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This unusual plan is strikingly different from plans we’ve heard before. For example, scientists have so far focused on solar geoengineering, which involves spraying chalk or chemicals into our atmosphere, or various land-based activities, such as covering large areas with white reflective paint.

The idea is that by dissolving extremely simple chemicals in water, scientists hope to increase the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the air, a process known as ocean alkalinity. It’s just one of several measures aimed at slowing the pace of climate change, but it’s not yet known whether these efforts will pay off in the long term.

Dumping anything into the ocean would likely face significant hurdles, not just from U.S. regulators but also from local fishing communities and environmentalists. The latter have already spoken out against it. The problem with all of these geoengineering efforts is that We cannot accurately predict the consequencesBecause even the most powerful supercomputers are not capable of simulating the climate of the entire planet, given the enormous number of parameters and relationships that exist here, critics remain skeptical and concerned.

The team of researchers from Woods Hole believes that sodium hydroxide will not have any long-term adverse effects on marine life.

We also care about the environment. We wouldn’t do this if we thought it would have a big impact.
– says Dan McCorkle, one of the main researchers.

Climate warming is reducing the oceans’ ability to absorb anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. This way, water absorbs fewer pollutants and more of them remain in the atmosphere, which only increases temperatures. Adding impurities can reverse this devastating effect and restore the oceans’ ability to capture CO2.₂.
McCorkle and his colleagues have applied for federal permission from the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct the experiment off the coast of Cape Cod in the U.S., and they hope to eventually scale up to conduct a larger study in the Bay of Man next year.

The team believes we need to act now, before it’s too late. But criticism of their plan is already mounting: In a recent letter to the Environmental Protection Agency, activists from the Massachusetts Lobster Society, a fishing organization, said more work needs to be done “before truckloads of liquid lye are dumped into the ocean.”