World's biggest geoengineering experiment 'violates' UN rules

World's biggest geoengineering experiment 'violates' UN rules



Controversial US businessman's iron fertilisation off west coast of Canada contravenes two UN conventions









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 a
controversial geoengineering scheme. Photograph: Giovanni/Goddard Earth
Sciences Data and Information Services Center/NASA




A controversial American businessman dumped around 100 tonnes of iron sulphate into the Pacific Ocean as part of a geoengineering scheme off the west coast of Canada in July, a Guardian investigation can reveal.
Lawyers,
environmentalists and civil society groups are calling it a "blatant
violation" of two international moratoria and the news is likely to
spark outrage at a United Nations environmental summit taking place in India this week.
Satellite
images appear to confirm the claim by Californian Russ George that the
iron has spawned an artificial plankton bloom as large as 10,000 square
kilometres. The intention is for the plankton to absorb carbon dioxide
and then sink to the ocean bed – a geoengineering technique known as ocean fertilisation that he hopes will net lucrative carbon credits.
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."
The dump took place from a fishing boat in an eddy 200 nautical miles west of the islands of Haida Gwaii,
one of the world's most celebrated, diverse ecosystems, where George
convinced the local council of an indigenous village to establish the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation to channel more than $1m of its own funds into the project.
The
president of the Haida nation, Guujaaw, said the village was told the
dump would environmentally benefit the ocean, which is crucial to their
livelihood and culture.
"The village people voted to support what
they were told was a 'salmon enhancement project' and would not have
agreed if they had been told of any potential negative effects or that
it was in breach of an international convention," Guujaaw said.
International
legal experts say George's project has contravened 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.
"It appears to be a blatant violation of two
international resolutions," said Kristina M Gjerde, a senior high seas
adviser for the International Union for Conservation of Nature. "Even
the placement of iron particles into the ocean, whether for carbon
sequestration or fish replenishment, should not take place, unless it is
assessed and found to be legitimate scientific research without
commercial motivation. This does not appear to even have had the guise
of legitimate scientific research."
George told the Guardian that the two moratoria are a "mythology" and do not apply to his project.
The
parties to the UN CBD are currently meeting in Hyderabad, India, where
the governments of Bolivia, the Philippines and African nations as well
as indigenous peoples organizations are calling for the current
moratorium to be upgraded to a comprehensive test ban of geoengineering
that includes enforcement mechanisms.
"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,"
said Silvia Ribeiro of the international technology watchdog ETC Group,
which first discovered the existence of the scheme. "It is now more
urgent than ever that governments unequivocally ban such open-air
geoengineering experiments. They are a dangerous distraction providing
governments and industry with an excuse to avoid reducing fossil fuel
emissions."






















source:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/oct/15/pacific-iron-fertilisation-geoengineering