Tue, 14 Apr 2009 5:12 pm – Posted by Alison Ballance | 4 Comments
Guest Blogger: Radio New Zealand’s Our Changing World environment reporter, Alison Ballance
Last week I interviewed two NIWA scientists – Philip Boyd and Cliff Law – about ocean fertilisation, or iron enrichment. Most of us have heard about this ambitious plan, to help solve global warming by dumping large amounts of iron into the ocean, generating phytoplankton blooms which die and sink, effectively sequestering carbon in the deep ocean. I imagine most people thought as I did: that there is an international cabal of scientists and entrepreneurs who are pushing ahead with experiments to test out this grand theory despite concerns and fears about negative side effects, especially those related to unintended biological consequences.
Read more »
Published in: Climate Change, General
Tags: carbon sink, Climate Change, experiment, global warming, iron enrichment, NIWA, ocean fertilisation
Leave a Comment (4)
Sat, 17 Jan 2009 1:34 pm – Posted by Kirstie_Knowles | 15 Comments
While the impacts of climate change on land are hotly discussed, its effect on our oceans and marine life tend to fall into the ‘out of sight out of mind’ black hole. Yet the effect of increased carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere is likely to have significant impacts both on our marine life and on us - our society and our economy.
Our oceans are one of our most important carbon sinks – absorbing around a third of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by burning fossil fuels. When CO2 is dissolved in water, a new compound is formed – carbonic acid. High concentrations of carbonic acid can have effects on other compounds in our waters – calcium carbonate being one of them.
Read more »
Published in: General, Marine and Coastal
Tags: carbon sink, Climate Change, ocean acidifiation
Leave a Comment (15)
