Living Carbon, the startup that dreams of fighting climate change with genetically modified trees
In four years it has raised 36 million dollars and among its co-founders there is also an ex of OpenAI (the organization behind ChatGPT). Living Carbon, a startup from San Francisco, wants to plant genetically modified trees to fight climate change, but there are doubts and criticisms…
Reducing the use of fossil fuels and using renewable energies does not seem to be sufficient, under current conditions, to intervene drastically against climate change and despite scientists and engineers from all over the world trying to design machines that suck carbon from the air and power plants able to store it deep underground, it is now clear to experts that the fight against climate change is not limited to reducing carbon emissions.
Living Carbon, a startup born four years ago in San Francisco, therefore thought of "responsibly rebalancing the planet's carbon cycle using the intrinsic power of plants", that is, making way for millions of genetically modified trees that grow rapidly and capture more carbon .
The intention is to position itself somewhere between nature-based solutions to climate change, such as slowing deforestation, and engineered solutions.
WHAT IT DOES AND WHO IS BEHIND LIVING CARBON
Living Carbon is a startup made up of biologists, ecologists, foresters, botanists and researchers who are dedicated to improving the profitability, scalability and efficiency of carbon removal projects using science.
Among its co-founders there is also Maddie Hall, a former employee of OpenAI (the software house that developed ChatGPT) who, according to Quartz , wanted to give biologists the same opportunities that artificial intelligence researchers have.
“By 2030 – he said – we can plant enough trees to remove a gigaton of carbon”. Scientists estimate that about 10 gigatons of carbon will need to be removed from the atmosphere each year by the middle of this century to keep the Earth's climate at a stable temperature.
GENETICLY MODIFIED TREES
One of the latest projects raised Living Carbon $21 million earlier this year. The idea is to plant 5 million genetically modified trees in the United States. These are poplars (known for their ability to reduce and destroy industrial toxins) capable of growing 50% faster and capturing 27% more carbon, at least in greenhouse conditions, according to a study in pre- print posted on bioRxiv .
The company also hopes they can also be useful for combating invasive species and for creating a forest cover that favors the return of native plants.
THE BUSINESS STRATEGY
Living Carbon's business model, Quartz explains, is to leverage carbon reduction incentives provided by governments and non-profits by investing them in people and companies that own environmentally degraded land due to industrial use. or agricultural, which is approximately 133 million acres in the United States.
“Living Carbon will pay to plant its trees on the land and then work with third parties like Watershed to measure the impact of these seedlings. Then, it can sell the credits for the stored carbon to companies looking to offset their emissions. Or, companies can work directly with Living Carbon and use the trees for their own internal carbon calculations.”
WHAT THE EXPERTS THINK
However, although some experts consider the project interesting and innovative, not everyone is optimistic about the impact it will have because this depends on many factors and it will take years to quantify it.
We wonder, for example, about what will happen to trees (and also carbon) when they die, if the types of trees selected are suitable for the areas in which they are planted or if their rapid growth requires too much water, but also if plantation-style tree growth, concentrated on a small number of species, may be prone to pests and pathogens .
BUREAUCRATIC OBSTACLES
Also, according to the New York Times , even if Living Carbon succeeds in the enterprise, it would have to overcome other obstacles. In fact, major organizations that certify sustainable forests prohibit the use of engineered trees and some also prevent member companies from planting engineered trees overseas. To date, the only country where a large number of genetically modified trees are known to have been planted is China.
THE CRITICISM
Finally, Living Carbon also has to deal with environmentalists who have openly criticized the initiative. The Global Justice Ecology Project, for example, has called the company's trees "growing threats" to forests and has expressed alarm that the federal government has allowed them to sidestep regulation, opening the door for far more commercial plantations. faster than usually happens with authorizations for genetically modified organisms.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/living-carbon-la-startup-che-sogna-di-combattere-il-cambiamento-climatico-con-alberi-geneticamente-modificati/ on Mon, 06 Mar 2023 13:23:42 +0000.