In an interview a few weeks ago with Pieter Tans, the chief scientist of the Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gases Group at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was reluctant to endorse climate engineering.
“I’m very hesitant about these things because the problem we have is already inadvertent,” he said, referring to humans burning fossil fuels before understanding the effects it would have on the climate.
A study published this week in the journal Scientific Reports underscores the need to exercise caution before attempting to reverse human-caused environmental damage. Scientists from Cardiff University and Stockholm University found that clams, oysters and worms in the Baltic Sea are contributing to greenhouse gas emissions -- mainly methane -- at a level equal to about 20,000 dairy cows.
That’s important because farming of clams and oysters has been put forth as a way to clean up another source of greenhouse gas emissions, called eutrophication. Eutrophication is the excessive buildup of nutrients along coastlines, caused by runoff of synthetic fertilizers from agriculture.
If we farmed clams and oysters on the coastlines, the ocean critters would consume those excess nutrients and provide a food source for humans. At least now we can begin to weigh those advantages against the amounts of greenhouse gases the farms would produce.