Greenbang has always fancied becoming an inventor, dreaming up some must have gadget and retiring to the South Seas to live as a very rich old eccentric, storing all that cash in her mattress. A lot of people are hoping to milk the ocean for green business. Why not Greenbang? There must be some untapped potential there. Take walruses, for example. They have enormous fat reserves. Surely that could be turned into some source of renewable energy (although Greenbang doesn’t really want to know how you’d get the fat out). Or migrating salmon. They’re very energetic with all that fighting to get upstream malarky. Perhaps we could strap them with tiny turbines? And all the wee that little kids put into the ocean on seaside daytrips – a rich waste-to-energy resource maybe?

Ocean fertilisation company Climos reckons it has a better plan – it hopes to offset carbon by a process called ocean iron fertilisation, which encourages natural phytoplankton, acting as a carbon sink.

Now Climos has enlisted the help of engineering company Tetra Tech to see how far the idea has legs.

Tetra Tech, together with Climos, will develop a Conceptual Model and a Master Environmental Report as part of this process. The Conceptual Model will review the scientific background, experimental history, and recent research results for this technique, in addition to providing a detailed review and exploration of environmental questions and concerns. The Master Environmental Report will provide an environmental management framework to evaluate the characteristics and sensitivities of the affected marine environment. Tetra Tech has previously produced such environmental management tools for numerous governmental and private clients, including the U.S Environmental Protection Agency, the Electric Power Research Institute and Chevron Thailand. These efforts have helped to foster stakeholder consensus on complex environmental issues. Climos will use these studies to engage governments, NGOs, the scientific community and the carbon market in thoughtful and productive discussion on ways to move forward responsibly with further development of OIF.

Tetra Tech’s efforts will be conducted by the Research & Development Group in Lafayette, CA. Tetra Tech’s R&D Group has extensive expertise in biogeochemistry, carbon cycling and coupled global climate modeling as well as expertise in developing thorough environmental impact reports for a wide range of projects. The team has previously been recognized for its significant scientific contributions and the ability to effectively communicate study results to a wide audience of interested parties and decision makers.

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