AAAS: "Can dumping seaweed on the sea floor sequester carbon and cool the planet? Some scientists are skeptical." The jounral Science published a steady drumbeat of stories last yr looking at efforts to fight climate change. "Some researchers [were] investigating whether alkaline materials can be added to the ocean to suck up carbon, while others are exploring methods such as cloud seeding to prevent water vapor from reaching the stratosphere or oceanic fertilizer [iron] dumping to trigger phytoplankton blooms.  One of the controversial hypotheses raised this question: "Can dumping seaweed on the sea floor sequester carbon and cool the planet? One of the experts interviewed for that effort thought it was nonsense, + I must admit I share that skepticism. Scientists fear that this approach could harm marine ecosystems while failing to capture significant amounts of carbon. Philosophically + practically, I feel we need to focus on ameliorating climate disruption by pushing against the root causes of burning fossil fuels—about 89% of the problem—and fighting land clearanace, the other 11% or so.
