From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
h/t Graham Worthington
From The Instances:
A Canadian firm plans to dump a whole lot 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 ambiance by rising the alkalinity of the water. The UN local weather science panel mentioned final 12 months that eradicating billions of tonnes of CO2 from the air could be important for the world to satisfy the Paris settlement’s objectives.
Planetary Applied sciences will launch between 200 and 300 tonnes of magnesium hydroxide in its mineral kind, brucite, in St Ives Bay over three months this spring.
Magnesium hydroxide might be higher referred to as the compound Milk of Magnesia, used as a laxative. Senior firm figures are attending public conferences in Hayle and Truro to assuage issues concerning the challenge.
The method known as 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 tactic has the bonus of reversing ocean acidification, a risk to marine life that has been brought on by vehicles, energy stations and factories releasing CO2.
“We’re attempting to revive the ocean and restore the local weather for generations,” mentioned Peter Chargin, vice chairman of commercialisation and neighborhood relations at Planetary Applied sciences. “We’re remodeling CO2 within the air into salt within the ocean. We predict this generally is a massive arrow within the quiver of options for local weather change,” he added.
The Nova Scotia-headquartered agency studied places all over the world for the take a look at. It selected Cornwall’s waters as a result of they’re shallow, which is necessary for CO2 elimination 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 is able to function underneath a licence issued by the regulator for England, the Surroundings Company, marks a big scaling up of earlier checks.
Planetary Applied sciences launched about 4 tonnes within the space final 12 months, at a fee that Chargin calls “hysterically small”. Whereas the rise to 200-300 tonnes over 90 days marks a giant improve, 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 firms exploring such approaches however felt the discharge needs to be blocked till additional analysis had been carried out.
She mentioned: “I’m all for the challenge in that we have to discover some progressive options to local weather change, and discover them rapidly. It’s a really thrilling challenge, probably.
“My predominant ideas are that we want to ensure there aren’t any unintended results. My feeling is there isn’t enough information on this introduction [of the mineral] and subsequently no launch needs to be completed till the info is out there. It’s not me attempting to do the nimby factor, St Ives Bay is a extremely important bay for the Cornish financial system and the surroundings.”
Sayer mentioned it was not apparent what the destructive unintended effects is likely to be, however that she was involved about attainable impacts on the marine meals net affecting mammals akin to gray seals.
Ruth Williams, marine conservation supervisor on the Cornwall Wildlife Belief, mentioned the corporate’s method was progressive and he or she welcomed its engagement with locals.
Nevertheless, she mentioned: “While we assist 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 akin to this, and there was little or no environmental analysis completed to mitigate issues thus 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 surroundings 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 length of its brucite releases in future tasks.
That is completely loopy. Possibly someone want to do the sums, however I’d think about the quantity of CO2 sequestered on this manner could be infinitesimal.
However as Sue Sayer factors out, there may very well be unintended results from messing round with the pure eco-systems.
One final query – who’s paying for this nonsense?