Ocean 'fertilisation' team ordered to halt global warming experiment

An expedition including British scientists that hoped to "fertilise" the ocean to combat global warming was last night ordered to stop because of concerns that the experiment could breach international law.

By Matthew Moore Last Updated: 7:50PM GMT 25 Jan 2009

The team planned to drop 20 tons of iron sulphate into waters around the Antarctic to stimulate the growth of plankton, which would take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Environmentalists had claimed that the experiment – aimed at creating a 186-square-mile bloom of plankton between Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope so big that it will be visible from outer space – could have a devastating impact on the oceans and may even speed up global warming.
The German government last night ordered scientists on the German polar research ship RV Polarstern to halt their work in the Southern Ocean, amid concerns that it may be banned under the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity.
The ship set off earlier this month, but the scientists had held off starting the experiment pending legal and environmental reviews.
Supporters of the expedition claim that the method could one day slow global warming by removing carbon from the atmosphere for centuries. The plankton fall to the bottom of the ocean when they die, taking the carbon dioxide they have absorbed with them.
Two scientists from the University of Southampton's National Oceanography Centre are on board the RV Polarstern, although the expedition is a joint Indian-German project.