The fishermen are not impressed.
Show me the caustic soda
Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution want to dump 6,600 gallons of sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda or lye, into the ocean off the coast of Cape Cod in an effort to slow climate change.
The unorthodox plan is likely to face significant headwinds not only from U.S. regulators, but also from local fishing communities and environmentalists. Local news stations WBUR Reports.
The idea is deceptively simple: increase the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere above by diluting the extremely basic chemicals in seawater, a process known as ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE).
This is just one of several geoengineering efforts aimed at slowing the progress of climate change, but it remains to be seen whether these efforts will pay off in the long term. And critics say: Possible risks.
Acid Test
The Woods Hole team maintains that sodium hydroxide will have no lasting adverse effects on marine life.
“We care about the environment, too,” said co-principal investigator Dan McCorkle, a recently retired Woods Hole scientist. WBUR“If we expected it to have a big impact, we wouldn’t do this.” [on marine life]”
Other geoengineering efforts aimed at combating climate change by other teams include: Aerosol particle release In the stratosphere it darkens the sun.
Meanwhile, the OAE aims to slow the decline in the oceans’ ability to absorb human-caused carbon dioxide emissions. When carbon dioxide dissolves in seawater, it produces carbon dioxide gas, which increases ocean acidity and can have devastating effects on marine life.
The added sodium hydroxide is intended to reverse or at least moderate this process.
McCorkle and his colleagues recently applied for a federal permit from the Environmental Protection Agency for an experiment off the coast of Cape Cod, and they hope to eventually scale it up to do a larger experiment in the Gulf of Maine sometime next year.
The team is adamant that they must act now before it’s too late.
“Given that we don’t seem to have the ability or willingness to rapidly transition away from burning fossil fuels, it may be important to start considering whether any of these methods could really help,” McCorkle said. WBUR“Will it help remove carbon from the atmosphere?”
But opposition to their plans is already growing, with the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association recently letter It told the EPA that further work needs to be done “before truckloads of liquid alkali are dumped into the ocean.”
More about geoengineering: Yikes! Scientists say geoengineering tricks to cool heatwaves could cause temperatures to soar elsewhere
