Submitted by ETC Staff on
The experiment is intended to be done with the Weatherbird II launching Experimental project raises concern among PNG Officials.
The Galápagos National Park (entity in charge of managing and administering the two protected areas of the Galápagos Archipelago), is concerned with the US Company Planktos and its plans to experiment in waters near the Galápagos Marine Reserve. For this reason the park has been examining data to stop the Planktos experiment, which could affect the fragile ecosystems of the Galápagos Islands, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Planktos Inc., along board their ship the Weatherbird II, pretends to mitigate global warming by dumping iron nanoparticles over an area of 10,000 square kilometers, with the goal to create plankton blooms able to absorb carbon dioxide form the atmosphere sending it to the bottom of the ocean.
This action, according to various scientist and oceanographs at the international level, could have unpredictable consequences for ocean ecosystems. These individuals have attested to the fact that Planktos’s experiment is scientifically dubious, environmentally dangerous and capable of altering marine food chains.
A report from the Scientific Group of the London Convention, released by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), states that according to years of heavily weighted investigation, there exist serious doubts regarding the effectiveness of these methods for capturing carbon. The report also expresses its concern that these experiments could harm marine ecosystems and have possibly negative environmental impacts as well as possible negative secondary effects for those involved in the project.
The Galápagos National Park has not received any official declaration from those responsible for this experimental project or from anyone at the Planktos Company. The information here within was obtained from various press and from Planktos’s webpage, which promotes their experiment.
Furthermore, the exact geographic position or the exact date for the Planktos experiment is unknown at this time. However, Planktos’s webpage advertises that the experiment will take place 100 kilometers west of the archipelago. Nevertheless, Galápagos National Park Technicians are still concerned that currents, which approach the coast of the Galapagos Islands, will carry the experiments contents (Iron).