Natural experiments prove phytoplankton carbon removal works
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Natural experiments prove phytoplankton carbon removal works
1–10 of 31 posts
Re: Natural experiments prove phytoplankton carbon removal works
#2This article shows that we can reliably cause phytoplankton blooms, but doesn't link it with actual "carbon removal". I suppose CO2 is temporarily removed in the form of the bloom, but I believe historically these blooms have a low efficiency for "permanent capture" because the plankton decay or are consumed. The only way to effectively capture would be to somehow create the bloom, then sink the phytoplankton en masse deep within the ocean where the would be neither eaten or decayed. Maybe possible with the right setup, but hard to scale.
Re: Natural experiments prove phytoplankton carbon removal works
#3This article shows that we can reliably cause phytoplankton blooms, but doesn't link it with actual "carbon removal". I suppose CO2 is temporarily removed in the form of the bloom, but I believe historically these blooms have a low efficiency for "permanent capture" because the plankton decay or are consumed. The only way to effectively capture would be to somehow create the bloom, then sink the phytoplankton en mass…
I've heard of capture technologies that literally pump organic matter down far enough that it sinks to the seabed (high enough pressure collapses air bubbles and results negative buoyancy). The problem is that your pumps need to operate using less carbon than you capture (easy with solar?) and that they need to be durable enough to pump billions of gallons of seawater with low maintenance (much harder, salt is terrible for machines).
Re: Natural experiments prove phytoplankton carbon removal works
#4> [People think we] couldn’t possibly know what the consequences would be.
> It’s not true, though. We have quite a precise understanding of what happens
Ah, man, the hubris to see a long history of human interventions with unexpected knock on consequences, and think, “but this time we know.” It’s comical, even. We’re talking about an intervention large enough to reverse decades of climate change, of course there will be unintended consequences.
In the end, however, we will likely have to do something, and this might be the solution with the best-mapped consequences (and thus fewest unforeseen consequences).
Re: Natural experiments prove phytoplankton carbon removal works
#5This article shows that we can reliably cause phytoplankton blooms, but doesn't link it with actual "carbon removal". I suppose CO2 is temporarily removed in the form of the bloom, but I believe historically these blooms have a low efficiency for "permanent capture" because the plankton decay or are consumed. The only way to effectively capture would be to somehow create the bloom, then sink the phytoplankton en mass…
This scenario is pretty similar to the Azolla event:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azolla_event
Where "event" in this case is something that happened over an 800 000 years interval.
Re: Natural experiments prove phytoplankton carbon removal works
#6Don't know if it's off topic, ad hominem, or whatnot : but this substack is an almost comical example of a "one-post-poney".
The author is VERY much a fan of phytoplankton fertilization. He does not cite many other people talking about it, but he is very very very convinced.
Maybe he's right, but the tone and the "once you have a hammer, everything look like deep ocean fertilization" bit does not help.
Re: Natural experiments prove phytoplankton carbon removal works
#7This article shows that we can reliably cause phytoplankton blooms, but doesn't link it with actual "carbon removal". I suppose CO2 is temporarily removed in the form of the bloom, but I believe historically these blooms have a low efficiency for "permanent capture" because the plankton decay or are consumed. The only way to effectively capture would be to somehow create the bloom, then sink the phytoplankton en mass…
This scenario is pretty similar to the Azolla event: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azolla_event Where "event" in this case is something that happened over an 800 000 years interval.
> the resulting draw-down of carbon dioxide has been speculated to have helped reverse the planet from the "greenhouse Earth" state of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, when the planet was hot enough for turtles and palm trees to prosper at the poles, to the current icehouse Earth known as the Late Cenozoic Ice Age.
Time to buy a condo in the Greater McMurdo area?
Re: Natural experiments prove phytoplankton carbon removal works
#8> [People think we] couldn’t possibly know what the consequences would be. > It’s not true, though. We have quite a precise understanding of what happens Ah, man, the hubris to see a long history of human interventions with unexpected knock on consequences, and think, “but this time we know.” It’s comical, even. We’re talking about an intervention large enough to reverse decades of climate change, of course there wil…
I look forward to the time when we do something, because it will change the psychological landscape from a quagmire of guilt, hopelessness, and discouragement, into a wide open tundra of shapeless fear and tension, where anything seems possible.
Re: Natural experiments prove phytoplankton carbon removal works
#9BREAKING NEWS: New study shows that plants consume carbon dioxide, emit oxygen. Implications for greenhouse gas reduction unknown but promising.
Re: Natural experiments prove phytoplankton carbon removal works
#10This article shows that we can reliably cause phytoplankton blooms, but doesn't link it with actual "carbon removal". I suppose CO2 is temporarily removed in the form of the bloom, but I believe historically these blooms have a low efficiency for "permanent capture" because the plankton decay or are consumed. The only way to effectively capture would be to somehow create the bloom, then sink the phytoplankton en mass…
I've heard of capture technologies that literally pump organic matter down far enough that it sinks to the seabed (high enough pressure collapses air bubbles and results negative buoyancy). The problem is that your pumps need to operate using less carbon than you capture (easy with solar?) and that they need to be durable enough to pump billions of gallons of seawater with low maintenance (much harder, salt is terrib…
Why can't we make pumps that withstand salt, dammit. It seems pathetic.
How about like a medical pump? Have a flexible polyurethane tube that's squidged by cams to pump the seawater through it. The cams stay in the dry.