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This “rogue” ocean hacker says the solution to climate change is easy & cheap — so why are governments trying to stop him?
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Is adding iron to the ocean a safe way to grow plankton blooms that capture masses of carbon dioxide?
That’s the claim of rogue geoengineer Russ George, who put 120 tons of iron into the ocean in a controversial experiment in 2012.
George explains that instead of climate change solutions that would cost trillions of dollars and take decades, iron fertilization of the oceans would cost millions and take mere years. However, geoengineering is a controversial and unregulated domain. Heretic or hero—what do you think?
Here is some further reading on iron fertilization:
The climate renegade
► https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/24/18273198/climate-change-russ-george-unilateral-geoengineering
Engineering the Ocean
► https://aeon.co/essays/can-tiny-plankton-help-reverse-climate-change
The Complicated Role of Iron in Ocean Health and Climate Change
► https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/complicated-role-iron-ocean-health-and-climate-change-180973893/
Watch this video on Freethink.com ► https://www.freethink.com/series/heretics/ocean-restoration
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Read more of our stories on ocean restoration:
3D ocean farming: creating food while cleaning the ocean
► https://www.freethink.com/environment/3d-ocean-farming
New AI tool checks up on ocean health from space
► https://www.freethink.com/environment/ocean-health
The world’s first lab-grown coral could help save the ocean reefs
► https://www.freethink.com/environment/coral-garden
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About Freethink
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About The Author
Many of you have commented that you're interested in sources or reading more information. Great instinct! Here are some good articles covering the technology (and controversy) in more depth:
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/24/18273198/climate-change-russ-george-unilateral-geoengineering
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fertilizing-ocean-with-iron-sequesters-co2/
https://www.loe.org/series/series.html?seriesID=27
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/questions-and-answers-with-rogue-geoengineer-carbon-entrepreneur-russ-george/
only way to battle climate change is population control. Stop reproducing.
#JordanPeterson
Why are we putting our effort into this when the most obvious solution is just inconvenient
Well first of all quit allowing countries like China to keep producing crap that we don't need. We send production fo things to China, India and Bangladesh where they have low environmental standards and dump the waist into the water. It starts by holding the countries that produce the goods to the standards of the country these are being sold in. Then the cost would be just as high as in the countries that buy all the crap which in return would create jobs that are much needed and keep us out of getting to dependent on other countries to produce what we need which in the end gives them power. I hope that by spreading the word through my new song You Can SMC that people will stop and think for a second.
Alaskan here. That's not how salmon work. Salmon are born in freshwater, go out to sea for several years, then return to where they hatched to spawn more salmon. That's when they're caught: when they're coming back to spawn (after which they die, btw). So attributing that record catch the season following his experiment just doesn't make sense to me. Salmon don't make love at sea. The number of baby salmon that run out of rivers and streams each year is the maximum number there will be of that "batch", many will die or be eaten along the way. It's a short video, so if someone could maybe explain his point to me? I'm withholding judgement, but that makes me very skeptical.
A big part of the concern is what happens when the plankton dies off—this is something we see with fertilizer runoff from farms entering oceans. When the plankton die, they get broken down by oxygen-consuming bacteria, create hypoxic conditions that can cause fish to literally suffocate in the water. Look up eutrophication and dead zones.
Remember that one time that scientists thought it was a good idea to dump old tires in the ocean to make a new coral reef? Ya… that was an ecological disaster that we're still cleaning up to this day
Something about this is really not ringing true. First. It sounds like we’re only getting cherry picked facts. Second. What are the the long term effects. Sulfur dioxide in the jet stream will cool the earth but may destroy the ozone layer over time. What does his opposition say?
The problem with this mans plan is that Phytoplankton don't really love over heated ocean water in fact Ocean water's ability to be oxygenated is hindered by the rising tempretures but over heated waters do become more acidic . So I'm calling this man's ideas into question. There's some alterior subtext here somehow.
