Direct disposal of liquified fossil fuel carbon dioxide in the ocean

Growing awareness of the impending effects on climate of increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere has generated wide debate at an international leve l that is directed towards a variety of CO2 control strategies. Of these, d irect disposal of liquid CO2 into the deep ocean offers a number of potenti al advantages: the oceanic reservoir is very large, and has the ability to buffer chemical changes caused by CO2 addition. In addition, time scales of mixing in the ocean are very long. This paper reviews some of the scientif ic evidence associated with this emerging form of global engineering, and d iscusses some of the important concepts in terms of the global carbon cycle .