I thought you might be interested in learning about a variation on the forestry theme that the Planktos Foundation is introducing. Since the world is more than 70% ocean-and within those oceans an invisible forest grows-we think that it is an environment we should be looking at to use forestry concepts to help with CO2 sequestration. Growing an ocean forest, phyto-plankton, is like growing a forest on land, but the time frames are much shorter. Forests on land have life cycles of 60 plus years, while phyto-plankton blooms have life cycles of 60 days. We now know that we can help the ocean bloom by providing very small amounts of scarce micro-nutrients, especially iron. Such blooms mimic those produced by nature when dust from land blows over the oceans, stimulating natural ocean forests.
Our twist on this good idea is to use the environmental attributes of our work to provide a means, "Green Tags," for the public and private sectors to help move work on ocean biomass sequestration forward. Just as forestry and soils sequestration work have taken a number of years to develop to the point where they are gaining acceptance as one of the solutions to global climate change, we are convinced working with plants in the largest of the planet's environments is work whose time has come.
You can read about the Planktos Foundation on our web site at www.planktos.com and about our 'Planktos Green Tag' program at www.planktos.com/greentags.htm.
I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on the ideas of the Planktos Foundation.
Russ George
Director
Planktos Foundation
Half Moon Bay, Calif.
