Planktos, everyone's favorite group of angry scientists that sketched out plans to sequester carbon dioxide in the world's oceans, is back in a new form. Planktos Science, a new company, plans to work on "ecoforestation" of new ecosystems on land and sea, according to a posting on the company's web site. The company will be headed up by Russ George, who also headed up the old Planktos. A few years ago, Planktos gained publicity by announcing a plan to exploit plankton to sequester carbon dioxide. It worked as follows: iron would be planted for miles in select parts of the ocean and act as fertilizer for plankton. The resulting plankton blooms would suck up atmospheric carbon dioxide and, when the plankton died, take it down with them to the bottom of the sea where the greenhouse gases would stay for centuries. The company would then earn money by selling carbon credits, similar to how Ecuador and a few other tropical nations are readying plans to sell forest preservation rights for carbon sequestration. While the idea intrigued many, several environmental groups, along with some marine and climate scientists, raised questions and objections about the impact to the marine environment. As novel as the idea sounded, the company wasn't alone. Climos, which has raised money from serial entrepreneur Elon Musk, sketched out similar plans. Planktos associated itself with a company called Solar Energy and set out trying to raise money. In February 2008, however, Planktos called it quits, blaming its problems largely on misinformation campaigns targeted against it. (Climos is still in business and is the middle of raising $10 million to $12 million in a funding round.) The new company is no longer associated with Solar Energy. Nonetheless, George still seems angry. He writes on the company's web site: "Tragically some environmental organizations have attacked this field of ecorestoration science in an attempt to prohibit further ocean research. Their reasons for this cynical attack seem complex but in reality boil down to their determination to oppose all ecological and biotechnological solutions to climate change. As these methods act immediately to reduce the crisis, in doing so these effective eoctech solutions undermine the political platform of the green groups who demand a radical reduction of energy use. They have chosen to engage in a classical 'strawman attack' demonizing their opposition through the publication and spreading of 'spin doctored' press releases replete with obvious lies and propaganda suggesting that there is no scientific basis and that there are no laws governing this field. It is all, in their words, like some sort of "wild west" arena. Nothing could be farther from the truth but in this age of instant Internet blogging, gossip mongering, and mudslinging, truth is something that takes a little time and effort to learn." There is more on the site.