Planktos Media Info

Scientific, engineering, and business staff located near San Francisco, California are available to help media organizations and professionals get a handle on Ocean Science stories. Our extensive experience within academia, industry, government, and environmental NGO's can help you understand ocean and environment stories and issues.

Interviews: We welcome requests for interviews and can provide access to our research vessels and labs as a stage for conducting interviews and shooting news stories. interviews@planktos.com

Photos for Publication: We have a collection of publication quality photos of our work and people. These can be sent via the net in any resolution up to 300dpi.
photorequest@planktos.com

Speakers: Experts from Planktos are available for speaking engagements and lectures on ocean science, stewardship, and sustainability topics. Please send us a note describing your interest in this regard and we will work to help you. speakers@planktos.com

Television: Our own plans include the production of documentary television segments revealing some of the myriad fascinating stories of science and the environment as it pertains to the ocean environment.

We welcome co-production proposals or proposals by independent producers to support their efforts.

PLANKTOS PRESS RELEASES

San Francisco, CA December 15, 2004

UN Kyoto Meetings Underway in Buenos Aires – American Geophysical Union Meeting Simultaneously Underway in San Francisco – Participants Lost in Debate Over Minutia Ignore Obvious Global Warming Solutions

The United Nations climate conference underway in Buenos Aires is the last gathering of its kind before the Kyoto Protocol comes into force on 16 February 2005. Meanwhile the American Geophysical Union holds annual meeting in San Francisco where climate research is featured.

Delegates and experts at the conferences endlessly debate whether curbing global climate change, now undisputed as occurring, will bring high costs for business, because the main method slow it is to limit the use of fossil fuels to produce energy. Some argue that it makes no sense to incur these costs in the near term to avoid damage in the more distant future.

Richard Bradley, of the International Energy Agency, says there is a very good case for taking action soon. "These gases stay in the air for a hundred years and longer so if you put things off then you are taking the risk that you won't be able to reduce the effect," he says. "A choice to put CO2 in the air today is something we live with for a hundred years."

However Russ George, scientist for Planktos of California and a pioneer in the field of biomass sequestration (such as what results when one grows forests to remove CO2 from the air) takes a differing point of view. “It is not sufficient for us to only talk about limiting emissions; we have to work to remove CO2 that is already in the atmosphere. The largest ecosystem on the planet and the one most engaged in removing CO2 from the air is the ocean. As a consequence of the levels of CO2 we already see in the air the oceans capacity to remove CO2 has become greatly diminished. This reduction in ocean productivity can be affordably remedied, more affordably than by any other climate change mitigation strategy. The budgets expected to be spent protecting the planet from rampant climate change will be about $3 trillion USD between now and 2010. For mere tens of millions we might accomplish half the desired Kyoto Accord result.”

The mechanisms about to go into force under the Kyoto Accord seek to address about 10% of the greenhouse gas climate change problem. Even so, delegates and nations maintain that this is a significant starting point and that additional steps will surely follow.

Russ George of Planktos notes, “There is broad agreement that the oceans could readily be made more productive but that the added productivity would only remove up to 20% of the CO2 from the atmosphere. At Planktos we believe that if we only manage to restore ocean health and productivity by half this amount we will have provided half the solution mandated by the Kyoto Accord.”

The mechanism Planktos advocates is the restoration of iron, a critical micronutrient, to natural levels in the oceans of 50 years ago. The impact of rising CO2 has reduced delivery of iron to the oceans which is a process largely dependent on dust blowing off the dry lands of the Earth. As CO2 levels have risen in the air dry land grasses have grown a little greener and survived a little longer into the summer. The introduction of modern soil conservation by the US Soil Conservation Service during the Okalahoma Dust Bowl Days showed farmed that by growing grass as soil cover precious topsoil would be preserved.

Presently high and rising levels of CO2 are having the same effect in areas of the world where critical ocean dust originates, such as the dry lands of western China and Mongolia. Studies by many agencies now show that the North Pacific, closest and most dependent on this Asian dust, has lost a quarter of its productivity over the last 50 years. At the same time studies show grass lands of Asia have grown more stable and less dust is in the air.

Planktos says that restoring iron to the ocean may be as simple as having a handful of the 30,000 large cargo ships that now criss-cross the oceans distribute powdered iron ore dust, dirt, as they make their ocean journeys. Carbon Credits as provided for by the Kyoto Accord could easily pay the cost of this effort, which would help slow the progress of climate change and restore the productivity to the oceans. As a side benefit, fish populations would be helped to return to higher levels.

