So I have started listening to some of Austin’s news and recently the big story is about the zebra mussels that are causing the water supply to taste like “rotten trash”. I only just finished reading “The Death and Life of the Great Lakes” which spent quite a bit of time talking about these and other invasive species.

I was hearing again about how they are filter feeders and the water bodies they live in become crystal clear because the mussels have eaten up all the stuff in the water. Which got me thinking.

Could we adapt water-based filter feeders to the terrestrial arena…and get them to eat greenhouse gases?

Probably would take an awful lot of updates to the genotype. Besides the fact they live in the water so that’s one big hurdle, they also don’t eat greenhouse gases!

But then I realized that there already are microbes that DO eat greenhouse gases. Aha! So we just need to get them out of the deep sea and dot them throughout the terrestrial landscape. Seems to me we just have to use some of our CRISPR technology and embed the stretch of microbe DNA which eats greenhouse gases into a land creature.

Stepping back, I’m just guessing we’d work with animals not plants? I’m just guessing it’d be an easier blend but maybe I’m wrong. There’s insects but it’s already such a mess with bees dying and mosquitoes killing us and bed bugs and I just think it could get out of hand too easily.

First megafauna that comes to mind is humans but I’m ruling that out since everyone would freak out. OK next thought is dogs as they kind of go hand in hand with people. Ok fine, no to dogs and not even cats (more freaking out). So then I was thinking about what animals do you find in all urban areas? How about pigeons? Seems perfect choice!

But then actually, there are mushrooms (fungi) which we’ve been overlooking! They are actually more like us than any plant. And what I’m discovering (as I write this) is that they are already being harnessed (without gene editing) to do environmental cleanup.

Mushrooms are potential miracle workers, capable of cleaning up oil spills and radioactive contamination, filtering bacteria-tainted wastewater, speeding reforestation of clear-cut woodlands, boosting agricultural yields, controlling insect pests and treating ailments ranging from cancer and bird flu to diabetes and dementia.

I’ve had a growing interest in mushrooms the last couple years after discovering a nice patch of “chicken of the woods” mushrooms growing behind my apartment building. Thanks the the facebook group, Lichens, Mosses, Ferns & Fungi, I was brave enough to go ahead and EAT them!