Ever since the industrial revolution, we as a race have advanced so much that the world wouldn’t even be recognizable to someone from the 18th or 19th century if they were to time travel to today.
From not even knowing what electricity was, to having access to whole of humanity’s information in the palm of our hands, we sure have come a long, long way in the last few centuries.
That progress however, has come at a price. We’ve managed to screw the very planet we live on as a byproduct of our progress. From pollution and making holes in the ozone to global warming and climate change, human activities have left the planet scarred.
Even though we know that all these things will come back to haunt us, we are still not getting our act together and any effort towards a sustainable future is at its infancy at best. So, there is a need to look at every possible way we can start healing the planet and one of the most promising solutions may come from super plants.
Going Back To The Roots
Nature always had things in balance, until we showed up and started utilizing the resources of the planet unchecked. This imbalance is what is the root of the problem. One of the major sources for a lot of our problems including global warming and climate change is the increased amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Our use of fossil fuels, coupled with rampant deforestation has had a double sided impact on the environment. To recreate the balance, we have to decrease or completely stop the use of fossil fuels and plant as many trees as possible because trees literally suck the CO2 from the air.
The transition from fossil fuels to clean energy sources and planting of enough trees around the planet could take a lot of time even with concentrated efforts. Therefore, a team of researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies are launching a new initiative to create super plants that would be able to sequester 20 times more CO2 from the atmosphere.
It is a 10 year plan and they are calling the super plants, ‘harnessing plants’ and they will not only be able to help combat climate change but could also help feed the planet!
An All-In-One Plant
Image Credits: The Salk Institute
The team is aiming to engineer a leafy green plant that would have some really cool characteristics like being salt tolerant, drought tolerant, pathogen resistant, flood tolerant, and would capture 20 times more carbon than other plants its size.
They even have a lead on how they could engineer such a plant and the answer lies in a substance called suberin. Suberin is made by all plants as it protects their roots. It protects them from drought and floods and also pathogens.
On top of that, suberin is one of the most stable forms of carbon and is very difficult for bacteria and fungi to break down and therein lies the answer to the carbon problem. The team wants to breed a variety of plants that can produce a lot more suberin so that they can make bigger root systems with more suberin that go deeper into the ground.
So, what will happen is, these super plants will such the carbon out of the atmosphere and lock it in their root systems. Since bacteria or fungi won’t be able to break down these roots, the carbon won’t be released back to the atmosphere.
To have a real impact on the environment, the teams states that 5% of the world’s crop land is what is needed to plant these super plants, which is a huge goal. But the team remains optimistic, both about being able to engineer such a plant as well as its wide adoption.
Interesting. Sounds a little scary, but it's very like likely super plants are the future. GMO's get a lot of bad rap (perhaps it's justified for the average 1st world consumer) but they sure are changing the world in good ways in a lot of instances. Perhaps this could be one of those instances!
Personally, I don't think there is anything scary about this, because this will not be made by genetically modifying any existing plants but by selective breeding that we humans have been doing for thousands of years.
Can Super Plants Help In Combating Climate Change i am very appriciat about this post
Yes, according to these scientists they can!
Really enjoyed the botany lesson! I feel as if an equation can be tilted either way. Could these plants sooner or later just caused a reversed problem? They could suck too much.
Just a thought.
Keep Steeming!
I don't think they will take too much carbon beyond a level of balance. Even if they do, we can simply stop growing them.
supper image thanks for you
It's not about the image tho.
That would be amazing! Hopefully this is gonna happen so we can save our beautiful planet!
Yeah, me too. The research team says that testing could begin as soon as 5 years.
That's not even too far out in the future! That'd be so great :-)
amaing, good post
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Thanks!
Nature is the answer! Thank you for the in-depth info in these super plants. Climate change is going to be one of the biggest challenges we face.
Nature has always been the answer, instead we have always tried to destroy it, unfortunately.
Nature needs to be preserved now and more hybrid technologies need to be developed for the betterment of environment and life. Thanks for the informative post.
Yup, completely agreed. I am glad that such an initiative has started.
