NASA Research Could Help Policymakers Restrict Carbon Emissions

A senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole, Mass., says new data retrieved from a NASA satellite could help scientists advise world governments on how to regulate carbon emissions. And one day, he says, it might even lead to a method of seeding iron into the oceans in order to suck carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere. “We can develop better models to tell policymakers how much carbon can be admitted into the atmosphere, because that amount will be removed by the oceans; or say, ‘You need to emit less carbon into the atmosphere, because the ocean won’t continue to remove carbon as it has been,’” geophysicist Scott Doney said. At a telephone news conference last week (Thursday), which was billed as “the first-ever view” on global marine plant life, NASA revealed that a research team has discovered that it can track the health of phytoplankton in the ocean from the satellite images it gets. Using an instrument called MODIS, or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer – a special lens on NASA’s Aqua satellite – scientists can determine the availability of iron, an essential nutrient for phytoplankton. “Phytoplankton are important (because) they’re responsible for about half of the net photosynthesis on earth. This photosynthesis helps take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,” Oregon State University scientist Michael Behrenfeld said at the news conference. By studying the availability of iron across the world’s oceans, then, scientists could better understand the amounts of carbon being absorbed by these microscopic marine plants. Past studies have led to the “iron hypothesis”-- the idea that by depositing iron in the oceans, scientists could produce large phytoplankton blooms capable of absorbing large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) – a “greenhouse gas” -- from the atmosphere. As Doney explained it to reporters: “By adding iron to an iron-poor region (of the ocean), the phytoplankton would grow stronger, you would pull carbon out of the water and eventually out of the atmosphere, and this could be used to slow the rise of atmospheric CO2.” This idea comes on the heels of a State Department proposal for a new “global warming” treaty under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). The proposal would place the United States under much stricter carbon emissions standards than nations with economies that the UNFCC considers “developing.” Finding estimates on how much carbon can be emitted --and therefore absorbed—by phytoplankton is probably “not a bad idea,” according to John Grasser of the Office of Fossil Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. “Certainly, the more information we have on carbon capture and storage is going to benefit the country,” Grasser told CNSNews.com. Already, a company “dedicated to removing carbon from the atmosphere,” Climos, has been formed. It initiated a scientific working group in summer 2008 to begin the process of testing iron fertilization in isolated areas. But some scientists warn that there could be a host of unintended consequences to sucking large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere into the world’s oceans. A spike in the acidity of the water near the fertilization sites is one concern, which could affect the health of coral reefs and other wildlife. Another potential problem: an eventual overabundance of phytoplankton, depriving the waters of oxygen that animals further up the food chain need to absorb from the water to breathe. In a 2001 article in Science magazine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology environmental engineering professor Sallie Chisholm co-wrote an article with other scientists warning that iron fertilization “would significantly alter oceanic food webs and biogeochemical cycles.” Grasser, meanwhile, said that iron fertilization is not currently a project of interest to U.S. researchers.“We have not looked at that recently,” he said. “All of our carbon capture and storage activities (involve) geologic storage.” Doney, when asked whether it was his aim to further develop the iron fertilization technique, Doney told CNSNews.com only that it is likely that companies or governments will try to experiment with iron deposits to see if the technique can work.“I want the (scientific) tool kit to be in place so that we can assess whether it is a valid strategy if somebody decides to go that way,” he added. NASA says it is unable to pinpoint how much it spent on the satellite project. However, the lens was only built to last five years, a date that has already come and gone. According to Doney, there is no guarantee how much longer the luminescence data will be transmitted. Once it is gone, he says, “We won’t be able to use that for a considerable amount of time. We’re going to have to depend upon raising our voices and trying to get this sensor put on future missions that are being planned now.”