Give me a carrier loaded with iron … I will give you a new ice age! “, a quote by Dr. John Martin, the American marine biologist, who is researcher at the “Moss Landing” Marine Laboratories in California, who works along with a group of other researchers. A few days ago, the United Nations celebrated forests by planting a tree in the “Food Garden”; this way it implemented the theme of Earth Day 2016, entitled “Trees for the Earth.”
Martin’s idea is not devoid of a genius’ imagination, especially in the following question: The content of gaseous carbon in the atmosphere is constantly increasing, so is it possible to withdraw the amount of excess carbon, to return to its normal level (350 ppm), in a way that its environmental effects are erased from Earth’s climate? And will we stay calling for afforestation and increasing green spaces only?
It is known that forests and the vegetation cover in general stabilize 50 percent of the quantity of carbon in the air, and the other half is stabilized in seas and oceans. Here, Martin relied on the idea of stimulating planktons, to grow abundantly in the ocean, by fertilizing the ocean through the addition of fertilizers containing iron which the planktons need in order to grow.
This way, they thrive and release more carbon dioxide, which they use to create their biomass and structures, through the process of photosynthesis, and the final result will be Earth’s temperatures returning to their normal levels.
Dr. John Martin says: “As a team, we do not exaggerate, and our calculations reveal that the process of fertilizing the ocean, might help us in getting rid of 20% of Carbon produced by unfair human activities on the environment”. He adds that “it is an easy and less costly way to achieve the same goal by planting forests on land”.
The experiment was achieved in an area extending to 800 miles from the Pacific, to the West of the Galápagos Islands.
