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https://theconversation.com/engineered-microbes-could-tackle-climate-change-if-we-ensure-its-done-safely-266584>
"As the climate crisis accelerates, there’s a desperate need to rapidly reduce
carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, both by slashing emissions and by
pulling carbon out of the air.
Synthetic biology has emerged as a particularly promising approach. Despite the
name, synthetic biology isn’t about creating new life from scratch. Rather, it
uses engineering principles to build new biological components for existing
microorganisms such as bacteria, microbes and fungi to make them better at
specific tasks.
By one recent estimate, synthetic biology could cut more carbon than emitted by
all passenger cars ever made – up to 30 billion tonnes – through methods such
as boosting crop yields, restoring agricultural land, cutting livestock methane
emissions, reducing the need for fertiliser, producing biofuels and engineering
microbes to store more carbon. According to some synthetic biologists, this
could be a game-changer.
But will it prove to be? Technological efforts to “solve” the climate problem
often verge on the improbably utopian. There’s a risk in seeing synthetic
biology as a silver bullet for environmental problems. A more realistic
approach suggests synthetic biology isn’t a magic fix, but does have real
potential worth exploring further.
Engineering microorganisms is a controversial practice. To make the most of
these technologies, researchers will have to ensure it’s done safely and
ethically, as my research points out."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
