If I had a top ten list of things not to do if I woke up with a bad idea, I think seeding the ocean to enhance phytoplankton growth would have to be near the top.

A group of researchers, acting on a hypothesis developed by an oceanographer named John Martin, have decided to unilaterally move forward with their plan to remove excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by ’seeding’ iron into the ocean near the Galapagos, Tahiti, the coast of South America, and the South Pacific.

I have to say I applaud the ‘thinking outside the box’ mentality, but what if it works? What if it works so well and the phytoplankton grows so much it begins to choke out other ocean life. It reminds me of the folk song about an old woman that swallowed a fly. She swallowed a spider to get the fly, a bird to get the spider, a cat to get the bird, a dog to get the cat, well you can see where this is going.

Maybe, before we go off half-cocked trying to fix global warming, we should all just sit back and take a breath.