Climate Change Mitigation Strategies : Ocean Fertilisation: The Argument For & Against

The threat of climate change may be the greatest social and environmental challenge of our time. Yet if the increase in warming is to be stabilised then a reduction in atmospheric carbon dioxide is needed. Sink technologies, such as ocean fertilisation, claim to do this by stimulating phytoplankton to grow into massive blooms, thereby drawing down large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the deep ocean. But the science is still unproven and concerns have been raised, not only about its feasibility, but also the environmental and legal implications. Consequently a number of questions have been asked, such as: What is the effectiveness of current international and domestic legal regimes to regulate ocean fertilisation? Is ocean fertilisation feasible as a carbon mitigation measure? What are the concerns and/or benefits of ocean fertilisation for carbon trading and seafood production? This book provides a comprehensive examination of ocean fertilisation and considers the pros and cons of its use as a climate mitigation measure as well as for seafood production.

Dr Julia Mayo-Ramsay is a practicing lawyer in New South Wales, Australia, specialising in environmental law.She holds an LLM, BLJS, GDLP, LLM (Environmental Law) and a Master of Applied Science. As well as teaching Julia is currently working on a number of environmental research projects.