[Sustain] Alarming Report On Genetic Modification For Fuel Production

[Eric Brooks]

Hi all,

GeneWatch UK has just released a new report on the many proposed uses 
and dangers of using genetically engineered organisms to produce biofuels.

Perhaps the most alarming section of the report is on the possibility of 
genetically modified micro-organisms being developed to be particularly 
aggressive at breaking down the crucial protective cellulose skeletal 
structure in plants.

The report notes that these aggressive traits would be very useful to 
naturally occurring plant disease microbes, and it is quite possible 
that those aggressive cellulose decaying traits could be transfered to 
such wild microbes and therefore trigger extensive and more rapid plant 
die-offs.

If such modified organisms were then to spread extensively in the wild 
planet-wide, they could trigger a mass rapid collapse in plant species. 
Such a mass die-off would vastly increase CO2 in the atmosphere, and 
conceivably could even result in a total collapse of virtually all life 
on the planet due to a catastrophic meltdown in the survival of plants.

To read a four page summary of the report go to:
http://www.genewatch.org/uploads/f03c6d66a9b354535738483c1c3d49e4/Biofuels_briefing_August_2009_v1.pdf

To look over the full 72 page report go to:
http://www.genewatch.org/uploads/f03c6d66a9b354535738483c1c3d49e4/Genewatch_Report_August_2009.pdf

peace

Eric

-- 
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate 
themselves." – Che Guevara