Alongside attempts to limit mankind's production of greenhouse gases, there is a pressing need to find ways of removing carbon from the atmosphere and ‘sequestering’ it in the land, in geological formations and in the oceans. The US government has now taken laudable steps in that direction, but there is a danger that progress could continue to be unjustifiably hindered.

Nearly two years ago, the US President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology issued a report that included a recommendation for the US Department of Energy (DoE) to increase research and development in carbon sequestration. The DoE has now announced the creation of two centres to examine ocean and terrestrial sequestration methods. It is also soliciting proposals for research, to the tune of at least $18 million, towards the separation and capture of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, as well as sequestration (see page 315).

Hitherto, the political climate in Washington has kept this research pinned to the drawing-board. Some politicians in Congress oppose anything suggesting that the United States might be conforming with the Kyoto Protocol negotiated to address global warming. Politicians also see the projected costs of sequestration, and fear the drag on the US economy. Meanwhile, environmentalists have been slow to embrace sequestration research, believing it might undermine hard-won gains in renewable energy and conservation efforts.

At a DoE workshop on sequestration last week, researchers were bullish about ocean and geological sequestration research. More positively still, there is an encouraging level of cooperation between the agency's Office of Science and Office of Fossil Energy — offices that haven't always had a smooth working relationship. But on sequestration, the Office of Science's orientation towards more basic research appears to fit well alongside the more applied outlook of the Office of Fossil Energy. Such cooperation will be necessary to lead the way as the complexities and costs of sequestration become better understood. This cooperative attitude must also extend to the partnerships between scientists and industry if large-scale sequestration is to be made reality.

For significant sequestration to be feasible, much more basic research must be conducted, particularly in the oceans. Already, some companies are fertilizing the ocean with nutrients to increase fish harvests while trumpeting the additional benefits of sequestration. Research on ocean ‘scrubbing’ (enhanced rates of removal by organisms) as well as carbon dioxide ‘injection’ (disposal in liquid form for hundreds of years at depths below one kilometre or so) needs to come before the application of such commercial efforts, especially given the possible ecological consequences of such practices.

That is why a planned experiment off Hawaii is so important, and requires active support. Scientists at the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research, collaborating with an international team, are planning to inject liquefied carbon dioxide at a depth of about 900 metres off the Kona coast. The experiment, proposed for the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii, would be conducted in 2001 in an established research corridor in the ocean. It is designed to gather the environmental data to properly assess future sequestration experiments. The authority that governs the Natural Energy Laboratory has yet to approve the experiment. But some environmental groups fear that it will harm the ocean ecosystem and give encouragement to the construction of another power plant. Scientists fear that the entire experiment may be jeopardized by delays. If the opportunity to conduct a reasoned environmental-assessment experiment disappears, both environment and science will be the losers.