Ok I found it on You Tube watch (The Plan to Fertilize the Oceans with Iron)
For a great reference to Russ's character and work, please watch this 2-minute youtube press conference statement by the Haida indigenous leader where, with Russ, they brought back the salmon for their fishing village and the world: https://youtu.be/w3JLqrr3FfI – Yes, restoring the plankton to their normal levels is our last chance to avoid Climate Ruin – this is what Russ is doing – plankton power is the only way with enough capacity, speed and total safety to remove enough greenhouse gas and stop acidification – and no chance of bad effects since his method adds thousands of times LESS nutritional dust than volcanoes and dust storms which have never resulted in a bad effect. 100 fishing villages together can solve this climate and ocean problem.
did the swat team destroy the data belonging to russ george and his team?
overt personel in action is the biggest joke in civilization
Here's fantstic good news for the planet. The New EU Law will now pour billions into ocean restoration… but this Voyage of Recovery has a long history as well. Lend a hand share this good news for our Blue Planet https://youtu.be/9LXNij2VrV4
hi brother Russ CO2 was down 2.1% last year.Maybe because ! told my friend Mike about your video.Mike is the president of the petroleum producers of North America . Now every tanker from Saudi Arabia is seeding the the Ocean. Saw Mike last week told him the billion dollar climate organization will never thank him .we know that but i also I said. it would be nice if he could seed the pacific. he said he will see about that Synchronicity is there.thanks for the posting the audience is listening.
Hi Russ thanks for posting. last fall I had a 2 hour conversation with my friend Mike. He is the President of the Petroleum Producers of North America. last winter he told me they were feeding iron in the ocean. Saw him last week he said that every ship leaving Saudi Arabia going to north America is feeding the Plankton.I told him thank but it really good if they good feed the pacific and the southern Oceans. He said he would work on it. the CO2 went down 2.1% last year in a few months which i told Mike last week. they only started last fall. hopefully over 5% this year. They love it as they are stealth doing this. and with the CO2going down it's good for business. thanks for posting . we have free energy had it for years wish they could figure out how they could sell it so we could get off the pollution. I'm talking Nikola Tesla coil and other Things like magnetic Top magnet inside coil on the outside. Use the force LUKE
Love the idea. C02 is very important for plant growth. We are on the lower end of the spectrum of co2 levels that plants need to actually grow 150-1200ppm. Our atmosphere is at around 400ppm. Under 150ppm plants cant survive.
The fifth estate did a story about this guy.
https://youtu.be/1lXU9pKH5PE?si=vRHK6BF_7aSQQzIz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_fertilization
I'm skeptical of this idea. I'm even more skeptical of dismissing this idea because its willing change of ecosystems. Why? Because we have been doing the latter since we exist as a species. Its time to do it scientifically and carefully.
Clearly this is the only scalable approach of co2 sequestration. I think the experiment was considered a failure because it resulted not in pythoplankton sequestration but animal life which just recycles co2. But clearly there is an equilibrium between pythoplankton and zoo plankton as the latter cannot grow without the former. So all it meant is that the majority of the pythoplankton co2 is temporarily bound in animal sea life, but that's normal. The iron remains in the cycle until permanently sequestered by pythoplankton. And the extra animal biomass is actually a permanent sequestration as well: yes it recycles, but if you hold the increased number of fish constant, then that means that carbon remains bound in the fish.
So basically short term, ie on our few decades fossil fuel horizon, it doesn't matter if the co2 is bound by plant plankton that gets permanently removed, or by animal biomass that gets recycled. It's taken out of the ocean water and air is all that matters.
Once ocean life is abundant, then the slower sequestration is all that's left, but by that time we have hopefully removed fossil fuels.
Added benefit would be conversion of solar heat energy via photosynthesis away to biomass chemical energy, reducing warming directly to some degree
I'd love to see this debated between experts in the field and if viable see what kind of safe testing could be done. Seems incredibly promising…
When you hear about the perfect solution to the largest problem being shut down by SWAT teams, it seems pertinent to hear multiple viewpoints.
Manually changing ecosystems tends to be hard to predict, but if there is indeed an amazing solution I'd like to hope it's being tested appropriately
Bill gates will not like that. He rather builds machines which people can buy from him to filter CO2 out of the air/water. These people don't want nature to restore it, it will not give them money…
We need to "save the world from climate change." Climate change has been this planet's norm for 4.6 billion years. We live on a planet, not a spaceship that is dedicated to OUR survival. This video is lunacy made by lunatics. Somebody cut the brake lines off your crazymobile!
I hope this works
This sounds great. But sulphur needs to be added too. So why not use iron sulphate? The algae and phytoplankton produce DMS, which is a powerful cooling gas.
