Climate change requires human and non-human communities to rise to their fullest
potential in order to adapt, survive and thrive. The question of if, and how,
some organisms could be helped along the way in reaching this potential and
beyond is being explored by genetically engineering organisms to be more suited
for a warming planet.
Biotech startup Living Carbon has developed a
genetically engineered hybrid poplar tree with enhanced photosynthetic
abilities. In lab conditions, Living Carbon’s poplars accumulated biomass up to
53 percent faster than non-engineered poplar trees, trapping as much as 27
percent more carbon.
Living Carbon has
planted
over 8,000 of its genetically engineered hybrid poplars in Georgia to see
just how well these modified trees hold up in real-world use cases. The GM trees
are all female to inhibit reproduction and allow the trees to integrate with
local ecosystems.
It’s no shocker that the public distrusts genetically modified
organisms;
and Living Carbon CTO and co-founder Patrick
Mellor thinks this is
justified. Partially. GMOs are often used to breed herbicide-resistant plants;
and the practice has become concomitant with industrial monoculture and the
pesticide
industry.
And because many genetically modified seeds are
patented,
many are uncomfortable with the concept of life as intellectual property — the
whole setup lending to viewing GMOs through Monsanto-tinted glasses.
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But for Living Carbon, the potential for genetic engineering (GE) as an adaptive
and mitigative tool for climate change is a totally different ball game than
breeding GE commodity crops.
“[Genetic engineering] can have integrative and restorative effects when
practiced with intentions other than maximizing crop yield within a monoculture,
or extending product life,” Mellor told Sustainable Brands®.
The forest for the trees: Biodiversity vs carbon
Accelerated carbon absorption, disease resistance, boosted yield — GMOs are
often designed to fit a particular purpose and not necessarily the holistic
needs of the host ecosystem. Crops didn’t need to be, because of their nature as
monocrops. Trees, however, are in the wild; and any manipulation of their genome
must balance the overall needs of the local ecological community.
In the case of trees, how do we balance ecological and social benefits with the
need to draw carbon out of the atmosphere?
“I don’t think the two are in conflict with each other, as long as you’re being
honest with what will actually store carbon,” said Anne
Petermann, co-founder and
coordinator of the STOP GE Trees Campaign. “What’s
best for communities and the environment is what’s best for the climate.”
Focusing on amassing individual trees for sequestration misses the forest for
the trees by overlooking the way species interact with each other as well as
boosting ecological services, diversity and net carbon sequestration throughout
the ecosystem. Viewing trees simply as a way to balance the carbon budget,
Petermann says, is a grossly inaccurate view of how natural systems sequester
carbon.
Climate change will make it difficult for trees to hold a
grip to their
native ranges, let alone novel GE species, Petermann explains. Tree migration is
imminent, exemplified by devastating drought and wildfires and “zombie
forests”
surviving in places they can no longer regenerate. Putting untested genomes in
an unpredictable climate is risky, she insists, and doesn’t take into account
the ways a changing climate will affect disease, drought, pests, land use and
more.
While Mellor admits it is true that genomes are complex in the sense that they
are unwieldy, they’re not so finely tuned that a little genetic meddling will
produce monsters. Still, he doesn’t rule out the accumulation of “small effects”
in modified genomes resulting from prolonged interaction with the local ecology.
“This is why we are taking an incremental approach to the deployment of our
trees — progressively introducing them at larger scales, so we can observe these
effects in real time and continue guided by our previous observations,” Mellor
said.
The Arbor Day Foundation acknowledges the potential
of genetically enhanced tree species; so it’s keeping tabs on developments that
could help forests become more biodiverse and resilient.
“We need an all-hands-on-deck approach; and we need to sequester a lot of
carbon, like, today — but not at the expense of other things,” Pete
Smith, urban forestry manager
at the Arbor Day Foundation, told SB. “If one [solution] comes at the expense of
another, it becomes a race to the bottom and not an exercise on how we solve the
greatest issues facing our day.”
Projects such as Living Carbon attract innovation, Smith said; and chances are,
they’ll help prompt a new bloom of cleantech innovation to complement the
systems nature has already provided.
Just like any investment portfolio, a failed forest project can be avoided
through diversity, he added. While GMOs are on the proving grounds, Arbor Day is
focusing on other solutions that are proven to be effective and scalable — such
as the Foundation’s work on an interactive
map predicting future
plant-hardiness zones in the wake of climate change.
Whether a GE or indigenous tree, climate-resilient ecosystems are about more
than just putting roots into the ground. Both Petermann and Smith are critical
of any carbon-sequestration project that comes at the expense of social justice
and biodiversity. Petermann sees GE trees as yet another enabler of the status
quo — a way to draw down carbon faster in order to sell carbon
credits
faster in order to “offset” ballooning emissions.
If Living Carbon’s lab results are true, that makes its GE hybrid poplar an
attractive asset for forestry-based carbon-offset solutions. While Petermann is
concerned that the hybrid poplars will enable monoculture plantings, Mellor says
Living Carbon’s poplars are being planted in mixed timber stands situated on
degraded land. Contracts stipulate that the trees planted now cannot be cut down
for at least 10 years; and when they are, they must be turned into durable wood
products rather than pulp — meaning less potential for landfilled, single-use
forestry products emitting climate-changing methane.
Living Carbon sees itself as providing biological assets enabling regenerative
forestry — in which trees draw down carbon; become carbon-storing, durable wood
products; and all forestry waste (or “slash”) is converted into valuable biochar
or bio oil.
“We represent a pioneering approach to the application of integrative, synthetic
biology in multiple species to enable carbon drawdown,” Mellor said. “Calling
this ‘selling offsets and enabling business as usual’ is reductive
misrepresentation. We are not planting monocultures; we are building biodiverse
forests.”
“Progress is so important right now — and there’s no perfect option,” Smith
admits. “It’s not an excuse to do bad work; but something that gets me through
the day is this momentum against the challenge of climate change.”
The hybrid poplar is the first of Living Carbon’s portfolio of
photosynthesis-enhanced GMO trees. The company says subsequent tree types will
focus on carbon absorption and slowed decomposition.
Living Carbon has submitted a manuscript for peer review but is unable to
provide further details. Lab results relating to its current GE hybrid poplar
can be found in this
whitepaper.
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Christian is a writer, photographer, filmmaker, and outdoor junkie obsessed with the intersectionality between people and planet. He partners with brands and organizations with social and environmental impact at their core, assisting them in telling stories that change the world.
Published Apr 17, 2023 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST