The 2008 AGU Ocean Sciences meeting is being held from March 2-7 in Orlando, Florida. Dr. Margaret Leinen will present on ocean fertilization.

The abstract for her talk is below:

CONDUCTING OCEAN FERTILIZATION IN A RESPONSIBLE WAY

The ocean science community, NGOs, government and the private sector are considering issues related to the potential of ocean fertilization to sequester CO2. Most issues are scientific and concern the efficacy or the side effects of ocean fertilization. Uncertainty about how commercial ocean fertilization would be conducted has led to additional concern over the types and standards of measurement, independent verification, measurement of side effects, the availability of data from commercial fertilization projects, deployment in sensitive marine areas, and other issues. Ocean fertilization is likely to take place on the high seas beyond national jurisdictions. There is as yet no clear international regulatory frameworks that apply directly to this activity. This implies that a voluntary code of conduct might be helpful in identifying the standards of responsible behavior. Other fields, like nanotechnology, have dealt with issues of ethics and responsibility in commercialization of scientific ideas. Drawing on such examples, we propose elements that could be included in a code of conduct for responsible ocean fertilization experiments and activities related to commercialization

Session #:200
Date: 03-04-2008
Time: 13:45

Categories: Ocean Fertilization