This article proposes the idea of using genetically altered plants that use more carbon to help control global warming. Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Library are trying to find a way to create these plants. The plants would store the carbon in the soil and it would stay here for centuries. They also speak of the possibility of making plants that can grow in the tough soil, this would also help soak up a lot of carbon in the air because we would be able to grow more crops in any type of soil.
This article was written October 2, 2010 and was published by www.sciencedaily.com
The article really didn't have a bias, it was more informative. The opinions of the scientist or author were not mentioned in the article. I would say this article is pro environmentalist.
II. The Living World
E. Natural Biochemical Cycles
- Carbon Cycle
VII. Global Change
B. Global Warming
I believe that it would be a good idea to use genetically altered plants and trees to absorb carbon in the air. The large amounts of carbon currently in the air has become a major problem and this seems to be an efficient answer. The only problems I see that might come from this is the possible cost of genetically altered plants and trees and the effect they will have on the surrounding plants and area.
ReplyDeleteWhile it sounds good on paper, implementing this practice in the real world would have some problems. Were a single species to be used worldwide, introducing it could be catastrophic to the local ecosystem. the solution would seem to be to make all plants more efficient photosynthesizers, but genetically altering thousands of species of plants would be a herculean task. Were this practice to get out of hand, Carbon Dioxide levels could even get to low, causing a global climate cooling. I believe it would be more manageable to construct devices that filtered Carbon Dioxide out of the air, as they could simply be turned off to prevent carbon levels from getting too low.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a good idea to use plants such as these to clean up excess carbon in the air. However, as Asiya and James have stated, the plants could really affect the environment in a negative way by becoming an invasive species and harming other plants in the vicinity. Maybe these trees could be sequestered so that they clean-up the problem, but not cause issues with other non-genetically altered plants or harm the biomes significantly?
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