New Improved Plants Will Save Us From Ourselves

Okay, Science: you got us into this mess. (Well, not really. You just made the discoveries. But what was Industrialism gonna do? Not exploit them to the detriment of the planet?) It’s up to you to get us out of it. Make us some of those carbon-eating plants.

A new analysis published in the October issue of Bioscience suggests that by 2050 humans could offset between five and eight gigatons of the carbon emitted annually by growing plants and trees optimized via genetic engineering both for fuel production and carbon sequestration… Plants take up CO2 and store carbon in their biomasses. Carbon can stay for decades or centuries in leaves, stems, branches, seeds and flowers aboveground, whereas carbon allocated to underground root systems is more apt to be transferred into the soil, where it can stay sequestered for millennia. Therefore, an ideal bioenergy plant would produce lots of aboveground biomass for fuel as well as have an extensive root system. Preliminary research indicates that genetic engineering approaches could be employed to enhance both these traits.

Climate change expert Allison Thompson stresses caution in making predictions, saying, “You can’t really say how much bioenergy we are going use if you’re not also considering…” Yes, yes, yes. Fine, fine. Just please start making the plants that will save the world now. And also make it so they grow flowers that taste like bacon and are rich in the HDL “good” cholesterol and produce alcohol that doesn’t give you a hangover. Thanks.