If the earth needs a plant to heal itself, it will come up with a solution on it's own I bet. Like you said, the earth is always seeking a balance. The earth is much wiser than humans.
Yeah, but the problem is that we humans are destroying anything nature comes up with. So, some of us might have to intervene.
they are destroying nature, i wish all countries use Renewable Energy more and reduce using fossil fuels, thans for the informations it's interresting :)
Let's hope humanity gets its act together.
If the plant can bring about the change then that would be great and the exact solution we need right now.
Agreed. And since it is a plant, there will be no limits as to who can grow it and how much. So, everyone could help in that regards.
Science and scientist need to learn to look backward. To look at the failures before trying something like this. Australia comes to mind, Kudzu comes to mind. Any time and I do mean anytime science does something to control something natural or manmade it becomes a nightmare existence for those humans left. have they. (the scientist), asked what will happen if we sequester to much carbon? How long will it take to rebalance the cycle? What will happen if our plant becomes like kudzu? What if the roots decide they want to eat that plastic pipe which is carbon based? Or if the sap that drips lands on plastic car parts or other solid forms of carbon? I think it is a stupid Idea.
I think you misunderstood how the plant will work. The roots will just store the carbon. They won't have any effect on the plastic pipes AT ALL!! So, "eating the plastic pipes" is just impossible.
Also, about sequestering too much carbon, they would need to suck 1 trillion tons of carbon which is not an easy job to do. It would take years to achieve this. And if they even manage to do this, then since these are just plants, they can be simply stopped growing. That's it!
From wikipedia:
Note they dispute the rate of expansion, not the cost. How many stories of GMO plants pollinating non-GMO plants? When it comes to fixing things, I think scientist have a very limited view of what could go wrong. They may say the roots can not eat Plastic Pipes, that the Sap will have no effect on anything. But the truth of the matter is that until they introduce something, they do not know the consequences of their actions.
Scientist want to help, that is their job, to come up with solutions. It is the job of the people to understand, and to ensure the scientist understand, what could go wrong. Then for all to sit down and re-think the solution, or to run with it, like the atomic bomb. There was actually quite a lot of talk, and fear, about what would happen if they built it and used it. A lot of the fear fortunately did not come to pass, (the blowing the atmosphere into space).
If the plant worked as designed, then absolutely no problem. But what, what if id did not work as planned? Kudzu whether 150,000 acre a year spread or 2,500 acre a year spread, it is still spreading despite all the money being spent to stop it.
all that crap about climate change is bogus.
humans have NOTHING to do with it.
we can't control it one way or the other.
however.
super-plants would be a GOOD thing.
You can also check this out. Science is going to another level. I hope we see more positive than its negative part
https://steemit.com/science/@lurvie-b/3-weird-science-discoveries-from-2017-vanessa
haha yeah, we are entering sci-fi realm now.
This sounds really interesting. Do you have any studies on the amount of CO2 these 'superplants' would take out of the atmosphere?
The researchers say that they are targeting 20 times more than current plants their size. Beyond that I don't have actual data.
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Thank you :)
According to me, nature is the best solution for any sort of problem. So it is required largely irrespective of anything else.
Yes, I agree completely.
Good Article Man but also a little scary
I don't think it is scary because they are not using genetic modification but simple artificial breeding to achieve these super plants.
Point to be noted man.
Genetic modification Can be dangerous...
That sounds interesting. Though I believe going back to the good old ways of farming would be the best for humankind. When you don't have to speed up your produce thereby affecting not just its growth cycle but also the lifetime of the tree/plant.
LOL, The article is not about farming at all. It's about a special use case i.e. combating climate change!
I got that buddy and what I meant was old ways of farming(these days known as organic produce) is what the emphasis should be if we actually intend to curb the menace of climatic change by means of plants. This research will take time and by the time it lands on our shores (India I mean) we would have lost a good deal of resources and our health to our own deeds.
It would be nice if they can develop the plant asap, the earlier the better i think.
Thanks for the post, makes people more aware of global warming and measures being put in place to reduce it effects.
Yeah, they say the testing will begin as soon as 5 years. So, it's not too far away. Let's hope this happens real fast :)
Nice post my friend
Thanks :)