Planktos seeks to demonstrate the environmental and economic viability of restoring the health of ocean plankton to the oceans and in doing so help mitigate global climate change and help restore declining fisheries.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Russ George – Founder / Chief Scientist
Planktos
Half Moon Bay, CA

Click for Release in MS WORD .doc format

Earth Day (April 22, 2002) Release #1(click for .doc file)

PRESS RELEASE

EARTH DAY April 22, 2002

I am pleased to introduce Planktos to you and announce that we are commencing our voyage of discovery today. Our mission is to generate a greater valuation of the ocean environment so that healthy oceans will be preserved, enhanced, restored, and conserved.

Planktos is working to establish Eco-Assets and deliver Eco-Services in the marine environment. Eco-Asset recognition and management brings rewards to many, including: individuals, governments and communities, and to the natural world itself. In doing so it provides a means by which industry can justify increasing their expenditures for the benefit of the environment.

Eco-Services help regulate and maintain local and global environmental quality as well as stabilize and sustain productive marine environments and biodiversity.

It is our belief that by working to establish both the aesthetic and economic value of ocean eco-assets the most powerful tools to preserve and protect these assets become available.

You may find information on Planktos at our new web site at www.planktos.com

Additionally you might listen to a recent interview with me on BBC Science Radio premier episode of the series “Costing the Earth” (April 4^th, 2002). A link to the Real Audio program in the BBC program archive is provided below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/rams/costingtheearth_20020404.ram

If you are interested in learning more about our work please contact us at info@planktos.com.

Russ George
www.planktos.com
1151 Triton Drive, Suite C
Foster City, CA 94404

The Planktos ocean mission is to generate a greater valuation of assets in the ocean environment.

By joining in research with major academic organizations from around the world we will focus research efforts on the hypothesis of the late Professor John Martin who first suggested that forests at sea, plankton blooms, might be stimulated to grow by the addition of tiny amounts of natural iron micronutrients. Planktos multi-disciplinary efforts will integrate engineering and economics research along side biological and ocean science programs.

The worlds burning of fossil fuels over the last 150 years has produced a dramatic change in the world atmosphere. A thicker than normal blanket of CO2 now warms the world bring on global climate and ocean change. To mitigate global warming the nations of the world agree that measures must be taken in all manner possible to reduce the 6-9 billion tons of excess CO2 that enters the worlds biosphere each year.

Planktos is working to establish Eco-Assets and deliver Eco-Solutions in the marine environment and introduce these into the emerging global Eco-Marketplace. Eco-Asset recognition, management, and trading brings rewards to many, including: individuals, governments and communities, and to the natural world itself. In doing so it provides a means by which industry can justify increasing their expenditures for the benefit of the environment.

Read about the work of Planktos in the San Francisco Chronicle (May 22, 2002) in a column by Silicon Valley business and technology Guru Hal Plotkin. Click the link to read.
http://www.sfgate.com/technology/beat/

If you are interested in learning more about our work please contact us at info@planktos.com.

PRESS RELEASE

JULY 06, 2002

Planktos is pleased to announce the successful initiation of Planktos Iron Ex. 1 the first of a series of open ocean experiments for 2002.

Planktos Iron Ex. 1 was initiated on June 22 from the 100 year old wooden schooner SV Ragland. The Ragland, crew, and supplies were made available to Planktos by generous donation by Neil Young and family. The crew and Planktos director Russ George deployed a natural iron supplement made from natural iron ore about 300 miles east of Hawaii.

This experiment was designed to test a number of hypothesis, materials, and methods which will ultimately provide useful know how on the utility and effects of iron micronutrient supplements to support the growth of ocean forests.

Joining in this research are major academic organizations from around the world. The focus of this research effort is on the hypothesis of the late Professor John Martin who first suggested that forests at sea, plankton blooms, might be stimulated to grow by the addition of tiny amounts of natural iron micronutrients. Planktos multi-disciplinary efforts will integrate engineering and economics research along side biological and ocean science programs.

The RAGLAND, seen here departing Half Moon Bay California for the16 day sail to the research site, is owned by musician Neil Young and family has be generously made available to Planktos to serve in a new role for the ship as an environmental research vessel.

