On May 4, 4:57 pm, jackie <jackie.smith1...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
=2E
> John Martin (1935-1993)
> by John Weier
>
> John Martin
>
A little over ten years ago at a lecture at the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution, oceanographer John Martin stood up and
said
in his best Dr. Strangelove accent, =93Give me a half tanker of iron,
and I will give you an ice age.=94
These inflammatory words centered around a theory known as the iron
hypothesis.
Martin professed that by sprinkling a relatively small amount of
iron
into certain areas of the ocean, known as high-nutrient, low-
chlorophyll zones (HNLCs), one could create large blooms of those
unicellular aquatic plants commonly known as algae.
>
> If enough of these HNLC zones were fertilized with iron, he believed
> the growth in algae could take in so much carbon from the atmosphere
> that they could reverse the greenhouse effect and cool the Earth.
>
> Martin=92s theory sparked a tremendous debate. Unlike most of the
> unusual, somewhat esoteric theories that float about the scientific
> community at any given time, Martin=92s idea had teeth.
>
> It could be tested and it had the potential to impact the world on a
> short time scale.
>
> Many of Martin=92s contem****aries reacted strongly by claiming his iron
> hypothesis was ill founded. They felt that his =93Geritol=94 solution to
> climate change was careless and hazardous for the environment.
> Cor****ations and even some countries, however, embraced the idea. They
> saw Martin=92s results as a way to reduce the effects of their own
> carbon dioxide and bring themselves within the emissions standards set
> up by the proposed Kyoto Protocol. Meanwhile, the press ****trayed
> Martin as a renegade scientist that came out of nowhere with a mission
> to prove everyone wrong, calling him =93Johnny Ironseed=94 and =93Iron
Man=
..=94
>
> Martin, a burly, bearded oceanographer with an iconoclastic streak and
> wry sense of humor, reveled in the controversy and didn=92t back down.
>
> He stuck to his hypothesis to the end. Several months after his death
> in 1993, the theory was proven to be correct by his colleagues at the
> Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. They spread an iron solution into an
> HNLC zone near the Galapagos Islands and algae bloomed.
>
> While the success of this contested experiment established Martin=92s
> legacy, it also overshadowed his earlier work. And there was more to
> Martin than just this one theory. The iron hypothesis came to him only
> at the end of a rich life and a prestigious career in oceanography,
> and it was just one in a long series of discoveries Martin and his
> colleagues made.
>
> In fact, Martin was among the first scientists to successfully test
> and catalog a wide range of trace metals in the Earth=92s oceans. He
> also demonstrated that copper and zinc could affect measurements of
> phytoplankton (algae) growth. With regards to the global climate,
> Martin=92s experiments into the amounts of carbon drawn into the seas by
> algae formed the basis for many of the current large-scale efforts to
> understand the ocean=92s role in the Earth=92s carbon budget. Throughout
> his career, Martin was a scientist with strong instincts, convictions,
> and ideas that altered forever how scientists regard the Earth=92s
> oceans.
>
> next: Personal
lifehttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/Giants/Martin/=
|
