To: Hawkmoon  who wrote (3255 ) 11/14/2012 1:22:06 AM From: Maurice Winn  1 Recommendation   Read Replies (1)  | Respond to    of 4326  Hawk, it is a very sure bet that phyto plankton are limited by something, as is all life.   That limitation will vary from place to place and time to time.   For example, in the northern winter, those lurking around the Arctic circle are limited by lack of light.   Also, it's really cold in the northern and southern oceans so that limits chemical reactions such as CO2 absorption by phyto plankton.   Iron is established as a missing ingredient in many places, so boosting that will boost CO2 absorption and food chain production.   There might be other missing ingredients too [for all I know].   Back in 1986, when ozone was becoming a problem due to CFCs [chlorinated fluorocarbons], I came up with the idea of BP Jetizone or maybe Jetozone which would be some magical catalyst included with jet fuel which would be spread into the stratosphere to catalyze ozone production [it was as half-baked as that sounds as I had no idea what might be needed to do it].    In this instance,  it would be much easier to put iron into bunker fuel to be spread around the planet by ships. Easier in all sorts of ways.   The extra weight wouldn't matter,  the fuel quality wouldn't be crucial,  the altitude would be exactly right - at sea level,  the iron would be well spread,  iron is cheap.    It couldn't be iron filings of course.   But if small enough, such as in dissolved form,  it would blow right through to the exhaust with no problem.    Oceans have giant rotational currents which would spread it further, so even if ships pass over the same routes, the iron would be fully spread.   The Gulf Stream isn't rotational, but the fish supplies up north might be fantastic if fish food grew on the way north.    As you correctly state, it's non-toxic, immediately reversible and not requiring "precautionary principle" worries.   Precautionary principle was my hobby horse in the early 1980s before the phrase was invented.  My argument was risky things should be presumed risky until proven otherwise.    It used to drive me nuts that stupid polluters would say "There is no evidence that such and such is harmful" which really meant they didn't have a clue and it was obviously quite likely that there would be harm because lead, carcinogens and other deleterious materials are intrinsically harmful, probably in any dose, so proof of safety BEFORE use is needed.     Now, the precautionary principle has been perverted to mean nobody should do anything.   We even have the absurdity of the EPA calling CO2 a pollutant.   In that case, water is a pollutant too and so is everything so they could as well control everything that moves if that argument is accepted, which it seems to be.    Iron in the ocean is about as harmless as anything could be.  Meteorites burn up daily, sprinkling the oceans with iron.  Iron in the oceans is natural.   Piha beach is covered with black sand which is iron oxide.   Iron is an essential ingredient of life.   It would take a monster amount [totally unachievable] to pollute the open oceans with iron.   Since there is no economic incentive to spread more than will get life going,  the risk of excess is zero.    Fishing is local in nature [mostly] so a country like NZ could require fishing boats and boats visiting NZ to burn the approved Finely Fragmented Ferrous Fish Food Fuel [tm] while in NZ waters.   NZ sells fishing quotas so if the government paid for the additive,  it would be returned by way of profitable fish catch.  Ships burn megatons of fuel, so a LOT of iron could be distributed at low cost.      Mqurice