Reengineering Life
The Gene-Edited Corn, Cows, and Potatoes That Could Curb Climate Change
Gene-edited foods hold great potential, but the public must accept them first
Reengineering Life is a series from Future Human about the astonishing ways genetic technology is changing humanity and the world around us.
Nearly 200 nations signed on to the Paris Agreement in 2016, pledging to reduce their countries’ greenhouse gas emissions. By now, it’s well known that greenhouse gases emitted through human activity trap heat and warm the Earth’s surface. To curb emissions, many countries are shifting to cleaner forms of power, like solar and wind, and providing incentives for electric cars.
But a new report suggests a somewhat surprising strategy for helping to reduce emissions: editing the genes of plants and animals.
“I think that everybody but a few science-fiction writers have underestimated the extent to which this is going to transform human activity and the relationship between humans and environment,” said Val Giddings, PhD, a senior fellow at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, the nonprofit public policy think tank that released the report. Speaking during a September 15 panel discussion about the report, Giddings…
