Farewell to Planktos - August 22, 2008
Planktos, a company that wanted to dump a load of iron filings in the sea with the idea that it would help carbon-eating phytoplankton grow, thereby solving the world’s climate crisis, is in crisis itself.
This began back in February when the company dumped its iron-dumping pilot project, protesting it had been the victim of a “highly effective disinformation campaign waged by anti-offset crusaders”.
Now the company, listed by Pink Sheets, has announced it will seek out an alternative near term business opportunity , change its name, consolidate its stock and make an acquisition. No details yet on what any of those things involve, though.
No doubt environmentalists will be relieved by the news – back at the height of Plankton’s media fame, scientists were not backwards in coming forwards to offer dramatic, dangerous consequences to be expected if Planktos went ahead with its scheme – such as a glut of nitrous-oxide-producing bacteria growing to feed on the bloom, thus emitting more greenhouse gases. The company was also criticized for its disregard of what the iron fertilization would mean for the local ecosystem.
Comments
Not that those who crow about the demise of Planktos Corp. care about facts. But had they bothered to read the SEC filings in this matter they would know that this report is on the demise of Planktos Corp. the public company, not the inspired work of the Planktos team who have reformed as the private company Planktos Science in accordance with the legal terms and conditions of the dissolution of thier relationship with the public company. But hey who cares about the facts and truth when you can simply take an equally effective, albeit ignorant, swipe at the work.
The Harvard Business publications group just took a similarly ignorant swipe at Planktos... Never having bothered to fact check with Planktos on thier swipe. With regard to the Harvard item this article is so fraught with spin and false statements it is hard to know where to begin.
The author Fryer talks about greener heads prevailing. Yes those are the 'greener head' that were engaged in delivering threats to sink the Planktos vessel which amount to death threats on the high seas, fomenting hate mail, and myriad other actions against the people and projects of Planktos.
Those same 'greener heads' added to that professional threats against the careers of scientists helping the project.
In classic smear tactic style those 'greener heads' created a 'strawman' Planktos and proceeded to attack that strawman rather than discuss the real project. This article and the Harvard business group sustains that 'strawman' smear campaign.
Yes these are the same "greener heads' that contested the research work Planktos proposed. The fact that 20 years and $200 million dollars of international research had led to this step was ignored as if this was totally unknown and dangerous virgin territory. The fact that today the international science community is openly calling for almost an identical research effort to what Planktos was engaged in - ignored.
But far more seriously as this topic was turned into a 'Swift Boat" style smear and political football the fact that the hundreds of gigatonnes of fossil CO2, that gigatonne carbon bomb airborn and impcacting the ocean ecosystems now with dire acidfiying effect is - ignored. And lets not forget the fact that the ocean eco-restoration work of Planktos and the hope that through such science and technology development a replenished and restored ocean ecology might just possibly be able to counter the deadly impact of the carbon bomb turning that deadly CO2 into ocean life instead of acidifying ocean death - ignored.
The fact that the project Planktos was running offered the worlds first totally dedicated full time plankton research vessel equipped and staffed by the same scientific institutions that equip and staff the world meager but mainstream ocean research fleet - ignored.
The fact that the Planktos project aimed to deliver 50 tonnes, yes that is 50 tonnes of natural iron mineral micro-nutrient dust into an ocean that receives 500 million tonnes of mineral dust blown from North Africa each year - ignored. The fact that the project was openly transparent and working to be in compliance with the rules of the Kyoto Accord and countless international oversight programs - ignored.
So yes if one is to believe this author and the Harvard Business Group 'greener heads' did indeed prevail. Tragically those 'greener heads' are the ones who don't hesitate to employ hate crime methods to stop critical ocean scientific research. And those same 'greener heads' use thier ruthless attack on Planktos to conduct massive fund raising and media dis-information campaigns. One must question just what sort of person would profess this as some kind of victory as opposed to the dastardly conspiracy it so clearly was.
Posted by: russ | August 25, 2008 07:57 PM