Is it Possible to Create a Gigantic Earth Thermostat?

OH WAIT! WE ALREADY HAVE ONE! (It just isn’t working fast enough). As tempting as it is to promote phytoplankton growth (while sending the carbon-soaking product to the bottom of the ocean), one realizes that “too-much phytoplankton” can create its own problems. At some point, scientists may realize that the Earth already has carbon (and temperature) moderating features (that take…place…very…slowly…) Can we afford to wait or should we act now?

Ocean plant-life distribution. Note that activity is higher in the Earth’s temperate zones, and that there is more net activity in Northern than Southern Hemispheres. There has also been a net decline in ocean plant-life activity since the 1980s.

The Makings of an Artificial Earth Thermostat: The makings of this thermostat, as I understand things, would be based upon two reversible processes…a) Phytoplankton stimulation/de-stimulation (and related ocean modifications), b) Cloud brightening/un-brightening.

1. Phytoplankton Stimulation/De-stimulation, and Other Ocean CO2 Absorbing Methods : I’m basing much of this idea on an article I just read from Scientific American called “Could Engineering the Ocean Help Stop Climate Change?” It begins by saying that long-term, the Earth’s oceans are like a giant lung, inhaling and exhaling CO2 (in a perhaps minimum 50–100,000 year cycle). Also the article states that the earth has largely cooled off (less volcanic activity), land masses have upwelled, atmosphere thickened (more likely to burn off those pesky meteors), while we are reaching a sort of cyclical CO2 oscillatory “stasis”.