B U L L E T I N - The Taft School

Wave-Powered WondersInterested in fighting global warmingby reducing the amount of CO 2inthe atmosphere, reducing hurricanestrength, protecting coral reefs, and enhancingfish populations by upwellingnutrients to enhance phytoplankton?All it takes, perhaps, are a few wavepoweredocean pumps.In May, the Climate Foundationand Atmocean participated in an oceantest of three pumps in the Pacific about60 nautical miles north of Hawaii. Wavedrivenocean pumps can be deployed ina linear array to upwell cooler water intothe mixed layer and reduce peak temperaturesof surface waters. Colder watercontains more life, and so in principlecan absorb more carbon. The test is featuredon the Discovery Channel ProjectEarth episode “Hungry Oceans.”“The problem we would be mostconcerned about would be acidification,”Atmocean CEO Phil Kithil ’61 told BBCNews. “We’re bringing up higher levelsof CO 2along with the nutrients, so it allhas to be analyzed as to the net carbonbalance and the net carbon flux.”Atmocean is developing its patentspendingwave-driven ocean upwellingsystem to cool the upper ocean andenhance natural biological processes toabsorb CO 2. When widely deployedacross critical ocean regions, the technologymay also mitigate coral reefbleaching and help reduce hurricaneintensity driven by rising ocean temperatures.Upwelling is the naturallyoccurring mixing of deep, cold, nutrient-richocean into the upper sunlitocean that is critical to growth of mostmarine species, so it may enhance oceanfisheries as well.“We believe our wave-driven upwellingtechnology can play a criticalrole in mitigating these deleterious effectsof CO 2-induced warming, in theyears and decades ahead,” adds Phil. Formore information visit atmocean.com.. Phil Kithil ’61explains how his wavedrivenpumps mighthelp change climate.Taft Bulletin Fall 2008 3