Archive by date | March 2008

Cash and caution for ocean iron fertilization

Cash and caution for ocean iron fertilization

Investors are backing a geoengineering startup based on the idea of fertilizing the ocean with iron to grow CO2-sequestering phytoplankton, despite recent research that underlines doubts about whether the scheme can work. The startup, Climos, announced Wednesday that it had received US$3.5 million in venture capital, which it will spend on an environmental impact assessment, scientific workshops to discuss ocean iron fertilization, and international permits for a demo project – all to pave the way for selling carbon offsets from the fertilization technique. It’s been less than a month since a rival company called Planktos had to drop a similar  … Read more

Saving the trees

Saving the trees

One of the most significant aspects of the UN climate meeting in Bali was an agreement to bring emissions from deforestation into the loop. It only makes sense, given that deforestation is estimated to cause as much as 20 percent of the global greenhouse emissions. There’s still debate about the exact figure, of course, but the point is that it’s an awfully large number to ignore. We first covered the issue last fall, when environmental advocates and rainforest nations (as they are calling themselves these days) started gearing up for the meeting. With an eye toward Bonn, where the next  … Read more