Climos - Using Technology to fight climate change

Climos is a recently funded startup, (one of their investors is Elon Musk), that aims to combat climate change through a controversial "geo-engineering" technique that seems remarkably simple at it's core. They plan to take iron, dump it into the ocean. Plankton grows well is iron rich environments, so it blossoms, dies and sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Since plankton consumes carbon and the carbon would be stored in the body of the plankton, you are sequestering carbon.

Seems simple. Almost rings of some kind of movie plot. If it works, and can be done safely, then I think it's really cool. I'll admit to having reservations though. How many times have we been told something is safe and foolproof? It's times like this I always remember the pictures of scientists and dignitaries watching the nuclear bomb tests, wearing dark sunglasses. I'm sure they were told it was safe, but human knowledge is not infallible. And when humans begin projects that are designed to tweak the delicate balance of the planet we live on, even well intentioned and seemingly reasonable, I get nervous.

Earth2Tech's article on 10 controversial geo-engineering projects.