[NatureNS] Iron fertilization

Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2012 13:41:43 -0400
From: Fred Schueler <bckcdb@istar.ca>
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Quoting David & Alison Webster <dwebster@glinx.com>:

> Thanks for the URLs. What a mess; the lesson being that carbon  
> trades, at the best of times, are just elaborate frauds of which  
> this is an outstanding example.

* certainly agree about the things that are called carbon credits,  
since none of them seem to sequester carbon on more than a decadal  
scale - I'd only give carbon credits for a raised sill on a peaty  
wetland.

But as far as this iron fertilization goes, I'll wait until the Salmon  
that summer in that area come back - if they return a year early with  
a great wide 2012 annulus on their scales, then the fertilizers will  
be vindicated - if otherwise, then they'll not have been vindicated.

fred.
==================================================

>
>    And the long-suffering taxpayer, with two frayed ropes and a used  
> apple barrel for clothes (nod to Chambers), will eventually have to  
> pay for the 2.5 million flop, the one million in legal fees and the  
> $257.43 fine.
>
> Yt, DW
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Fred Schueler" <bckcdb@istar.ca>
> To: <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>; "David & Alison Webster" <dwebster@glinx.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2012 11:29 PM
> Subject: Re: [NatureNS] Iron fertilization
>
>
>> Quoting David & Alison Webster <dwebster@glinx.com>:
>>
>>>  I gather from your comments about 'iron fertilization' that   
>>> another trial has run into opposition. Unfortunate if true.
>>>
>>>    Certainly trying to unscramble the real effects of a broadcast  
>>> application in the open ocean is problematic but the remedy is to   
>>> devise approaches that are amenable to statistical test and refine  
>>>  methods on the basis of results as opposed to debate-- e.g. how  
>>> many  phytoplankton can grow on the head of an iron pin anyway ?).
>>
>> * here's the NY Times account -  
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/science/earth/iron-dumping-experiment-in-pacific-alarms-marine-experts.html?_r=2&emc=eta1& - and some sleuthing of details - http://watershedsentinel.ca/content/new-evidence-re-old-masset-iron-fertilization-scheme - and the CBC - http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/10/19/bc-ocean-fertilization-haida.html everybody seems to be dissing this because none of their friends were part of the scientific   
>> staff.
>>
>> It seems to me that if what iron fertilization needed was larger  
>> scale experiments, then the thing to do is to wait for the  
>> experimenters' report on this project, and if that proves to be  
>> inadequate, infer  what it's possible to infer from this 100 tonne  
>> event, and then see  how to do, and fund, a better-controlled  
>> experiment. There's great  howling against geoengineering, but if  
>> we've geomodified the Earth by  burning up forests and fossil  
>> fuels, then we've got to find out what  to do to counteract this or  
>> go back to the late Permian/early Triassic  condition of 40C  
>> equatorial ocean waters, and 50C equatorial lands.
>>
>> fred.
>> ================================================================
>>>
>>>    Why not e.g. enclose test areas with a polyethylene curtain   
>>> around the perimeter, let them drift, sample fallout at intervals   
>>> and naturally sample phytoplankton and water composition in the   
>>> upper enclosed layers. One could then have real control and test   
>>> plots replicated as necessary based on accumulating experience.  
>>> With  beacons to locate scattered plots and automated  
>>> sampling/recording,  a mother ship (or more as necessary) could  
>>> service sufficient plots  over time to obtain data amenable to  
>>> statistical tests.
>>>
>>>    Iron has been entering the ocean, mostly as dust or eroded   
>>> fines, since the dawn of time and, if I recall correctly, areas  
>>> with  high natural addition rates are unusually productive.
>>>
>>>    The high productivity of the Bay of Fundy is often attributed  
>>> to deep mixing of nutrients but is iron perhaps one of these or  
>>> even  the key nutrient ?  Fine soil (iron rich) gets swept down  
>>> the Bay  with every falling tide.
>>>
>>>    Which is worse, the potential to make a few mistakes in small   
>>> areas of ocean or the really large mistake associated with   
>>> contributing to permafrost melt, release of methane from methyl   
>>> hydrate, massive positive feedback and runaway global warming ?
>>>
>>> Yt, Dave Webster, Kentville
>>

------------------------------------------------------------
          Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills - http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm
Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
          South Nation Basin Art & Science Book
          http://pinicola.ca/books/SNR_book.htm
     RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
   on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
    (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
------------------------------------------------------------


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