Carbon Dioxide Removal Scheme

According to the New York Sun, a company called Planktos Inc. plans to dump hundreds of tons of iron filings into the Pacific Ocean, near the Galapagos Islands, to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The iron filings are supposed to produce a plankton bloom to absorb thousands of tons of CO2. Planktos Inc. hopes to sell carbon credits to "individuals who want to offset their personal greenhouse gas emissions."

Apparently, the way this scheme is supposed to work is with environmentally-indoctrinated useful idiots, needing to fortify their arrogance, paying money to Planktos Inc. so the company can set sail and toss a bagful of iron filings into the ocean. Presumably afterward, elevated snootiness will be acquired by official holders of one-bag, two-bag, three-bag, and so on "carbon credit certificates."

Unfortunately, serious questions have surfaced regarding the scheme. One is that it's illegal to dump without a permit under the London Dumping Convention and U.S. law. However, the company says it plans to use non-U.S. flagged vessels so no American permits nor environmental impact assessments will be necessary. Why comply when you can deny?

Furthermore, one Canadian environmental group stated:

"The overwhelming scientific conclusion based upon numerous governmental and intergovernmental experiments is that iron seeding is risky and may only temporarily sequester carbon dioxide."

Planktos, however, is alleged to have conducted its own experiments. It's said that in 2002 Planktos borrowed a yacht owned by singer Neil Young, sailed toward the Southern Cross and conducted its own experiments.

Despite all the voodoo ecology, I'm curious about the source of the iron filings. Where does one get hundreds of tons of iron filings? Furthermore, doesn't iron first have to be made out of iron ore which requires massive amounts of heat in blast furnaces fueled by coke which puts massive amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere?

It seems to me that tons of CO2 would be created in the production of tons of iron filings which would be thrown into the ocean to remove tons of CO2. At the end of the cycle, you're back where you started.

And when you consider the energy, and resultant CO2 emissions, required to transport the tons of iron ore and iron filings on trains, trucks and ships, the whole process seems that it might create more CO2 than is absorbed by the plankton bloom.

I'm also flummoxed on how one would measure the quantity of CO2 removal by iron filing plankton blooms. It would seem to be a necessary number to calculate carbon credits per bag of iron filings, or vice versa.

Of course, I probably need an expert in global warming to explain the errors in my thinking.