The vast majority of plans for cleaning up the environment call for removing some unwanted substance from the air, soil or water.
Photo courtesy of Planktos
Local Firm Banks on Plankton to Ease Global Warming
By Bill Picture
Published: November, 2007
The vast majority of plans for cleaning up the environment call for removing some unwanted substance from the air, soil or water. So, at first glance, a plan to help solve the global warming crisis by putting something into the fragile ocean ecosystem might seem, well, a little nutty. But that’s precisely what Planktos proposes to do.
The Foster City-based company believes that the correlation between declining iron levels in the open ocean, the declining plankton population and global warming is a direct one. Last month, Planktos embarked on its first oceanic eco-restoration project. A specially outfitted research ship, Weatherbird II, departed for the Equatorial Pacific, where a 100-kilometer-by-100-kilometer area of open water is being enriched with a specially formulated iron dust designed to induce plankton growth.
Planktos’ COO, Bill Coleman, appreciates that the connection between plankton, the tiny organisms that make up the base of the oceanic food chain, and our greenhouse atmosphere are hard for most of us to comprehend at first glance. The reason for that, he suggests, is humans’ very limited understanding of the ocean, which he believes also explains why science has ignored the ocean’s potential role in solving the global warming crisis.
We’re land-based creatures, he says. So we don’t have as much of a personal connection with the ocean as we do with the land. For that reason, when we talk about environmental management, rarely do we include the ocean. Coastal waters get some attention, but rarely the deep water.
Plankton thrive in iron-rich waters. But iron levels in the world’s oceans have declined more than 25 percent in the last thirty years. The result, studies have proven, has been a corresponding 15 percent decline in the plankton population. So what’s the big deal? Well, besides the ripple effect this has all the way up the oceanic food chain, many forms of plankton, like plants and trees, also remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Thus, fewer carbon-eating plankton in the ocean means more carbon floating around in our atmosphere. By replenishing the iron in the water, Planktos hopes to spark a plankton boom.
Moving iron
The iron that was once present in the Central Pacific in beneficial levels came from arid and semi-arid regions of Central Asia and Africa. There, winds kicked up loose, iron-rich earth that was carried thousands of miles via the jet stream and deposited into the ocean. But less iron-rich or Aeolian dust is ending up in the ocean due to increased agriculture, subtle changes in wind patterns, and aggressive efforts to stop soil erosion.
For instance, the Chinese government has planted 100 billion trees to secure the soil in dryland areas. That sounds like a good thing, right? Coleman says. The problem is, they’ve addressed one problem and created another one in the process.
Global warming has also lengthened the growing period for many farmers, which means crops are green longer resulting in less loose soil. Again, less loose soil means less iron deposited in the ocean, which means fewer carbon-sequestering plankton. We really have to pay attention to how everything is connected, Coleman adds.
Plankton restoration
vs. reforestation
Land-based solutions to the global warming crisis, such as pollution control and reforestation, are a step in the right direction. But their effectiveness is limited, according to Coleman. Plankton restoration, he says, will not only stop global warming in its tracks, it could also reverse it. This is because, unlike trees and plants—which photosynthesize carbon at a snail’s pace—plankton practically devour the stuff. One large, floating plankton community can remove as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in six months as a small forest does in six years.
Decades of results in just a few months, and at a fraction of the cost, Coleman adds. A single plankton restoration project will cost less than $2 million to undertake. Reforesting costs several times that, due to the high cost of preparing a site and labor-related expenses. Coleman estimates that it costs $5 to remove one-ton of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere via plankton restoration. Traditional methods, such as reforestation, he says, cost anywhere from $10 to $400 per ton.
Plus, the turnaround time for plankton restoration is much faster. Once a tree is planted, it can take several years to mature and reach its full, carbon-photosynthesizing potential. But a plankton bloom only takes about six months.
That said, Planktos is by no means writing off reforestation. In fact, the company is working with a Hungarian eco-restoration firm, KlimaFa, to restore forests in the Central European nation. Just as its plankton restoration efforts will reduce carbon dioxide, feed the food chain and nourish a collapsing fishing industry, the benefits of Planktos’ climate forest park will also be several-fold. Besides being ecologically beneficial by restoring biodiversity and addressing climate change, it will also create jobs and help tourism, he explains. Similar reforestation projects are slated for Bulgaria and Romania.
The bottom line
The bill for Planktos’ hard work is currently being footed by investors sympathetic to the company’s cause and hip to its returns-generating potential. A publicly traded company, Planktos has also received funding from the National Science Foundation. For every ton of carbon dioxide its projects remove from the atmosphere, Planktos generates one carbon credit. These carbon credits, tradable commodities, are then sold in international markets.
International treaties have set limits on participating countries’ production of greenhouse gases. To meet these restrictions, the governments of these nations have, in turn, set limits for businesses.
For some businesses, reducing emissions in order to meet the government-set limit would be prohibitive. So, in order to avoid penalties, these businesses can buy carbon credits from other businesses. Essentially, these businesses are paying others to do their share of greenhouse gas reduction.
The proof is in the pudding
Planktos’ idea seems like a no-brainer. But Coleman says that governments and the mainstream science community have been slow to embrace the relatively new technology. They’re approaching it cautiously, as they should, he says. It’s unproven at a commercial scale. And there’s some debate about whether, in large scale, there will be any [environmental] side effects. So there’s a lot riding on this first outing.
Initial data from Planktos’ first mission should be analyzed and ready to present to reviewing government bodies by the middle of 2008. Coleman expects that the data will confirm his research team’s hunch, and that Planktos will help set the standard for future plankton restoration efforts. But, if we’re off the mark, we’ll go plant trees and be a happy reforestation company.
For more information about Planktos, visit www.planktos.com.
A phytoplankton bloom in the Gulf of California as seen from space. Satellite image by GeoEye. Provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE
A nearly 800-mile long phytoplankton bloom occurring in the South Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Argentina, South America. Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC
