Green Groups Oppose Plan to Curb CO2 With Plankton

Company's project to fertilize oceans with nutrients 'risky,' environmentalists say
By Laila Weir,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 5, 2007 4:20 PM CST
Green Groups Oppose Plan to Curb CO2 With Plankton
The Sulu Archipelago. A company is planning to pump nutrients into the Sulu sea to feed plankton that consume carbon dioxide.   (Magnum Photos)

An environmental coalition today came out against a project that hopes to slow the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, by stimulating ocean plankton to consume the global warming-linked greenhouse gas. The groups decried the plan by an Australian company to pump nutrients into the sea between the Philippines and Borneo as "experimental ocean dumping" by "carbon-trading profiteers."

The coalition criticized such "risky technologies" in an ETC Group news release. Another company developing a similar effort admitted a need for more control last month, citing "important questions of effectiveness, environmental impact and corporate conduct in all ocean fertilization projects" that "need to be addressed as these projects move forward," CNET News reports. (More global warming stories.)

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