All about algae and hot air

A small California company is planning to mix up to 80 tonnes of iron particles into the Pacific Ocean 350 miles west of the Galapagos islands

A small California company is planning to mix up to 80 tonnes of iron particles into the Pacific Ocean 350 miles west of the Galapagos islands to see whether it can make a splash in the markets where people seek to offset their greenhouse gas emissions.

Planktos — with 24 employees, a website and virtually no revenue — has raised money to send a 115-ft boat called the Weatherbird II on a voyage to stimulate the growth of plankton that could boost the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the air. The company plans to estimate the amount of carbon dioxide captured and sell it on the nascent carbon-trading markets.

The boat is still in Florida, but the plan has already stirred the waters in Washington. Environmental groups say the Planktos project could have unforeseen side effects, and the Environmental Protection Agency has warned that the action may be subject to regulation under the Ocean Dumping Act.

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Disputes like the one over Planktos may be the wave of the future in the new carbon-conscious era. As countries and companies seek to slow climate change, taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere can be financially rewarding.

In a bid for attention for another of its projects, Planktos said earlier this month it would offset the Vatican’s carbon emissions by donating credits from trees being planted in a Hungarian national forest. The company said it would make the Holy See “the world’s first carbon-neutral sovereign state.”

Other groups have looked on the company with less indulgence. The Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study, an international research group, said last month that “ocean fertilisation will be ineffective and potentially deleterious, and should not be used as a strategy for offsetting CO2 emissions.” The International Maritime Organisation scientific group, the Friends of the Earth and the World Wildlife Fund have condemned it. And a group called the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said its own ship would monitor the Planktos vessel and possibly “intercept” it.

But Planktos’s website boasts that it “offers investors the single most powerful, profitable, and planet-friendly tool in the worldwide battle against global warming.”