Report proposes six ways to geoengineer Earth's oceans to combat climate change

It may sound like a science fiction novel, but a new report proposes geoengineering Earth's oceans to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to combat climate change.

The 300-page document from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine ( NASEM) provides six carbon dioxide removal (CDR) approaches, all of which require humans to alter our oceans.

The ideas include adding fertilizer to increase growth of tiny photosynthetic, passing electric currents through the water to boost alkalinity and changing the seawater's chemistry.

However, the scientists involved understand that the approaches are far from ready to be executed and serve merely as a road map to help officials start down the right path and away from a warming world.

The report says this is a 10-year plan that requires $1.1 billion in funds to properly research each approach.

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Scott Doney, chair of the committee and professor in environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, who is an author of the report, said in a statement: 'Ocean carbon dioxide removal strategies are already being discussed by scientists, non-governmental organizations, and entrepreneurs as potential climate response strategies.

'Right now, society and policymakers do not have the information they need to evaluate the impacts and trade-offs of these climate responses.

'If we want to make fully informed decisions about the future of our ocean and climate, we need to complete some very critical research in the next decade.'

The report highlights a 2019 National Academics report, which found roughly 10 gigatons of carbon dioxide would have to be removed every year by 2050 to meet climate goals.

However, reducing emissions alone is not enough to limit warming to the 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit goal at the heart of the 2015 Paris Agreement.