Green Technology Forum

Looking for lucrative ways to combat climate change, Planktos Inc. plans to dump up to 100 tons of iron dust into the Pacific near the Galapagos Islands. The company hopes to encourage phytoplankton blooms which absorb carbon dioxide. The plan is opposed by the World Wildlife Fund. “There are much safer and proven ways of preventing or lowering carbon dioxide levels than dumping iron into the ocean,” said Dr. Lara Hansen, chief scientist, WWF International Climate Change Program. “This kind of experimentation with disregard for marine life and the lives of people who rely on the sea is unacceptable.”

Approximately 20-30% of plant and animal species are likely to be at increased risk of extinction if increases in global average temperature exceed 1.5-2.5 degrees Celsius. That’s one of the many sobering conclusions reached in the new report, Climate Change 2007, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a joint effort of the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme.