Project Science
Global Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Mitigation
The SEA scientific research efforts are focused on natural
process-driven global mechanisms for the megaton to
gigaton removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This
carbon sequestration approach has many dimensions and we are
carefully examining the plausibility of each one as we explore the
underlying science. The principal three greenhouse gases (GHG) in
all ecosystems are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and
nitrous oxide (N2O). Since carbon dioxide is the dominant GHG, it is
our main and only focus. We are not dealing with the sources or
anthropogenic (human caused) production of carbon dioxide. The
SEA research effort centers on the removal of carbon dioxide from
the atmosphere and not its production. It is highly unlikely any
meaningful solutions will be found based on slowing man's
production of carbon dioxide. Humanity is unlikely to reduce its
addiction to fossil fuels in this century. Essentially at this point in
our history, all efforts in this arena are simply too little and too
late. Our research program is solely concerned with removing
carbon dioxide after it has been emitted into the atmosphere.
The SEA program is built upon oceanographic research in seawater
chemistry at the air-sea interface and in surface and bottom water
carbon sequestration mechanisms. Central to our research effort is
the global carbon cycle and the atmospheric chemistry of the lower
troposphere. This involves an in-depth examination of the
biochemical reactions triggered in surface waters of the world's
oceans from high to low latitudes with photosynthetic activity
treated as a long-term driver. Seabed sequestration of carbon in
continental shelf areas, especially in the Arctic, is a focal point of
these efforts. Special emphasis has been placed on air-sea
interaction and boundary layer transport.
Primary production is the generation of chemical energy in organic
compounds by living organisms such as phytoplankton in seawater.
It is well established that primary production occurs mainly
through photosynthesis and almost all life on Earth relies directly
or indirectly on primary production. Complex organic molecules are
synthesized from the basic building blocks of aqueous or
atmospheric carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight as the energy
source. Photosynthesis produces the oxygen we need to breathe
and consumes carbon dioxide, the problematic molecule in global
climate change. Photosynthesis is the major source for
atmospheric oxygen and the major sink of atmospheric CO2
worldwide. When atmospheric carbon dioxide is 'consumed' during
photosynthesis it changes from a free-floating molecule to a 'fixed'
state in an organic molecule. This is what phytoplankton does.
These basic molecules are further synthesized into more
complicated molecules such as complex carbohydrates, proteins,
lipids, and nucleic acids which form the basic building blocks of our
planet's food chain. Primary producers lie at the base of every food
chain.
The major primary producers in the marine ecosystem are
phytoplankton. These are microscopic, single-celled, free-floating
plants that are present in the world's oceans in staggering
numbers. Phytoplankton are the basic foundation of life in the
world's oceans, and therefore, on our planet. The predominate
forms of phytoplankton include silica-encased diatoms,
dinoflagellates, bacteria (cyanobacteria), chalk-coated/armor-plated
coccolithophores, and a vast number of marine algae and marine
vegetation such as macroalgae. Ocean cyanobacteria play a huge,
but poorly understood, role in the carbon cycle as phytoplankton in
the marine ecosystem. Data show they could account for perhaps
as much as 25% of all photosynthesis on Earth. In terms of the
global carbon cycle and climate change, phytoplankton are believed
to contribute more than 50% of the world's carbon fixation.
Research has also indicated that phytoplankton may produce 80% of
the organic material in the world. Because of the sheer magnitude
of the phytoplankton impact on atmospheric oxygen and carbon
dioxide, much of Sea Earth Alliance's study efforts are focused on
several lines of research in this key area.
Diatoms alone, an especially important class of phytoplankton,
account for as much as 60% of primary productivity in the marine
ecosystem. Many diatoms are so tiny that 30 can fit across the
width of a human hair. Most are far too small to see without
magnification; their size, however, belies their importance to life on
Earth. Data suggests that diatoms account for some 20% of the
total photosynthesis on Earth. In addition, current estimates
indicate that these marine primary producers may account for as
much as 71% of all carbon storage. These numbers are dramatically
impactful on the global carbon cycle. Diatoms are known to be one
of the key organisms removing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide
from the Earth's atmosphere. Because of the weight of the diatom
shells, they typically sink to watery graves on the seafloor,
effectively taking a significant fraction of carbon out of the surface
waters and locking it into seabed sediments in many cases.
Accelerated, biospheric uptake of carbon dioxide by marine primary
producers may offer a plausible pathway to major reductions in
atmospheric carbon dioxide. We view the acceleration of this
pathway as a potential major global avenue leading to carbon
dioxide mitigation and subsequent reduction of this greenhouse
gas in the troposphere. This approach is an example of one of the
current avenues of research for the Sea Earth Alliance.
On a global scale we suspect the world's atmospheric carbon
dioxide concentration is capable of being significantly reduced to
much lower levels. This may be feasible through detailed
examination of the oceanic component of the carbon cycle together
with the biochemical pathways necessary to accelerate biologic
uptake of carbon dioxide at the air-sea interface. Our preliminary
model calculations indicate there is a significant probability carbon
dioxide concentrations can be lowered from the current 400 to 410
ppm range in less than ten years, and this is accomplished with only
a modest cut-back in anthropogenically generated carbon dioxide.
This human-generated component of greenhouse gas is the main
reason we are experiencing the slow-motion catastrophe we know
as Global Climate Change.
We are currently in the middle of Phase Two of our Five-Phase
research effort. The focus on diatoms, as described above, is one
example of our research direction in this program. The SEA team is
conducting an in-depth focus on the carbon cycle with a close
examination of the sub-surface and atmospheric chemistry of
carbon dioxide of several mechanisms and transport pathways.
Particular emphasis has been on air-sea CO2 exchange. An
examination is being made of long-term carbon sequestration on
the ocean floor as a result of photosynthetic activity by marine
primary producers such as diatoms and dinoflagellates.
Phytoplankton are responsible for most of the transfer of carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere to the ocean. At present this
biological carbon pump is believed to transfer about 10 gigatons of
carbon from the atmosphere to the ocean floor each year. Our
studies are showing that this number could easily be an order of
magnitude or more higher per year.
The SEA research program is operating in an area of possible
scientific controversy. If one or more of the oceanic carbon
sequestration solutions were to be implemented, the impacts that
might occur worldwide would be impossible to predict. If the
results from our research show a feasible oceanic pathway to
sequester carbon at the gigaton level per year, or significantly
higher, the question then looms: 'What are the consequences to
ecosystems worldwide?' At our current state of knowledge it is
simply impossible to accurately predict the full impact to the
planet.
Clearly the SEA research program is a geo-engineering effort to
mitigate atmospheric carbon dioxide. The argument is often made
that this would be a kind of giant experiment with our future. This
is true. But the stark reality remains there really is very little
choice for mankind as the Earth's atmosphere continues heating at
an accelerating rate. The argument is often put forward that
humanity should not be tinkering with the climate at all. Human-
caused climate change, of course, already is a giant geochemical
experiment that has a very real run-away global greenhouse
dimension. Mankind has already been tinkering with the planet in a
big way since the industrial revolution began in the mid-1800s.
Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis proposes all organisms and their
inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a
single and self-regulating complex system that maintains the
conditions for life on the planet. We see the Earth as just such a
system. We realize this self-regulating complex system has already
been turned upside-down by man's unintentional massive release of
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for the last 100+ years.
Tinkering with an aspect of Earth's interconnected web has already
happened. Our approach is to act and to accept that some
unintended consequences will occur, but that they are worth
facing, measuring, understanding, mitigating and managing. The
SEA climate change solutions will have a global impact but the
programs can be launched with the approach of taking small steps
and learning before we run. A small-scale application of carbon
dioxide mitigation solutions can serve as a test and learning
platform. A global approach incorporating the lessons learned will
follow.
The solutions that flow from the SEA research efforts could be
broken down into two distinctive pathways. The first involves
conducting selective solution applications right now to gain an
understanding of planet impacts. This is a small-scale carbon
dioxide mitigation program. This research effort would be taken
before there are more worldwide, climate change induced,
catastrophic events that cause massive loss of life and suffering.
When these do occur and become so severe as to jeopardize human
survival then a second, truly global approach, could be considered.
This second pathway would involve a radical, whole earth,
application of natural-process-driven solutions that had already
been tested on a small scale. The SEA climate change solution(s)
we are exploring right now, when applied at this point, would very
likely alter significantly the doomsday picture of a run away
greenhouse-heating of the Earth's atmosphere. As these words are
being written in 2018, the Sea Earth Alliance is rigorously applying
science and technology to develop these global options. With
extinction a real possibility, these carbon dioxide mitigation options
could be viewed, using an old football analogy, as a kind of late-in-
the-game 'HAIL MARY' for mankind.
SUMMARY: Sea Earth Alliance is working toward the discovering
and verifying the atmosphere-ocean mechanisms that provide a
path-forward for our planet to systematically slow and reverse the
build-up of the major greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the
troposphere within the next ten years. We believe it is possible to
slow and reverse the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
in the near future. Our efforts are centered on exploring one or
more possible ways to sequester carbon in the Earth's oceans.
With global cooperation of first world countries and through the
United Nations, one or more key carbon sequestration processes in
select continental shelf areas could be jump-started and
accelerated to actually prevent a runaway greenhouse effect from
taking further hold on our planet.
