AN UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH:

GEOENGINEERING ALERT + CAPS & TRADES
PART 2

 

 

By Rosalind Peterson
July 1, 2007
NewsWithViews.com

Geoengineering projects are beginning to proliferate around the world due to a money market scheme called �CAP & TRADES�. According to David W. Keith, (Department of Engineering & Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA): ��Geoengineering is planetary-scale environmental engineering, particularly engineering aimed at counteracting the undesired side effects of other human activities�The term has usually been applied to proposal for limiting the climatic impact of industrial CO2 emissions by countervailing measures��

Some of these projects include, iron fertilization of our oceans to create artificial algae blooms, shielding of sunlight from reaching the earth through the use of particulates (like sulfur being released into the atmosphere), putting giant sun reflectors into orbit, pumping liquid CO2 into the deep sea oceans, genetically engineering crops, weather modification, greening deserts, use of chemicals in the atmosphere to save ozone (to allegedly counteract the nitric oxide, released as part of jet fuel emissions, that reduces beneficial atmospheric ozone), and a myriad of other proposals. Many of these schemes are going online or are proposed because our military, private corporations, universities, and other government agencies are obtaining more public financing and investment money to continue or initiate these experiments.

Now, climate change and the drumbeat of a crisis called �global warming� has brought some of these geoengineering experiments to light and many geoengineers are ready and waiting to implement a whole array of experimental programs to �save the planet�. None of them really know the consequences of those programs on the environment, public health, or agriculture�and yet they want to experiment without having a public debate (November 2006 NASA Ames Geoengineering Meeting where the public and the press were deliberately not invited to attend).

Climate change had been largely ignored in the United States even though many countries around the world had been engaged in discussions on this subject for many years. Since 2005, the subject of climate change in the United States has been brought to the forefront of news media cycles the same way that the Iraq War was sold to the people of the United States. It was labeled a �crisis� and then followed an incredible �we must do something now� planetary emergency drumbeat led by former Vice-President Al Gore, trumpeting a book, then a movie, along with a massive well-orchestrated media blitz, accompanied by speaking engagements across the United States.

According to Al Gore: ��The relationship between human civilization and the Earth has been utterly transformed by a combination of factors, including the population explosion, the technological revolution, and a willingness to ignore the future consequences of our present actions�� However, Gore manages our perceptions of climate change, it causes, and possible solutions, in a way that is disingenuous because it obscures some of the real causes while working to allow polluters to buy money market credits under a �cap and trade� scheme that will allow pollution to continue unabated or to increase.

A company call Planktos, located in California, has been experimenting with pilot projects in the last few years by adding iron particulates to our oceans to create algae blooms (ocean geoengineering). And yet, Planktos, without any government oversight or public debate is about to take one of the most beautiful, scenic, and diverse marine life regions, the Galapagos Island area, and transform it by placing iron particulates in the ocean to create artificial algae blooms, that will threaten ocean ecosystems. This project is schedule to start this summer unless stopped. These algae blooms will be so large that they may be seen from space�an enormous environmental experiment with unknown consequences.

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According to Friends of the Earth, ��The Galapagos National Park in Ecuador is expressing great concern about the dump, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was demanding answers about the potential harm this dump may cause the Galapagos � which prompted Planktos to change the flag under which it sails and abandon plans to use a U.S.-based ship�Planktos CEO Russ George has promised investors that his iron dumping scheme is a sure way to get rich. He�s attempting to sell carbon offsets to global warming polluters�� And they are heavily lobbying Congress to approve of using our oceans for private profit to allow polluters to pollute more.

The problem with Planktos, is that they are now using questionable scientific market-based, large scale schemes to acidify our oceans and using our ocean resources to make money. They act like they own our oceans and that they can experiment at will without considering the environmental, marine life, birds, animals, food chains, or human health consequences. Is it time to put a stop to the using of our oceans, our food commons, for questionable untested experimentation for private profit and greed? And it won�t help global warming because those that buy the credits will continue to pollute at accelerating rates.

And where is the iron dust for this project coming from? According to George Russ from Planktos: ��We buy it from iron ore producers. We buy an ultra, ultra fine dust, where the dust particle is smaller than that, that blows in the wind, so that it won�t sink��

In the Vancouver Sun�s June 19, 2007 Article Planktos� claims are disputed: ��That claim is disputed by Chris Field of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, who says that the absorption of increasing amounts of carbon dioxide is the main cause of ocean acidification in the first place. "It may be possible to store excess carbon in the ocean, but you'll be acidifying the ocean when you do it, and causing a dramatic change in the the ocean's ecology, with no known effects," Mr. Field said. Ken Caldeira, also of the Carnegie Institution, says "there's no practical way to verify" that ocean seeding would sequester any additional carbon -- and if it did, "it would exacerbate ocean acidification. Caldeira was co-author of a section of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that dealt with ocean-carbon capture. "It's far-fetched to claim you help ocean ecosystems by disturbing them," he said��

�Cap and Trade� money market schemes are only one of the driving forces involved in many of these geoengineering projects. Our military, defense contractors, and private corporations, working with government agencies and universities, are in the lead on developing and implementing some of these projects and more will proliferate in the future without public or government oversight and debate unless we, the people, say �NO.�

A change came across America in the late 1980s. A subtle change, an uneasy change, which was not preceded by any public announcement. It was brought about by the marriage of money (our American tax dollars), advanced computer technology, increasing scientific and other technological capabilities. This subtle change was not noticed by the public at first. The geoengineering experiments and the ground work for this change started in the late 1960s, accelerated through the 1970s, and many went from the drawing boards to implementation in the 1980s, through 2007.

