World-renowned environment experts have proposed a system of huge tubes placed in the world's oceans that would cycle nutrients to encourage booms in the population of algae -- organisms that naturally consume and sequester carbon.
"James Lovelock, the author of Gaia, and Chris Rapley, newly appointed director of the Science Museum in London, have outlined a plan to dot the world's oceans with 200-metre tubes which would bring nutrients from the deep up to the surface, encouraging algae to bloom. This would suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and lock it away."
"In a letter to the journal Nature, Profs Lovelock and Rapley said the Earth was fast becoming hotter than anything experienced by humans and international inertia in dealing with the problem made it doubtful that attempts to limit carbon emissions would have much impact."
"Their proposal involves using free-floating or tethered vertical pipes which would mix nutrient-rich deep water with the relatively barren water at the oceans' surface. 'Water pumped up pipes - say, 100 to 200 metres long, 10 metres in diameter and with a one-way flap valve at the lower end for pumping by wave movement - would fertilize algae in the surface waters and encourage them to bloom.'"
FULL STORY: How sea tubes could slow climate change
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