Experimental climate interventions in the world’s oceans are moving ahead in a regulatory vacuum, raising concerns among scientists about potential risks, Mongabay staff writer Edward Carver reported. The projects, known as marine-climate interventions, aim to tackle global warming or help people and ocean life adapt to climate change. But a group of 24 researchers warned in a recent paper that these interventions risk causing unintended ecological harm and social conflict unless stronger rules are introduced at all levels of governance. Raking in millions of dollars in investments, such interventions include farming large amounts of seaweed to sequester carbon; engineering corals with human-assisted evolution; fertilizing seawater with iron to stimulate plankton growth; and modifying clouds to reflect away more sunlight. “As a group of interdisciplinary marine and climate scientists, we all started thinking, ‘hang on, what’s going on here?’” lead author Tiffany Morrison, a professor of geography at the University of Melbourne, Australia, told Carver. “This is actually problematic. The field is moving so fast.” An Our Shared Seas report from 2023 shows an increase in funding for oceans-based solutions to the climate crisis. Image courtesy of Our Shared Seas. Demand for fast, large-scale climate solutions is rising, but many companies are skipping key steps such as consulting local communities and weighing long-term impacts, the paper’s authors say. For example, a U.K. company that sells carbon credits added a magnesium-hydroxide slurry to treated wastewater flowing into St. Ives Bay in Cornwall. The intervention was expected to draw more carbon out of…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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