A
Massive and Illegal Geoengineering Project has been Detected off Canada’s West
Coast
16 October 2012
A private company backed by a controversial U.S.
businessman has unilaterally conducted the world’s most significant
geoengineering project to date.
Russ George, in conjunction with a First Nations
village on Haida Gwaii, has dumped around 100 tonnes of iron sulphate into the
Pacific Ocean in a technique known as ocean fertilization. The experiment,
which is in violation of two United Nations moratoria, has outraged
environmental, legal, and civic groups.
The iron sulphate was dumped into the Pacific
back in July, but recent satellite images are now confirming its effects — an
artificial plankton bloom that’s 10,000 square kilometers (6,214 square miles)
in size. The intention of the project is for the plankton to absorb carbon
dioxide and then sink to the bottom of the ocean. George is hoping to cash in
on lucrative carbon credits.
To make the project happen, George convinced the
local council of an indigenous village to establish the Haida Salmon
Restoration Corporation. He told them that the project would restore salmon
populations, leading the First Nations people to channel more than $1m of its
own money into the project.
Critics say it is a “blatant violation” of
United Nations rules, and the matter is currently under investigation by
Environment Canada. Experts contend that the project violates the UN’s
convention on biological diversity (CBD) and London convention on the dumping
of wastes at sea, which both prohibit for-profit ocean fertilisation
activities. According to the Guardian, the news publication that broke the
story, George claims that the two moratoria are a “mythology” and do not apply
to his project. The Guardian reports:
George is the former chief executive of Planktos
Inc, whose previous failed efforts to conduct large-scale commercial dumps near
the Galapagos and Canary Islands led to his vessels being barred from ports by
the Spanish and Ecuadorean governments. The US Environmental Protection Agency
warned him that flying a US flag for his Galapagos project would violate US
laws, and his activities are credited in part to the passing of international
moratoria at the United Nations limiting ocean fertilisation experiments
Scientists are debating whether iron
fertilisation can lock carbon into the deep ocean over the long term, and have
raised concerns that it can irreparably harm ocean ecosystems, produce toxic
tides and lifeless waters, and worsen ocean acidification and global warming.
“It is difficult if not impossible to detect and
describe important effects that we know might occur months or years later,”
said John Cullen , an oceanographer at Dalhousie University. “Some possible
effects, such as deep-water oxygen depletion and alteration of distant food
webs, should rule out ocean manipulation. History is full of examples of
ecological manipulations that backfired.”
George says his team of unidentified scientists
has been monitoring the results of the biggest ever geoengineering experiment
with equipment loaned from US agencies like NASA and the National Ocean and
Atmospheric Administration. He told the Guardian that it is the “most
substantial ocean restoration project in history,” and has collected a “greater
density and depth of scientific data than ever before”.
“We’ve gathered data targeting all the possible
fears that have been raised [about ocean fertilisation],” George said. “And the
news is good news, all around, for the planet.”
UN officials will be meeting in Hyderabad,
India, later this week to discuss the issue, including possible upgrades to
enforcement policies.
And as Silvia Ribeiro of the watchdog ETC Group
has noted, “If rogue geoengineer Russ George really has misled this indigenous
community, and dumped iron into their waters, we hope to see swift legal response
to his behavior and strong action taken to the heights of the Canadian and US
governments.”
Top image via NASA. Inset image: Yellow and
brown colours show relatively high concentrations of chlorophyll in August
2012, after iron sulphate was dumped into the Pacific Ocean as part of the
geoengineering scheme. Photograph: Giovanni/Goddard Earth Sciences Data and
Information Services Center/NASA.
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