Rainforest tree eats up pollution : Mike Little’s Journalized

Mike Little’s not-quite-so-daily thoughts, babblings, and random synapse firings!

A collection of random thoughts and links. Nothing too exciting. ;-) -- Mike Little

Tuesday, 25 February 2003

Rainforest tree eats up pollution

by mike @ 12:48. Filed under

General

Here’s an interesting story on the BBC News.

Jatoba, or hymenaea, a rainforest tree, has been found to grow much faster in atmospheres with high levels of carbon dioxide.
This could be important in fighting climate change, as carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases that is making the planet warmer….
Simply planting large numbers of Jatoba trees may not be the answer, as they can take a very long time to reach maturity and specimens 500 years old are not unknown.

The article goes on to mention isolating the gene which causes the desired effect and applying it to other plants.

But that idea is controversial, because it would in effect create a large number of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
“It will take years for us to understand how these things work,” Professor Buckeridge conceded.
“I’m not saying we should have GMOs everywhere. But we have to be prepared.

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