Offshore Big Isle test
may show how to slow
global warming

Star-Bulletin staff

KAILUA-KONA -- What will happen when scientists pump liquid carbon dioxide to the bottom of the ocean off the Kona coast?

The Pacific International Center for High Technology Research plans to find out in the summer of 2001, by releasing small amounts of the liquefied gas 3,000 feet below the surface of the ocean off Kona's Keahole Point.

Scientists already know that physical and biological processes in the ocean "sequester" carbon dioxide, meaning they lock it up in the water.

The proposed CO2 Ocean Sequestration Field Experiment will study what happens when the process is speeded up.

Carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas suspected in the gradual warming of the Earth's surface, according to the scientists.

Ocean sequestration is one way being explored to control the build-up of the gas in the atmosphere.

A meeting to explain the project to the public and to determine its scope is set for 6:30 p.m. Oct. 14 in the Kealakehe (Kona) Intermediate School cafeteria.

Additional information can be obtained from the Web site http://www.co2experiment.org.