A company that aimed to reduce global warming by creating blooms of carbon dioxide-absorbing phytoplankton in the ocean has sunk, according to the New York Times.

The company, Planktos, posted a statement on its Web site yesterday (February 13) saying that it had decided to "indefinitely postpone its ocean fertilization efforts" as a result of a "highly effective disinformation campaign waged by anti-offset crusaders" that turned public opinion against the effort and stymied attempts to raise capital to conduct ocean research trials.

Our columnist Glenn McGee wrote about the company's efforts in our November, 2007 issue.

The plan has been met with strong resistance from the scientific community, many of whom debunked or dismissed the company's claims.

Planktos has called back its research vessel from the Portuguese island of Madeira, and "radically downsized" the staff.

"The board of directors continues to believe in the urgent ecological necessity of its ocean restoration plans and the scientific speciousness of objections voiced to date. However, ideological hostility to and misrepresentations of this work will continue to stymie progress until the true gravity of our climatic and ocean crises is more widely understood."

In November, a company representative sent a note to The Scientist complaining that a column by Glenn McGee and a follow-up blog had dubbed the company's technology "nanotech."

"I am unsure where this information originated, but we are not employing nanotechnology of any kind for our work," said Sarah Kelly, outreach doordinator at Planktos.