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Hawaii ocean
test aims to combat
global warming

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By Rod Thompson
Star-Bulletin

KEAHOLE, Hawaii -- There's nothing like a cold soda to cool off on a hot day.

An international group of scientists is planning something roughly similar to see if they can cool off an Earth threatened by global warming.

Just as soda is made by pumping carbon dioxide into flavored water, the scientists plan to pump carbon dioxide deep into the ocean off Kona's Keahole Point next summer.

Unlike soda, in which carbon dioxide bubbles out again, the immense pressure of the ocean at a half-mile below the surface is expected to keep the carbon dioxide permanently locked up in the water.

The scientists call it "sequestration." The experiment could demonstrate whether at least some of the carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels and thought responsible for global warming could be safely disposed of this way. Practical use of the process, if any, would be years away.

The project is described in a draft of an environmental assessment released this week for public comment until Sept. 8. Copies are available at some public libraries or by making a request through www.co2experiment.org.

An earlier plan to pipe carbon dioxide underwater from land at Keahole has been abandoned. The experiment now proposes to pump liquefied carbon dioxide from a ship 1.6 miles off Keahole.

Up to 16 gallons a minute would be pumped for as many as two hours at a time during a two-week period, with a variety of underwater equipment watching and measuring what happens, the environmental assessment says.

One of the lead scientists, Gerard Nihous of the Pacific International Center for High Technology in Honolulu, says one of the big questions is how much acidity will be created by the carbon dioxide.

Supercomputers around the world have already made predictions, but scientists need to test the predictions, he said.

Perry White, a consultant who helped prepare the environmental assessment, said some public comment in earlier meetings was that the world should stop burning fossil fuels instead of looking for ways to handle the carbon dioxide they produce.

Nihous said he has spent years researching alternative energy. "It's not like we all come from oil companies," he said. "It's just that the risk is great that societies will keep using fossil fuels."

Paul Haberstroh, a chemical oceanographer from the University of Hawaii at Hilo, not connected with the project, says he, too, is unhappy with continued fossil-fuel burning, but he is curious about what the experiment will show.

"We're not going to destroy the oceans by trying this," he said.