Over the course of the remainder of this year Planktos plans to conduct a series of research expeditions under sail from the rolling decks of the Ragland. While modern research ships are an ideal platform for much ocean science even this nearly 100 year old Baltic Schooner can make an important contribution to ocean and climate change science.

Digital video footage and still photos of the research voyage are available to news organizations. Journalist opportunities to join us onboard on other expeditions this year are available.

Listen to a recent interview with me on BBC Science Radio premier episode of the series “Costing the Earth” (April 4^th, 2002). Click the Real Audio program link below to the program archive.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/rams/costingtheearth_20020404.ram

You may find information on Planktos at our web site at www.planktos.com

If you are interested in learning more about our work, making a contribution, or joining our team please contact us at info@planktos.com.

Planktos
www.planktos.com
1151 Triton Drive, Suite C
Foster City, CA 94404

July 17, 2002

PRESS RELEASE

What do Neil Young, Pink Floyd, and Arthur C. Clarke
have in common?

Neil Young is renowned for his passionate dedication to both music and significant social issues. His annual 'Bridge School' benefit concerts gather creative and outstanding musicians to raise awareness and money to support children with severe speech and physical disabilities. Inspired by Todd Beamers 9/11 cell phone call from the doomed flight 93, his song "Let's Roll" pays tribute to the hero's of that tragic flight and the proceeds now help many who if it's victims.

Now Neil has also directed additional passion and inspiration to problems of planetary proportions and extended generous support to Planktos (www.planktos.com), a U.S. based non-profit working to save the world's ocean and climate from the effects of global warming.

This June Neil loaned his 100 yr old wooden schooner Ragland and crew to Planktos. The Ragland set sail to conduct the first of what Planktos plans to be many ocean science research voyages. On the passage from Half Moon Bay to the Big Island of Hawaii Planktos scientists began a series of innovative ocean/climate experiments by adding natural iron mineral dust to a small forest sized patch of ocean.

Ragland leaving Half Moon Bay

A red wake of iron mineral dust

Satellite image of a previous iron stimulated plankton bloom

The Ragland which inspired Young's fascination with "rust" in turn has now delivered her cargo of "rust" (the natural iron mineral dust) to help save the planet.

Natural iron mineral dust used in this experiment supplements a scarce iron nutrient in the ocean. When added to the ocean in minute quantities iron is known to stimulate growth of ocean plants, phyto-plankton.

Although Neil Young may be the first celebrity to an embrace ocean forestry approach to global warming, other noted musical celebrities are also taking the greenhouse problem to heart. New initiatives like Future Forests and Carbon Neutral that encourage people to sponsor terrestrial plantings to offset their personal CO2 emissions have attracted luminaries like Pink Floyd. The band recently funded afforestation projects in England, Mexico, and India to counterbalance the greenhouse gases generated during the production of their latest CD.
(see www.canoe.ca/JamMusicPinkFloyd/home.html).

The results of this first Planktos research voyage aboard the Ragland will help us develop techniques and understanding needed to begin growing plankton forests at sea. Oceans cover over 70% of this blue planet and offer more space than we have on land where we can help plants grow and remove some of the CO2 we exhaust into the atmosphere. This experimental work is designed to mimic the natural influence and process of iron nutrients in the open ocean. The natural source of such nutrients in the North Pacific comes primarily via iron bearing dust that blows over the Pacific originating from dust storms in the Gobi Desert in China and Mongolia.

The expected results of this experiment will be to stimulate growth of a plankton bloom, an ocean forest, that over the course of a few months will remove tens of thousands of tons of CO2 as a portion of that plankton bloom sinks like falling leaves into the deep ocean. The rest of the plankton bloom will be hungrily consumed by fish and other sea life.

"Growing more plankton forests at sea is not going to be the total solution to global warming," says Planktos founder Russ George, who has been studying the concept for several years. "But it could be one very important tool to help rebalance the environment, in both the ocean and the atmosphere." - San Francisco Chronicle 'Tech Beat Story' (May 5, 2002) link to that story

Planktos Press Releases and links to media stories can be found at www.planktos.com/media.htm

Russ George, Director and Founder
Planktos,
1151 Triton Drive, Suite C
Foster City, CA 94404
www.planktos.com

The Journal Nature Jan. 9th., 2003

Planktos Foundation work introducing ocean forestry and it's "bluegreen tag" carbon trading program is featured in internationally acclaimed journal.

