Plankton v. Global Warming  E-mail
Written by Dave Burdick   
Monday, 07 May 2007

Jurassic Park may have taught us nothing.

If he knew what the geniuses of Silicon Valley were up to, Jeff Goldblum's character might re-deliver his lines, "Don't you see the danger, John, inherent in what you're doing here?"

Since plankton aren't extinct, it's probably not as bad to try to use them for whatever cause we see fit, right? So believe said geniuses, who have figured out that if you get a bunch of plankton together for a rollicking plankton party, they'll consume enough carbon that they could potentially make a dent in the warming of our planet.

It's like the old saying: A large group of dedicated plankton can eat a lot of carbon and poop it to the bottom of the sea.

Is it just us, or is there something frightening about messing with one infinitely complex global system in order to alter another infinitely complex global system.

They're going to try it out in the South Pacific in the near future, keeping an eye out for any "potentially dangerous side effects" of going all John Hammond on plankton. There are already believers in its profitablity--see, for example, companies Planktos and Climos.


Comments (2)add
...
written by Peter , May 08, 2007
Yeah. I don't relish the idea of being plunged into an ice age any more than the Earth becoming hotter than hell.
Peter
written by Michael , May 15, 2007
at least we know how to produce co2, in case too much disappears smilies/grin.gif
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Dave Burdick
About the author:
Dave Burdick is a New York-based writer and comedian. He's currently pursuing an MS in journalism at Columbia University, performing in the city whenever and writing about being a big dummy at daveburdick.com.
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