DeAnne
Mike CrowlFeeding the Fish
April 8th 2007 05:17
Researchers from the University of Sydney's Ocean Technology Group and their partners hope to be in the running for a US $25 million prize for removing CO2 from the Earth's atmosphere.
The Virgin Earth Challenge Prize is on offer from Sir Richard Branson. His aim is to find the best way to remove large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and save the planet from global warming.
One approach has been suggested by Professor Ian Jones from the Ocean Technology Group housed at the University of Sydney. He believes the solution is Ocean Nourishment.
"Ocean Nourishment takes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and converts it into fish" says Professor Jones. "The carbon dioxide not converted to fish falls into the deep ocean where it is stored for hundreds of years."
This process will imitate nature by introducing reactive nitrogen into the open ocean. By using natural sunlight, Ocean Nourishment would change carbon dioxide into organic vegetable matter, known as phytoplankton. Fish and other marine life feeding on this matter would ensure plentiful and healthy fish populations.
During the last decade the Ocean Nourishment researchers have been working on the environmental risks of their idea, as well as its benefits in restoring the health of the ocean.
Their process would provide the ocean with the nutrients that are now missing, and the researchers are investigating the most cost economical methods of generating and delivering these nutrients.
They consider that the Ocean Nourishment scheme would create 10 million carbon credits per year. This is as much as a million hectares of new forest can produce, and presumably would be a faster process. .
The Virgin Earth Challenge Prize is on offer from Sir Richard Branson. His aim is to find the best way to remove large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and save the planet from global warming.
One approach has been suggested by Professor Ian Jones from the Ocean Technology Group housed at the University of Sydney. He believes the solution is Ocean Nourishment.
"Ocean Nourishment takes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and converts it into fish" says Professor Jones. "The carbon dioxide not converted to fish falls into the deep ocean where it is stored for hundreds of years."
This process will imitate nature by introducing reactive nitrogen into the open ocean. By using natural sunlight, Ocean Nourishment would change carbon dioxide into organic vegetable matter, known as phytoplankton. Fish and other marine life feeding on this matter would ensure plentiful and healthy fish populations.
During the last decade the Ocean Nourishment researchers have been working on the environmental risks of their idea, as well as its benefits in restoring the health of the ocean.
Their process would provide the ocean with the nutrients that are now missing, and the researchers are investigating the most cost economical methods of generating and delivering these nutrients.
They consider that the Ocean Nourishment scheme would create 10 million carbon credits per year. This is as much as a million hectares of new forest can produce, and presumably would be a faster process. .
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