"The Ragland does not look like a research vessel. The 100-year-old wooden Baltic schooner belongs to Canadian Rock Star Neil Young who between tours and recording sessions relaxes on board the historic boat, which is usually anchored in San Francisco.

But last June, the Ragland was chartered for an unusual scientific mission. Young lent the boat to his Bay Area friend Russ George...

After Sailing to the Hawaiian Island George and his small crew dribbled a deep red liquid - dissolved iron ore - into the sea. A few days later the iron prompted a short live bloom of phyto-plankton. "

Radio WNYC
Listen to a discussion about the work of Planktos
on the popular
New York City
Brian Lehrer Show

BBC Radio
program
"Costing The Earth"
Hear about our
work at the
Planktos Foundation

Silicon Valley's Technology
and Business Guru Columnist Hal Plotkin tells the tale.

Ocean Rescue
Planktos Foundation hopes to reduce global warming by fertilizing the seas!

-excerpt-

A group of scientists say it may be possible to simultaneously reduce global warming and increase dwindling supplies of fish around the world by adding relatively tiny amounts of powdered iron to the ocean.

Although the concept is controversial, several demonstration experiments have already been conducted, including by the Half Moon Bay-based Planktos Foundation, which hopes to eventually turn the cultivation of plankton forests at sea into an environmental-restoration business similar to reforestation on land.

-excerpt-

The controversial concept of reducing global warming by boosting the growth of ocean plankton forests using iron as a fertiliser is the latest “green product” to be the focus of support under the EPA’s “Green tags” scheme for offsetting carbon dioxide production.

Plan to seed oceans with iron to create blooms of CO2 absorbing phyto- plankton, ocean forests.

Contact: Susie Biehler, susieb@planktos.com,
Tel. 650-703-9477

PRESS RELEASE The Oresmen January 9, 2003

New Era of Ocean Stewardship |
Unveiled by Planktos Foundation.

The work of the team of dedicated ocean scientists at Planktos based in Half Moon Bay, Ca. is featured in the January 9^th 2003 edition of the internationally acclaimed journal Nature (vol 421).

In a news feature on ocean fertilization
the journal Nature brings attention to the
concept of ocean forests (phyto-plankton)
whose growth can be safely stimulated via
the addition of micro-nutrients, especially
iron. Like forests on land as these ocean
forests grow they scrub CO2, the
principal green house gas, from the
oceans and atmosphere.

Schooner Ragland leaving a red wake of iron

The recent work of Planktos and others in the field is opening an exciting new era of ocean stewardship. The goal is to bring management of the oceans, which cover more than 70% of this planet, in line with plant communities on land. Forests on land and at sea offer the promise to deliver powerful mitigation solutions to fight global warming. Understanding the role(s) and potential of ocean plants is a key to managing atmospheric CO2 and thus slowing the rate of global warming.

Amongst the pioneering work of Planktos Foundation scientists is bringing to light a correlation between ocean productivity and dust (containing iron) from the continents.

For example Planktos has recently published (www.planktos.com/oceanscience.htm#dustyocean) the results of a meta-analysis connecting the success of China’s topsoil conservation program of the past 30 years with the disastrous 30% decline in the productivity of the North Pacific ocean as recently reported by NASA.

Ocean Productivity / Topsoil Conservation Correllation

The notion that dust carrying small amounts of iron micronutrient is a powerful force in ocean productivity is supported by the work featured in the Nature article.

Planktos is especially noted for it’s introduction of the Planktos BlueGreen Tag program which markets ocean biomass carbon sequestration credits via it’s internet site at www.planktos.com/greentagshop.htm . As is explained in detail on the web shop page individual and corporations can now affordably offset their contribution to global warming by supporting ocean forest plantations much the same as funding the planting of trees on land.

Planktos is working in the marine environment. Delivery of the equivalent to forest stewardship on land to the ocean realm brings rewards to many including: individuals, governments and communities, and to the natural world itself. In doing so it provides a means by which industry and others can justify increasing their expenditures for the benefit of the environment. By working to establish both the aesthetic and economic value of ocean eco-assets the most powerful tools to preserve and protect these assets become available. Find news reports on the work of Planktos and our online press kit with downloadable photos for publication at www.planktos.com/pressroom.htm .

To learn more about our work please contact us at susieb@planktos.com.

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