Russ George is an American businessman and entrepreneur best known for founding the San Francisco-based firm Planktos Inc. which claims to "restore ecosystems and slow climate change". In 2007 he provided testimony to the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
Iron fertilization
In July 2012, George and collaborators in the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation conducted an iron fertilization experiment spreading 100 tonnes of iron sulphate into the Pacific Ocean from a fishing boat in an eddy 200 nautical miles west of the islands of Haida Gwaii. George claimed this resulted in increased growth of phytoplankton over 10,000 square miles. Some critics assert George's actions were illegal while others have argued that they were not. However, this iron fertilization may have violated the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and the London Convention on the Dumping of Wastes at Sea which contain moratoriums on geoengineering experiments. Parties to the London Convention and London Protocol expressed 'grave concerns' about this experiment. Search warrants were executed by Environment Canada's enforcement branch to investigate Russ George's office concerning the iron enrichment he performed in 2012 off the coast of British Columbia. In May 2013, the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation removed George as a director of the company and ended his employment. Russ George sued the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation, its directors, and several others in 2014. In a counterclaim the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation claimed that Russ George lied about his credentials and academic qualifications, assaulted the project leader, and acted in an "irrational, unprofessional and offensive manner". In 2016, Russ George was ordered to pay security for legal costs. On July 15, 2014, the oceanographic scientific data gathered during the project was made publicly available under the ODbL license. Research conducted on 13 major iron-fertilization experiments in the open ocean since 1990 determined that the method is unproven; with respect to the Haida Gwaii project, "scientists have seen no evidence that the experiment worked", concluded a 2017 article in Nature. Although, the experiment clearly did result in a strong phytoplankton bloom that lasted for months.
