Geoengineering The Gulf Of Maine
10 March 2026, Steve Hanley,
The ocean is the largest carbon sink on Earth, holding about 38,000 gigatons of carbon. But when carbon dioxide dissolves in water, it creates a weak acid that lowers the pH of the ocean. The lower the pH, the less carbon dioxide the ocean can absorb. Today, the ocean has the lowest pH in the last million years. Now, scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts have embarked on what they call the LOC-NESS project, which stands for “Locking Ocean Carbon in the Northeast Shelf and Slope.” The scientists say that “oceanic carbon is stored as dissolved bicarbonate — essentially dissolved baking soda — thanks to the natural weathering processes that enhance ocean alkalinity on geological timescales.”