[frazbin]

'Terraforming' earth has never been easy but it has long been necessary to feed humans. Bulk addition of soluble/leachable nutrients (naturally depleted by rainfall, fractionation by gravity, and chemical transformation) is the primary novel intervention in modern agriculture. We've learned that biological systems can be made to cycle much faster by turning the crank in this way. The rewards are great-- used in land, 7 billion fed. Use of similar intervention in the ocean suggests proportionally larger rewards.

Further, we've already destabilized the global system by injecting carbon. It is now our responsibility to find a way to stabilize it again.

[omginternets]

Yes, this is all true, and yet it’s the unknowns that will get us. There was a time where burning coal seemed like a good idea.

[frazbin]

Whether the unknowns will get us is.. unknown. We are going to learn about whole-planet ecology in the next century whether we intervene or not. Pretending that we know less than we really do is kind of a trademark regressive-right tactic, so you'll forgive me when I say it's quite disengenuous and harmful to compare coal combustion to iron fertilization.

The negative externalities of coal combustion have been known in broad strokes at both the macro and micro levels for centuries. The benefits of fertilization have been known for much longer.

[ncmncm]

More likely we will fall to what we thought we knew that was not, in fact, true.

It happened in Iraq, to the tune of $5T.

[ncmncm]

We thought saving the Ozone Layer by switching from CFCs to HFCs was a good idea.

Joke's on us! The HFCs currently in use in systems worldwide, if vented and not carefully incinerated, will trap as much heat as all the CO2 in the atmosphere, for centuries.

Specify propane or ammonia systems, and make sure existing systems have their fluid extracted professionally.