From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
h/t Graham Worthington
From The Instances:
A Canadian firm plans to dump lots of of tonnes of a mineral off the Cornish coast to sluggish local weather change, regardless of calls by environmentalists to halt the trial.
The pioneering scheme by Planetary Applied sciences is designed to take away CO2 from the environment by rising the alkalinity of the water. The UN local weather science panel mentioned final yr that eradicating billions of tonnes of CO2 from the air could be important for the world to satisfy the Paris settlement’s targets.
Planetary Applied sciences will launch between 200 and 300 tonnes of magnesium hydroxide in its mineral type, brucite, in St Ives Bay over three months this spring.
Magnesium hydroxide might be higher often called the compound Milk of Magnesia, used as a laxative. Senior firm figures are attending public conferences in Hayle and Truro to assuage issues in regards to the challenge.
The strategy is named ocean alkalinity enhancement, and makes use of an alkaline mineral to shift the pH worth of the ocean. Making the water extra alkaline hurries up the pure manner oceans lock CO2 away by neutralising dissolved CO2 and turning it right into a salt.
The strategy has the bonus of reversing ocean acidification, a menace to marine life that has been attributable to automobiles, energy stations and factories releasing CO2.
“We’re attempting to revive the ocean and restore the local weather for generations,” mentioned Peter Chargin, vp of commercialisation and group relations at Planetary Applied sciences. “We’re reworking CO2 within the air into salt within the ocean. We predict this could be a large arrow within the quiver of options for local weather change,” he added.
The Nova Scotia-headquartered agency studied places world wide for the take a look at. It selected Cornwall’s waters as a result of they’re shallow, which is essential for CO2 removing as a result of the alkalinity-enhanced water must be involved with the air for a very long time. The water can also be very well-mixed, or turbulent, which ought to assist the method.
The experiment, which can function underneath a licence issued by the regulator for England, the Atmosphere Company, marks a major scaling up of earlier assessments.
Planetary Applied sciences launched about 4 tonnes within the space final yr, at a charge that Chargin calls “hysterically small”. Whereas the rise to 200-300 tonnes over 90 days marks a giant enhance, Chargin mentioned it was nonetheless comparatively small, a “drop within the bucket”.
Brucite is the mineral type of magnesium hydroxide
Sue Sayer, director of the Cornwall Seal Analysis Belief, mentioned she welcomed corporations exploring such approaches however felt the discharge ought to be blocked till additional analysis had been performed.
She mentioned: “I’m all for the challenge in that we have to discover some revolutionary options to local weather change, and discover them shortly. It’s a really thrilling challenge, probably.
“My principal ideas are that we want to ensure there aren’t any unintended results. My feeling is there isn’t ample knowledge on this introduction [of the mineral] and due to this fact no launch ought to be executed till the information is obtainable. It’s not me attempting to do the nimby factor, St Ives Bay is a extremely important bay for the Cornish economic system and the atmosphere.”
Sayer mentioned it was not apparent what the detrimental uncomfortable side effects may be, however that she was involved about attainable impacts on the marine meals internet affecting mammals corresponding to gray seals.
Ruth Williams, marine conservation supervisor on the Cornwall Wildlife Belief, mentioned the corporate’s strategy was revolutionary and he or she welcomed its engagement with locals.
Nonetheless, she mentioned: “While we help their ambition of looking for a manner to assist sort out our present local weather emergency, and agree that in precept the chemistry ought to work, we’re very conscious that there’s potential for unintended penalties with new concepts corresponding to this, and there was little or no environmental analysis executed to mitigate issues so far that we’re conscious of.”
Chargin mentioned he hoped the general public conferences would put folks’s fears to relaxation. “We really feel compelled to behave, as a result of the atmosphere is in danger from ocean acidification and local weather change. Cornwall is a good place to do it,” he mentioned.
The corporate can also be working trials in Canada and hopes to extend the focus and period of its brucite releases in future tasks.
That is completely loopy. Possibly someone want to do the sums, however I might think about the quantity of CO2 sequestered on this manner could be infinitesimal.
However as Sue Sayer factors out, there could possibly be unintended results from messing round with the pure eco-systems.
One final query – who’s paying for this nonsense?
