Following up on the NYT story "Recruiting Plankton to fight Global Warming" I forgot this link regarding carbon sequestration via plankton in the first post this morning.
The IPCC report to be released Friday "... pours scorn on geo-engineering as a means of tackling the problem, branding its approaches as hypothetical, tarred with risk and carrying unknown economic costs. "
"Geo-engineering options... remain largely speculative and with the risk of unknown side effects," it says witheringly. "Reliable cost estimates for these options have not been published."
The story from PhysOrg goes on to say: "Also unclear are the side effects."
"Edouard Bard, a professor at the College de France in Paris, says there could be mechanisms by which the CO2, instead of being durably locked on the ocean floor, could be released back into the ocean, encouraging acidity and oxygen starvation.
Nitrate-loving bacteria thrive in such conditions, releasing nitrous oxide -- an even more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2."
PhysOrg, for the geek in you.
