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New company wants to seed ocean with iron to sequester carbon

Posted at 12:24 PM on 05 Mar 2008

Weeks after ocean-seeding company Planktos bit the iron dust, a startup called Climos is plowing ahead with a similar business plan: seed the ocean with iron dust to stimulate the growth of CO2-gobbling plankton, then sell offsets for the sequestered carbon. Climos has announced $3.5 million in venture capital and is backed by reputable investors: Tesla Chair (née Pay-Pal cofounder) Elon Musk and venture-capital firm Braemar Energy Ventures. Climos CEO Dan Whaley says his company differs from Planktos in that it will have a science-oriented approach, expert managerial team, and "all-star cast" of experienced scientists. Whether it can avoid the wrath of Planktos' dreaded "anti-offset crusaders" remains to be seen.

sources: Earth2Tech, CNET News, Bizjournals.com

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Comments: (3 comments)

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have a Gristmill account, log in below. If you don't have a Gristmill account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.

Wait! I'll Protect You

For a fee.

Here, give me your money.

Ok, now I'll be back in a few hours after I "seed the ocean with iron".

Zip Zip.

I'm back.

Feel better?

I knew you would.

$10 pa-lease!

by jabailo at 11:33 PM on 05 Mar 2008

Not Only That

Has anyone considered the ecological harm that "seeding" the oceans with iron dust may cause? This plan is as ecologically retarded as it is obviously greedy.

by Wolverine at 6:32 PM on 11 Mar 2008

Ice 9

This idea is comically inane. Considering the trend that harmful algae blooms are increasing in their frequency, length and severity around the world due primarily to the increasing use of synthetic commercial fertilizers.... now we are just going to skip a step and fertilizer the oceans directly. This plan sounds like it was hatched by an ambitious third grader who is great at dodgeball and sucks at science.

Someone please tell Mr. Musk that this scheme smells a lot like a pile of dead fish rather than a whiff of fresh "clean" tech

by Stu at 12:48 AM on 12 Mar 2008

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