Special Report: Experimental climate fixes stir hopes, fears, lawyers | (Reuters) - Last year the Haida, an indigenous group in Canada, set out to increase their salmon stocks and save the planet. Helped by American businessman Russ George, a group of villagers dumped 100 metric tons (110.23 tons) of iron dust from a boat into the Pacific Ocean. They wanted to see if the iron would cause a bloom of algae that could promote fish numbers and absorb the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Instead, in March, they were raided by Canadian officials for illegal dumping at sea. "I think they (the officials) kind of expected to see Dr. Evil and his group planning to destroy the Earth with geoengineers," said James Straith, lawyer for Haida Salmon Restoration Corp. (HSRC), as the project called itself. "What they got was a bunch of nice kids doing a lot of things on plankton scanning, scientific models and analyzing data... Did the officials really need bullet-proof vests?" The Haida case highlights a growing legal, environmental and even geo-political conundrum. The Canadian group is part of a debate about geoengineering - deliberate and sometimes sci-fi-like interventions designed to slow climate change. A U.N. panel of climate scientists says carbon dioxide and other gases are causing global temperatures to rise and change our climate and will lead to more heat waves, droughts, floods and rising seas. Geoengineers have proposed everything from brightening clouds to reflect more sunlight and heat back into space to - as in the case of the Haida - encouraging the oceans to soak up more carbon dioxide. The idea behind the ‘ocean fertilization' experiment was simple: iron will promote the growth of algae which will provide food for fish and absorb carbon dioxide from the air as they grow. When the algae die their remains fall to the seabed, removing them from the atmosphere. Environment Canada, the nation's environment ministry, said the experiment was illegal under Canadian law and violated the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the London Convention, which governs dumping at sea. World leaders at a U.N. Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro last year urged "utmost caution" in ocean fertilization due to worries that it could disrupt marine life. Many scientists remain skeptical about whether any form of geoengineering will solve climate change. Allowing research, they argue, may detract from efforts to reduce emissions from cars, power plants and factories.Reuters

Special Report: Experimental climate fixes stir hopes, fears, lawyers | Reuters: "But despite the uncertainty about efficacy and safety, groups and individuals around the world are beginning to experiment, arguing that humanity needs a ‘Plan B' in case countries don't cut greenhouse gas emissions.

A draft of a report by the U.N. panel, due for publication in late September and seen by Reuters, warns that the side-effects of sun-dimming geoengineering, for instance, "make it a high-risk strategy" but also concludes that some methods might help avoid some of the worst effects of warming." CLICK LINK TO READ MORE

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