Out of the scientific observations presented in post 47, we can discern the most effective and fastest-track tactic to sequester most of Earth's over 700 billion tons of long-resident CO2, plus 40-60 billion tons more of the gas added each year. Here are the scientific facts and their logical conclusions:
1) Three years after the Pinatubo ash were scattered worldwide, Earth's usual warming temperatures resumed. Apparently, fertilization with iron, sulfur and silica is effective in sequestering CO2 up to the time when such minerals have been totally absorbed by 'phytos' within the fertilized ocean section. Scientific instruments measured lowered levels of such minerals within the oceanic water column. Conclusion: We have to fertilize 'arid' parts of the world's 'blue water' parts of oceans, and do it on continuing or perpetual basis.
2) Iron as trace mineral is a necessity for oceanic plants' photosynthesis, whereby CO2 gets converted into oxygen with the help of solar energy. Conclusion: fertilization should include appropriate volumes of iron aside from minerals needed by plants.
3) Large algal blooms can be created by supplying iron and certain other minerals to 'arid' ocean waters. Blooms become food for microscopic marine animals (zootoplankton), which become food for fishes and other marine creatures. Populations of fishes and other marine creatures thereby increase until all the iron have been absorbed by the phytoplankton. Conclusion: Fertilizing 'arid' sectors of oceans is a critical global cooling need. Additionally, fertilization would prove very profitable for fishery companies as it will raise catches to unprecedented volumes. The profit motive should persuade such companies to become prime climate change action centers under the leadership of the world's marine sciences communities.
4) According to various studies, each iron atom can incorporate over 100,000 carbon atoms into itself. Each kilogram of iron can fix around 80,000 kg of CO2 and can help create over 100,000 kg of plankton. Iron fertilization throughout all tropical and temperate oceans and 'blue seas' that lack iron can thereby provide a fast track way towards oceanic and atmospheric CO2 mitigation. Conclusion: Climate change Funds, world governments, 'blue sea' fishing companies and marine sciences organizations must set up institutions that will perpetually fertilize 'arid' sections of blue seas with iron, silica and complete fertilizer mixes to create 'phyto' blooms that will in turn create large fish populations for fishing companies to harvest at regulated rates.
5) Iron particles of 0.5 to one micrometer are ideal for creating phytoplankton blooms, for such particles sink very slowly, enabling more oceanic 'phytos' to absorb them. The iron particles may be incorporated in complete fertilizer and mineral mixes (as organic compost) bound together by slow-melting clay balls for fertilizer 'metering' in oceanic surface waters. Conclusion: fertilizing sectors of ocean requires unmanned floating rafts (say 5x4m steel pipes-frame floated by large sealed-end styro-filled PVC pipes lashed together). A steel cone welded at center frame should be loaded with the described fertilizer-impregnated clay balls. The cone should have a steel matting bottom, exposing the lowest layer of clay balls to ocean waves, which in effect 'meters down' fertilizer ingredients as the clay melts. All steel parts should be coated with epoxy and fiberglass versus corrosion. Each raft must float for months within an assigned section of ocean. Mechanical contraptions (a vertical wind turbine at raft end that connects to shafts and gears to drive a propeller, and a permanently angled rudder) should enable the raft assembly to move in circular patterns, enabling said raft to stay within its assigned area over years of clay ball fertilizer reloading. Such rafts should be positioned beyond strong oceanic current and storm belts. The clay balls' released ingredients should then float around as food for phytos, which become food for fishes and other marine animals. To further attract fish populations, upon every raft bottom must be lashed and positioned vertically, 20 or so coconut leaves or mangrove branches to three or so meter depth, to serve as fish shelters or small marine animals' breeding and hiding places versus predators. The leaves will also serve as substrates for algae, plankton and larvae to stick on, thereby 'offering' more food for fishes and other marine animals. As an improvement in Philippine marine fishery practice, such 'fish aggregation devices' should create enormous volumes of plankton which small fishes eat, becoming food for increasingly larger fishes until commercial-type fish schools congregate around the area, ready for controlled harvests.
6) As a water-soluble gas, atmospheric CO2 is driven down into ocean waters by air pressure, winds and storms. Our millenium's increasingly stronger and more frequent storms therefore drive even more CO2 into the oceans, worsening the acidification of oceanic waters as CO2 reacts with water, forming carbonic acid in the process. By raising oceanic 'phyto' populations (thru fertilization) to sufficient levels, whatever CO2 gets driven into the oceans will quickly be absorbed by 'phytos' together with much of CO2 remaining in ocean waters. As much as 70% of old and new atmospheric CO2 may get absorbed as a consequence, helping to bring down average world temperatures to pre-industrial levels.
