These days, proposals to leverage the chemistry of the oceans to buy the world time in the fight against climate change are raking in millions of dollars in venture capital funding and lucrative contracts to offset the emissions of some of the world’s biggest companies. Other proposals to use the oceans to draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide took a reputational hit, now linked in the eyes of the public with the notion of rogue geoengineering experiments and dubious green business plans. As details of the project came to light, many observers assailed it as an unscientific stunt, saying that it had endangered marine ecosystems without taking proper steps to verify if it had actually permanently removed carbon from the atmosphere.
The goal was to to spawn an enormous bloom of phytoplankton, which would take in carbon dioxide as they grew, then die and fall to the bottom of the ocean, presumably locking away the greenhouse gasses, and helping to save the world from climate change.
Back in 2012, a California businessman sailed a boat into the waters off western Canada and dumped 100 tons of iron filings into the Pacific Ocean.
