Mmm, growing the algae without harvesting them _could_ be sufficient (pending calculations), but only for a one off operation: present excess CO2 sequestered into the living algae biomass increase, period. Could win the prize though.
What surprises me most with this scheme is that one should need to bring fertilizers into the oceans, which already contain all the minerals you can dream of in amply sufficient concentrations. The increased growth action of the dust, if confirmed, might not be one of fertilization, maybe it increases photosynthesis by reflecting/diffusing the sunlight rather. Anyway, back to the harvesting hypothesis, whether or not we can stimulate growth one way or another. I have an idea for that, it's a bit... well here it is anyway. Highly efficient phytoplankton harvesters + phytoplankton -to-oil converters already exist actually, they are called whales :))) I guess you see what I am coming to: instead of harvesting the algae ourselves we would heavily repopulate the oceans with herds of whales (porn movies -or audio clips rather- featuring actors of the right species like they successfully use to repopulate pandas in China??), the whales would harvest the algae and process them into whale oil, and then we would harvest the whales and sequester the oil, plus use some of it as fuel. Sounds awful and cruel I realize (reminds me of that whale briefly brought into existence together with the petunia pot in The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, was that in the film Fred?), but... if our own survival is at stake, well... your thoughts welcome :) Michel ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jones Beene" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <vortex-l@eskimo.com> Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 9:43 PM Subject: Re: [Vo]: Russ George challenges Branson on ABC > Well, that sound-byte is a bit disingenuous, as Russ has "borrowed" the > (unpatented) idea and experimental results of the late John Martin, who > was less optimistic about the outcome ... JM was former director of: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moss_Landing_Marine_Laboratories > > ... and one assumes (hopes) that George would give credit to Martin at > some point in the process ... whether Martin's estate would win or share > in the prize is unclear. I think some of the personnel from Martin's > Moss Landing team are the same in any event. > > Martin's issued a caution regarding Global Warming consequences. Before > getting too enamored with the implications of those successful iron > fertilization experiments - which have been in the public record for 16 > years - one must face several caveats. > http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/oceangard/overview.php#n27 > > Though iron fertilization may be one of several effective method of > lessening the impact of global warming by increasing algae growth, and > CO2 uptake, the scientific evidence is incomplete and suggests there may > be unintended consequences, especially at the scale necessary for global > change. Of course if the Algae were harvested as an oil substitute - > then that would probably help immensely, but just growing it without > harvesting as R George is proposing - is not sufficient. > > Methane BTW is a far more worrisome threat than CO2, being twenty times > more potent as a greenhouse gas and the Arctic (vast areas of Siberia > Canada, Alaska) is now releasing much more of it than anyone ever > thought possible - so perhaps that gas should be addressed first - big > prize or not. > > > > Jed Rothwell wrote: >> Russ sez he can sequester carbon. Here is a direct link to the vid, from >> Tom Valone: >> >> www.planktos.com/media/rg_kgo_small.wmv >> >> - Jed >> >> >
