A new study on the feeding habits of ocean microbes calls into question the potential use of algal blooms to trap carbon dioxide and offset rising global levels.
A new study on the feeding habits of ocean microbes calls into question the potential use of algal blooms to trap carbon dioxide and offset rising global levels.
Yes, I do realise that the ability of humans to screw up always maxes out. It is only limited by their Lebensraum (which happens to be a 2D surface) and by whatever energy they’ve got. But the atmosphere is emphatically a 3D object, even when one accounts for stratification. It’s out of their depth, literally.
And in this particular case, I note that people making such proposals have no stinking clue about the role of iron and other limiting factors in life, so it’s even further out of their depth. If they had it their way, they would simply return the iron to where it was mined with no ill effects except socio-economical — for which they ought to be shot, I agree.
Gee how did the planet manage to keep things in balance and chgging along nicely before all this intervention? Hubris to the tenth power. And humans are supposed to be an intelligent species?
I think his point was that we do not possess the capability to significantly affect the atmosphere on a global scale—whether that is unintentionally as in the case of CO2 emissions or intentionally as in this case of seeding algae with iron to trap CO2.
I don’t think you comprehend their ability to screw up. When they start messing with the atmosphere, no living organism is safe.
Billions of squandered dollars, more likely. The atmosphere could care less.
The unintended consequences of geniuses geoengineering the atmosphere will be billions of dead people.