7) Mt. Pinatubo ash appeared to be effective in creating large 'phyto' populations because it contained iron, silica, sulfur and calcium, which are necessities for plankton growth. Conclusion: our fertilizer mix should include all such minerals.
8) Iron, sulfur and silica are just trace minerals (facilitators for food absorption and 'skeleton' formation) as requirements for maximum phytoplankton fertilization. All plants need basic nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to grow well. Ocean waters do not contain uniform volumes of such minerals floating about. Some lack silica, others potassium, magnesium, calcium or other minerals. Large areas of oceans and seas are even 'total deserts' in terms of mineral content, which explains their lack of 'phytos' and fish populations. Conclusion: the world's marine sciences communities should set up systems that will map out mineral 'imbalances' and manufacture appropriate fertilizer mixes for delivery to appropriate sectors of marine waters.
9) Certain species of phytoplankton create blooms that occur along seacosts. Called red tides, the blooms are toxic to humans, fishes and many marine animals that eat them. Such blooms are caused by over-fertilization of relatively stagnant coastal waters, especially those fed by rivers loaded with chemical fertilizers from inland farms as well as rich topsoil carried over by flood waters. Hardly any toxic blooms have been reported in 'blue' oceanic waters where everything gets dissipated in time by waves, currents and winds. Conclusion: Iron-rich silty clay soils from river deltas (formed by fertile farm topsoil) of volcanic parts of the tropics may already contain near-complete fertilizers. They should be mined as part of clay balls for raft-style fertilization such as described.
10) Many scientific groups favor fertilizing the oceans with iron on large scale as a means of creating phytoplankton blooms. Other scientific and environmentalist groups however block such 'experiments' thru world political bodies that prevent 'dumping of unknowns' in oceans. Refusal stems from fears of undefined and dangerous results and a belief that 'nature must be left to itself'. Refutation: Well-placed, wisely regulated fertilization of 'arid' ocean sectors is not mindless 'dumping'. Results of such regulated fertilization will certainly be measured and adjustments made, the systems never relegated to the 'unknown'. As to nature being left to itself, the theory assumes no harmful human activity such as billion-ton level atmospheric pollution. As current global heating indicates, nature can no longer tolerate abusive human behavior. Lastly, fears of dangerous results from fertilization are greatly overshadowed by the very real fear of earthly extinction before year 2100 if phytoplankton populations are not brought up to mega CO2-absorbing levels the soonest possible time.
What exactly should the world's scientific, government and fisheries communities do to set up nation-based systems for raising 'phyto' populations thru oceanic fertilization? The next post presents highly feasible prospects.
1) Three years after the Pinatubo ash were scattered worldwide, Earth's usual warming temperatures resumed. Apparently, fertilization with iron, sulfur and silica is effective in sequestering CO2 up to the time when such minerals have been totally absorbed by 'phytos' within the fertilized ocean section. Scientific instruments measured lowered levels of such minerals within the oceanic water column. Conclusion: We have to fertilize 'arid' parts of the world's 'blue water' parts of oceans, and do it on continuing or perpetual basis.
2) Iron as trace mineral is a necessity for oceanic plants' photosynthesis, whereby CO2 gets converted into oxygen with the help of solar energy. Conclusion: fertilization should include appropriate volumes of iron aside from minerals needed by plants.
3) Large algal blooms can be created by supplying iron and certain other minerals to 'arid' ocean waters. Blooms become food for microscopic marine animals (zootoplankton), which become food for fishes and other marine creatures. Populations of fishes and other marine creatures thereby increase until all the iron have been absorbed by the phytoplankton. Conclusion: Fertilizing 'arid' sectors of oceans is a critical global cooling need. Additionally, fertilization would prove very profitable for fishery companies as it will raise catches to unprecedented volumes. The profit motive should persuade such companies to become prime climate change action centers under the leadership of the world's marine sciences communities.
4) According to various studies, each iron atom can incorporate over 100,000 carbon atoms into itself. Each kilogram of iron can fix around 80,000 kg of CO2 and can help create over 100,000 kg of plankton. Iron fertilization throughout all tropical and temperate oceans and 'blue seas' that lack iron can thereby provide a fast track way towards oceanic and atmospheric CO2 mitigation. Conclusion: Climate change Funds, world governments, 'blue sea' fishing companies and marine sciences organizations must set up institutions that will perpetually fertilize 'arid' sections of blue seas with iron, silica and complete fertilizer mixes to create 'phyto' blooms that will in turn create large fish populations for fishing companies to harvest at regulated rates.
