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It would probably be dangerous to engineer an organism that doesn't break down. Imagine a living, growing plastic. Except not a Dr. Who villain.
by hawkice 8y ago
It would probably be dangerous to engineer an organism that doesn't break down. Imagine a living, growing plastic. Except not a Dr. Who villain.
- beerlord 8y agoWell presumably we could still collect, dry and burn what accumulates on the shore, and the rest would fall to the seabed. If the alternative is a hothouse Earth, with large sections of the planet rendered uninhabitable, geoengineering schemes like this are going to be necessary. We can start with iron fertilisation experiments - Australia has a lot of it, and is near oceans.
- TuringTest 8y agoYou risk creating a locust-like scenario, where it's impossible to fully control areas with specimen outbreaks.
- cimmanom 8y agoWouldn’t burning it defeat the carbon sequestration purpose?
- NinjaViking 8y agoThat would be a desperate attempt to reverse a runaway process, if it turns out to be too successful.
- kamaal 8y ago>>Well presumably we could still collect, dry and burn what accumulates on the shore, and the rest would fall to the seabed. Immortal plastic organism will eventually evolve to a lot more that 'trap carbon' work. Human's barely live for 60 years, and yet we can transfer all our knowledge generations one after the other. Imagine what an organism that can never die could do.
- bpicolo 8y ago> the rest would fall to the seabed And kill a ton of sea life?
- Scarblac 8y agoWhat sea life will be left after a few more decades of acidification?
- TuringTest 8y agoThis classic novel explores that scenario. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41094.Greener_Than_You_Think https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41094.Greener_Than_You_T...