If we are taking on an average of 150 tons of space dust every day …. the earth is gaining mass…. increasing the gravitational pull towards the sun… getting warmer every day… rising sea levels because the oceans are filling with dust…. dust falling on the glaciers and turning them black absorbing more heat from the sun, causing receding glaciers….. think about it people… carbon emissions….. malarkey!
After watching this video. Looked into Russ George and his history shows him to be a total grifter, he's NOT a scientist. I'd love to see more research into rust, plankton, and the peer reviewed science behind all this.
He might be right, but if not, we will face an ice age. That is a pretty big gamble. China recently triggered an artificial rain and people believe that it actually triggered an tornado.
Ok. So turns out the current iron scarcity is directly our fault too, because iron in the ocean is supplied in real time. There is no iron storage in the ocean like for dissolved calcium. Iron either deposits quickly and what little remains is used by plankton. Since we have massively curtailed river outflow of iron, we are directly responsible for massive lack of iron in the oceans.
Thus strategically placed fertilization is mandatory, not just for ocean life in general, but mostly because coccolithophore plankton (biggest sensitivity to iron) produces DMS and thus cloud cover which is essential.
(Forget about impact on co2 sequestration. Whether the calcium and carbonate remains dissolved in the ocean or deposits is not really relevant for maybe the next 100k years. The amount of neutralized co2 only depends on the amount of weathered calcium in the oceans, not on how much is deposited on the floor. Furthermore all the preindustrial deep water coming up will be absorbing more co2 than bio creation of calcium carbonate or weathering for the next 1000 years. If we could somehow stimulate the basalt weathering process, that would be another thing, but I don't see a way that would work)
Good video, simple to the point easy to understand, too many other videos I see talk to much explain the history and just talk and most of the times it mean nothing, this video I enjoyed
I am no expert on this topic but hacking nature with simple solutions doesn´t often end well…from Mao´s brilliant idea of killing sparrows to modern chemical fertilizers, we´ve seen too many good intended ideas end up in tragedy
Whats the catch
Have y'all @freethink considered an iron fertilization in the East Indian Ocean 🌊… In the path of a developing cyclone 🌀, particularly one with a long strengthening period (7 days or more)… The rain 🌧️ fall would provide an additional carbon fertilization (carbon absorbed into rain from the atmosphere)… You would have to be judicious with the choice of phytoplankton species… If done well it could boost fish stocks for nearby Indian fishing 🎣 AND sequester carbon… It could also weaken a cyclone 🌀 in the week up to hitting land (oxygen holds less heat than carbon dioxide)… Providing relief AND revenue to a coastal city 🏙️ like Chennai… It couldn't be done for ALL storms, but certainly the ones with a LONG build up period… Australia 🌏 is nearby, if there is an particular lack of cheap iron dust…
It is worth going into DETAIL as to WHY this is a good 💡 idea… "First Principles Thinking" as a biographer of Elon Musk would say… Phytoplankton are the foundation of the ocean 🌊 food chain… They take light from the sun and various molecules (carbon dioxide, water, etc) and make MORE of themselves… A LOT of ocean 🌊 life eats those phytoplankton and there blooms are large enough to be seen from space and effect local oxygen levels… Ideally with fertilization of a phytoplankton blooms you want to grow a LARGE bloom and for it to be either eaten by fish 🐟 OR sink to the bottom of the ocean 🌊 and trap their carbon… If they lowered local carbon dioxide (and temperatures) in area that an otherwise strong storm would develop, that would be GOOD too… What you need: probably a lot of iron that would slowly-release dissolve into the ocean 🌊… A release of some ideal species of plankton (sorta like using a particular yeast with a lump of wheat flour to make a good loaf of bread)… Probably larger species of phytoplankton that local sealife likes to eat AND/OR will sink to the bottom of the ocean… You don't want your large plankton blooms to rot and release a bunch of carbon… Again… You need ideal species of plankton, times release dissolving iron… In the path of a developing storm is helpful bc of the effect of a secondary carbon fertilization (this would probably only practical with storms with a LONG strengthening period, NOT storms the develop quickly)… If there are some competing bad plankton (not your ideal plankton, you may want to suppress them, maybe with the appropriate plankton killing phage/virus… I BELIEVE in iron fertilization of phytoplankton bc of FIRST PRINCIPLES… They are the foundation of the ocean food chain ⛓️ and this is EXTREMELY well known…