WASHINGTON—World Wildlife Fund today announced its opposition to a plan by Planktos, Inc. (OTCBB: PLKT) to dump iron dust in the open ocean west of the Galapagos Islands. The experiment seeks to induce phytoplankton blooms in the hopes that the microscopic marine plants will absorb carbon dioxide. The company is speculating on lucrative ways to combat climate change.

“There are much safer and proven ways of preventing or lowering carbon dioxide levels than dumping iron into the ocean,” said Dr. Lara Hansen, chief scientist, WWF International Climate Change Program. “This kind of experimentation with disregard for marine life and the lives of people who rely on the sea is unacceptable.”

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http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/02/planktos.php
"....coccolithophorid ....runs on chlorophyll & carotenoids, forms massive blooms, sequesters his CO2 inhalations in CaCO3 scales, and then sinks in great numbers to form deposits of chalk."

The really important point here is that we are only proposing "restoration" of phytoplankton to 1980 levels of health and activity as defined by NASA and NOAA scientists. Their studies show a 25% decline in Pacific plankton populations in the last 25 years and a 6~9% die off globally.

Considering that 1980 levels of marine photosynthesis metabolized about 50 gigatons of CO2 annually, the recent shortfall equals nearly 3 gigatons of lost photosynthetic capacity or approximately half of all industrial and automotive emissions each year.

Returning plankton populations to 1980 levels would neutralize about 50% of industrial society's greenhouse gas emissions, and we feel that is about all you can or should ask a single ecosystem to contribute to our self-inflicted climate wars. The rest of the problem must eventually be handled by our own species, changing our basic energy systems and insane consumption patterns.

One reason is that if our collective response to Climate Change is limited to lessening future CO2 emissions with better technologies today, these same technologies may [need to] be used more intensely in the future. Such a narrow focus also overlooks legacy emissions of CO2 that will remain in the stratosphere for decades....

First off, we are not talking about "large" infusions of bio-available iron. We are talking are about very dilute infusions over very large areas. Iron only has to be replenished in parts per trillion.

Our projects will add something on the order of 50 tons of iron to seed an ocean surface area of approximately 10,000 square kilometers in diameter. This would be only a few percent of the scale of naturally occurring blooms.