Climate Restoration & Ocean Iron Fertilization: FAQ

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  Climate Restoration means restoring Earth’s atmospheric CO2 to preindustrial levels that humans have actually experienced and survived (below 300 ppm, i.e. parts per million). To that end, Ocean Iron Fertilization (OIF) refers to spreading trace amounts of iron dust to small, carefully selected and monitored areas of the ocean to stimulate the growth of micro-algae called phytoplankton which absorb large amounts of CO2. (also see FAQ #3).  

 It’s true that we urgently need to reduce CO2 emissions to “net zero” by 2050, but this alone will NOT solve the climate crisis. Even if this target is reached, atmospheric CO2  will just level off at around 450 ppm, a level humans have never experienced and that the planet has not seen in at least the last three million years. Until the industrial revolution, the human-friendly CO2 level never exceeded 300 ppm. Therefore, in addition to halting any further CO2 emissions, we must massively reduce the CO2 already emitted. In research  completed so far and evaluated by the National Academy of Sciences in a 2022 report, OIF has emerged as the most promising, natural, safe and cost-effective way to do this.

Iron is an essential catalytic mineral necessary for phytoplankton photosynthesis and many areas of the ocean are iron-deficient. Thus, adding tiny amounts of this mineral in these areas helps this micro-algae grow and absorb large amounts of CO2. 

As the base of the ocean’s food chain, the new the phytoplankton feeds all the other life in the ocean, from zooplankton to whales. When these animals respire, defecate and decay below a few hundred feet deep, the carbon they gained from the phytoplankton stays in the ocean water for hundreds of years. The more fish the phytoplankton feed, the more carbon is sequestered.  The phytoplankton that is not eaten by the food chain sink to the ocean bottom, sequestering carbon for very long periods of time. 

 Over the last million years, Nature has stimulated phytoplankton growth using iron from volcanic eruptions and dust storms. The resulting removal of atmospheric CO2 was sufficient to cause 10 ice ages, about one every 100k years. OIF simply mimics nature and accelerates the process of carbon removal and sequestration. 

 To be “effective,” a proposed Climate Restoration strategy must meet 3 key criteria. It must remove carbon from the atmosphere long term; it must be deployable on a scale commensurate with the size of the problem; and it must be financeable/affordable. So far, OIF is one of the few strategies identified that appears to meet all these criteria. It can remove carbon and store it away in the deep ocean for very long periods of time. It can be deployed on a scale adequate to the challenge. Lastly, this strategy would require only minimal public funds to do additional research into environmental impacts and fine tune the logistics of deployment. Thereafter, costs of full deployment would be about $1 billion/year, which will likely be offset many times over by the proceeds from a revitalized fishing industry.

  In all 13 OIF tests since 1993, no negative environmental impacts have been reported. By contrast, the “industrial revolution”, a massive uncontrolled, unintentional “geo-engineering” experiment, has resulted in the climate crisis. It's a prime example of "destructive geoengineering"; OIF is a good example of "corrective geoengineering". Adding  iron to ocean deserts mimics a natural process, analogous to fertilizing a farm field. Toxic algae blooms only occur in shallow coastal waters when decomposing algae uses up the oxygen marine life needs. OIF is only proposed for the deep ocean. Even deployed at full scale, OIF deployment is only contemplated on about 1% of the world’s ocean surface. In 1990, Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted and spread much more iron-rich dust over the ocean surface than the contemplated OIF research involves, with no negative effects identified, and many positive ones. That said, as we learn more, adjustments will be made to address any unforeseen negative consequences. Data collection and well-funded research should always be a key part of any application of iron in the ocean. The key to safety is to “follow the data.”