling), but don't let that little factoid get in the way of your faux-enviro paradigm! Keep them carbon taxes a-comin!

Cool!
Now I don't feel so bad for driving my H2

So if this algae actually locks CO2 away and sinks to the ocean floor.....

What happens to the sea-life on that floor, does it suffocate in a blanket of goo?

What happens if the sea-life consumes the algae as part of it's diet and poisons itself with the CO2?

Personally, I'm no big fan of this. Early days I suppose...let's see what conclusions arise after the experiment off the fauklands eh.

Yeah suuuuuure.

Take our problem today and drop it down a hole for 200 years. Let them deal with it tomorrow. I mean...It's not like you will be alive to worry about it right?

reply to post by nerbot


For starters, there isn't much life on the sea floor anyway. Most life exists near the surface where there is light. This process is going on anyway, and yes, parts of the sea floor can become poisonous/anoxic, but that is not unusual. Most life that is capable of locomotion simply moves out of the way.

If this is done properly (ie not in shallow water) it could work very well I think, however, I'm still not convinced that any action needs to be taken in this point in time - seeing as we are predicted to cool before we warm!


reply to post by bismarcksea


I think you're missing the point entirely. No one is "dropping anything down a hole". This is what happens anyway, as part of a natural cycle!

And anyway, who is to say that in a few hundred years we might actually want to unlock all that locked up CO2 in the silt *if* the world is cooling at that time?