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Ocean fertilization: time to move on

Nature volume 461, pages 347–348 (2009)Cite this article

Adding iron to the ocean is not an effective way to fight climate change, and we don't need further research to establish that, say Aaron Strong, Sallie Chisholm, Charles Miller and John Cullen.

It is already commonly accepted that ocean iron fertilization should not be rushed into as a mitigation strategy. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change regards it as supported by neither appropriate assessment of environmental side effects nor a clear institutional framework for implementation. Similarly, last year, two United Nations conventions passed resolutions restricting large-scale ocean iron fertilization activities, citing concerns about the environmental risks and lack of a scientific basis on which to justify such activities — concerns that have been recognized for some time. A Royal Society report released this month emphasized that the technique has a relatively small capacity to absorb carbon, and comes with “probably deleterious ecological consequences”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aaron Strong was a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is enrolled in the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.,

    Aaron Strong

  2. Sallie Chisholm is in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology chisholm@mit.edu,

    Sallie Chisholm

  3. Charles Miller is in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon ,

    Charles Miller

  4. John Cullen is in the Department of Oceanography at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.,

    John Cullen

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  1. Aaron Strong
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  2. Sallie Chisholm
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  3. Charles Miller
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  4. John Cullen
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Strong, A., Chisholm, S., Miller, C. et al. Ocean fertilization: time to move on. Nature 461, 347–348 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/461347a

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