Scientists Launch ExperimentTo Remove CO2 by Seeding Ocean With Iron

A team of scientists will soon dump 20 tons of iron sulphate into the stormy waters of the Southern Ocean to test whether the fertilization helps pull large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere and sequesters it under the sea. The expedition aboard the German vessel Polarstern has drawn protests from environmental groups, which claim that the controversial geoengineering project — aimed at slowing global warming — was banned last year by the U.N.’s Convention on Biological Diversity. But scientists say that their experiment, which will spread the iron sulfate across a 300-square-kilometer (116-square-mile) area not far from South Georgia Island, will help provide data needed to judge the effect of such iron fertilization experiments. Meanwhile, researchers have reported that the warming waters of the Sea of Japan are now absorbing only about half as much CO2 from the atmosphere as was absorbed in the 1990s.