The public was left in the dark not only about these various geoengineering experiments but the consequences of these experiments. It was only through careful documentation of government documents, scientific studies, and university records that these early experiments started to come to light. The public, not warned about these experiments began to notice the changes around them, some of the changes were so subtle, at first, that few recognized them.

A whole new military, government, university, and private corporation language, with its own vocabulary and acronyms, had evolved and was being used in a few military and scientific circles around the world. The public was deliberately left in the dark. Even today most of our high school and most university textbooks don�t use or define this new vocabulary or explore these types of experiments.

A few geoengineers will tell you that they deliberately kept this subject quiet. They knew that if the public found out about their plans for our atmosphere they would object and the projects would be stopped. Even today geoengineers have no idea what the synergistic impacts would be if some of these programs were initiated. And today they continue experimenting on our environment in ways where they have little, if any, control over the experiment or its final outcomes. The public is left to �live inside these experiments� suffering any adverse consequences without any knowledge of their negative impacts or even that the experiments have been implemented.

The Planktos project and its oceanic implications have gone almost unreported. There have been no public debates. The U.S. Congress has not taken up this subject even though Planktos is located in California. The public has been left in the dark about these issues for the most part because, if told, we would object, ask for hearings, and demand and end to this type of program. And worse yet Planktos is alleged to be planning five more similar experimental ocean pilot projects.

According to George Russ: ��we�re a private, for-profit company that has been raising money in adventure capital and investment banking in North America, but more importantly the European Union. Presently, our funding has come from the investment community, because we will be a publicly trading company very shortly�� And they are looking for Senate Bill 280 funding for their private company. Currently they are promoting and are ready to begin this project in the Galapagos ocean area at almost any time.

An Investigation of a current bill before the United State House of Representatives - HR 1091: [Read] �To reauthorize the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998, and for other purposes�, contains the following information which gives us many reasons to stop the Planktos project:

�The U.S. Congress finds the following:

(1) A harmful algal bloom is a condition that occurs in ocean waters when a significantly large and highly concentrated growth of phytoplankton or algae produces biotoxins or otherwise causes negative effects.

(2) A common harmful algal bloom event known as Red Tide occurs when appropriate conditions allow for massive overgrowth of micro algae, causing phytoplankton blooms that discolor the water.

(3) Harmful algal blooms commonly occur in waters off the East and West coasts of the United States, as well as in the Gulf of Mexico, the Great Lakes, and the waters surrounding the offshore territories of the United States.

(4) Harmful algal blooms cause dangerous respiratory distress, burning eyes, and other ailments to individuals in affected areas, as well as the nationwide potential of severe food poisoning from the consumption of contaminated shellfish.

(5) Harmful algal blooms cause severe impacts to natural resources by way of illness and death to marine mammals, fish, sea turtles, and sea birds as well as coral reef and sea grass communities. As massive algal blooms die, their decomposition depletes oxygen from the water resulting in hypoxic and anoxic conditions leaving vast dead zones in our coastal oceans and lakes.

(6) Harmful algal blooms cause significant economic harm to businesses and individuals engaged in fishing and shell fishing, as well as to communities and businesses that depend on their coastal location for tourism.

(7) Because harmful algal blooms are affected by many variables, including weather and currents, it is impossible to predict the location, timing, or duration of harmful algal blooms, and further study is needed to understand how these variables, as well as other environmental factors, may cause or contribute to the formation or maintenance of harmful algal blooms��

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It is time to not only object but to contact our elected representatives and demand that they protect our marine ocean environment from debatable profiteering schemes. Defeat U.S. Senate Bill 280 (Senator Lieberman�s Bill), and U.S. House Bill 906 and stop these market driven solutions that use our oceans for questionable �cap and trade� schemes that will allow polluters by credits to continue to pollute our environment more. For part one click below.

Click here for part -----> 1,

 

References:

1, For more information contact Friends of the Earth - Website
2, Planktos Home Page
3, Planktos Ocean Geoengineering Plans - February 19, 2007 San Francisco Chronicle
4, Planktos Information
5, Planktos Press Kit
6, Planktos Profits
7, Los Angeles Times April 1, 2007 "Carbon Trading Won't Work"
8, The Wall Street Journal June 22, 2007 - Geoengineering Article: "In Case We Can't Give Up the Cars Try 16 Trillion Mirrors"
9, The Vancouver Sun Article: June 19, 2007 Planktos' "Plans to Alter Ocean Chemistry Hits Rough Seas," Part two.

� 2007 Rosalind Peterson - All Rights Reserved

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