5) Iron particles of 0.5 to one micrometer are ideal for creating phytoplankton blooms, for such particles sink very slowly, enabling more oceanic 'phytos' to absorb them. The iron particles may be incorporated in complete fertilizer and mineral mixes (as organic compost) bound together by slow-melting clay balls for fertilizer 'metering' in oceanic surface waters. Conclusion: fertilizing sectors of ocean requires unmanned floating rafts (say 5x4m steel pipes-frame floated by large sealed-end styro-filled PVC pipes lashed together). A steel cone welded at center frame should be loaded with the described fertilizer-impregnated clay balls. The cone should have a steel matting bottom, exposing the lowest layer of clay balls to ocean waves, which in effect 'meters down' fertilizer ingredients as the clay melts. All steel parts should be coated with epoxy and fiberglass versus corrosion. Each raft must float for months within an assigned section of ocean. Mechanical contraptions (a vertical wind turbine at raft end that connects to shafts and gears to drive a propeller, and a permanently angled rudder) should enable the raft assembly to move in circular patterns, enabling said raft to stay within its assigned area over years of clay ball fertilizer reloading. Such rafts should be positioned beyond strong oceanic current and storm belts. The clay balls' released ingredients should then float around as food for phytos, which become food for fishes and other marine animals. To further attract fish populations, upon every raft bottom must be lashed and positioned vertically, 20 or so coconut leaves or mangrove branches to three or so meter depth, to serve as fish shelters or small marine animals' breeding and hiding places versus predators. The leaves will also serve as substrates for algae, plankton and larvae to stick on, thereby 'offering' more food for fishes and other marine animals. As an improvement in Philippine marine fishery practice, such 'fish aggregation devices' should create enormous volumes of plankton which small fishes eat, becoming food for increasingly larger fishes until commercial-type fish schools congregate around the area, ready for controlled harvests.
6) As a water-soluble gas, atmospheric CO2 is driven down into ocean waters by air pressure, winds and storms. Our millenium's increasingly stronger and more frequent storms therefore drive even more CO2 into the oceans, worsening the acidification of oceanic waters as CO2 reacts with water, forming carbonic acid in the process. By raising oceanic 'phyto' populations (thru fertilization) to sufficient levels, whatever CO2 gets driven into the oceans will quickly be absorbed by 'phytos' together with much of CO2 remaining in ocean waters. As much as 70% of old and new atmospheric CO2 may get absorbed as a consequence, helping to bring down average world temperatures to pre-industrial levels.
7) Mt. Pinatubo ash appeared to be effective in creating large 'phyto' populations because it contained iron, silica, sulfur and calcium, which are necessities for plankton growth. Conclusion: our fertilizer mix should include all such minerals.
8) Iron, sulfur and silica are just trace minerals (facilitators for food absorption and 'skeleton' formation) as requirements for maximum phytoplankton fertilization. All plants need basic nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to grow well. Ocean waters do not contain uniform volumes of such minerals floating about. Some lack silica, others potassium, magnesium, calcium or other minerals. Large areas of oceans and seas are even 'total deserts' in terms of mineral content, which explains their lack of 'phytos' and fish populations. Conclusion: the world's marine sciences communities should set up systems that will map out mineral 'imbalances' and manufacture appropriate fertilizer mixes for delivery to appropriate sectors of marine waters.
9) Certain species of phytoplankton create blooms that occur along seacosts. Called red tides, the blooms are toxic to humans, fishes and many marine animals that eat them. Such blooms are caused by over-fertilization of relatively stagnant coastal waters, especially those fed by rivers loaded with chemical fertilizers from inland farms as well as rich topsoil carried over by flood waters. Hardly any toxic blooms have been reported in 'blue' oceanic waters where everything gets dissipated in time by waves, currents and winds. Conclusion: Iron-rich silty clay soils from river deltas (formed by fertile farm topsoil) of volcanic parts of the tropics may already contain near-complete fertilizers. They should be mined as part of clay balls for raft-style fertilization such as described.
10) Many scientific groups favor fertilizing the oceans with iron on large scale as a means of creating phytoplankton blooms. Other scientific and environmentalist groups however block such 'experiments' thru world political bodies that prevent 'dumping of unknowns' in oceans. Refusal stems from fears of undefined and dangerous results and a belief that 'nature must be left to itself'. Refutation: Well-placed, wisely regulated fertilization of 'arid' ocean sectors is not mindless 'dumping'. Results of such regulated fertilization will certainly be measured and adjustments made, the systems never relegated to the 'unknown'. As to nature being left to itself, the theory assumes no harmful human activity such as billion-ton level atmospheric pollution. As current global heating indicates, nature can no longer tolerate abusive human behavior. Lastly, fears of dangerous results from fertilization are greatly overshadowed by the very real fear of earthly extinction before year 2100 if phytoplankton populations are not brought up to mega CO2-absorbing levels the soonest possible time.
What exactly should the world's scientific, government and fisheries communities do to set up nation-based systems for raising 'phyto' populations thru oceanic fertilization? The next post presents highly feasible prospects.
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