Ocean Acidification

Dr. Feeley's presentation entitled 'Science on the Cutting Edge' during the Focus The Nation inspired me to brainstorm potential solutions for the ocean acidification problem. The "do nothing" or "stop emitting and do nothing else" approaches to the ocean will still result in environmental catastrophe and tremendous strain upon the 1 billion people worldwide who depend upon coral-dependent species worldwide (to mention just one of the problems). In the long-run, the dissolution of land-based limestone (CaCO3) helps balance the natural emission sources of carbon dioxide limestone reserves are also quite copious. Thus, the question is whether there is a way to help control acidification by "seeding" regions of the ocean. My research on the subject turned up this PPT presentation:

Mitigating the Atmospheric CO2 Increase and Ocean Acidification by Adding Limestone Powder to Upwelling Regions

Key points:
1) Adding limestone to upwelling regions will increase the pH of the ocean.
2) The effectiveness decreases with scale (reaching a limit).
3) More CO2 would be drawn down from the atmosphere.
4) Carbonate may be added on a small-scale more or less continuously.

Question for the chemical oceanographers: If you reach the limit in the second point, would the limestone "dust" just settle out? What are potential "unintended consequences to the local upwelling ecosystems?

I don't think that we can look for a single "solution" and the larger the scale of any potential experiment, the greater the potential consequences of failure. Thus, I like the idea of myriad small-scale solutions.

Following his lecture, Dr. Feeley mentioned that cement manufacturers are using a similar concept to neutralize the cement tailing by-product from cement manufactures by dissolving CO2 (emitted in the production process) and water (presumably used as a coolant). The cement manufacturing industry currently comprises 1.5% of the CO2 emissions nation-wide. This would greatly reduce two problems at once, if it were possible. I will post on this topic soon...

Robert