GM Could Help Plants Adapt to CO2 Warming - Expert
Date: 18-Mar-04
Country: UK
Author: Jeremy Lovell
Simon Thornton-Wood, head of science at Britain's Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), told Reuters that genetic modification (GM) could offer a solution to the steady rise in temperatures.
"There are solutions to all the sorts of problems like climate change, and all the pest and disease problems that we have today...and the answer might in large part be GM," he said on the margins of an RHS science exchange meeting in London.
Earlier this month, Britain approved the commercial planting of genetically modified maize cattle feed, prompting warnings of a flood of what critics call Frankenstein foods.
"It is certainly true that scientists can foresee ways in which GM could help. It is a question of whether public opinion is going to allow scientists to make those explorations," Thornton-Wood said.
Scientists predict that average temperatures could rise by around two degrees centigrade over the next half-century, pushing temperate growing zones steadily northwards.
Thornton-Smith said that while such a change appeared on the surface to be minimal, it would actually have a potentially catastrophic impact on growing conditions for all types of plants from fruits to flowers.
"Really it is quite significant because so many plants that we are familiar with require the particular conditions of - in the case of our fruit - frost early in the season," he said.
While at face value it might seem good news for people that northern summers and winters might get warmer, the same might not be true for plants.
"There is the question of whether other conditions like the soil type actually occur in the new climatic zones.
"For instance those Mediterranean plants which from a summer point of view are now ideally placed in Britain, might be faced with waterlogging and those sorts of problems in the winter," Thornton-Wood said.
While it would be preferable to actually change practices like high-volume carbon dioxide release that have led to climate change, most of what is predicted is already in the pipeline and therefore unstoppable.
Genetic modification could help mitigate some of the worst effects, Thornton-Wood said.
"This is more than a debate about food safety. This is a debate that could touch on some quite unexpected aspects of our lives.
"It is no longer a matter of what you are buying in your supermarket. It is the very environment in which you live," he added.