Do you agree to genetically mutate trees for ethanol production?

Here we go again. A few weeks ago I wrote an article about some scientists inventing a way to modify the DNA of a bacteria to produce hydrogen. Ok, I didn’t fully agree with that – considering that bacteria is an extremely small microorganism, and you don’t know what ecological disaster it might produce when released freely. Now I find out another astonishing news: the title of this post.

I mean, ok… ethanol, environment, less pollution, but HOW FAR are you willing to go to alienize the crops and trees for your need to go to the mall, or to go to work? Ethanol production should be a “clean” process, not one that mutates the environment! How many times do we have to scream, before mother nature does it (and then it will be deadly), how many biological pollutants do we have to swallow before someone understands that nature is not to be modified. We have to extract our fuels or energy from the universe as it is, not hack or reverse engineer it. Have you ever heard of Atlantis? It’s said they killed themselves by all the technological means they had in hand!

Specifically, our bright scientists want to reduce the lignin (wikipedia: “Lignin fills the spaces in the cell wall between cellulose, hemicellulose and pectin components, especially in tracheids, sclereids and xylem. It is covalently linked to hemicellulose and thereby crosslinks different plant polysaccharides, conferring mechanical strength to the cell wall and by extension the plant as a whole.[4] It is particularly abundant in compression wood, but curiously scarce in tension wood.”). As you can see, the lignin is part of a trees resistance structure, if modified it can alter the trees’ resistance, and hence they will not be trees anymore, but weak green plants.

Listen to me: research as much as you can, and find out non-intrusive methods of generating energy! It’s best for you, for me, and our children. Just think about it, and don’t let such “X-Men”-like experiments happen.

Thank you.