Global Call to Stop the Planting of Genetically Engineered Trees

[lovuian]

http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/36423

Global Call to Stop the Planting of Genetically Engineered Trees


Bonn, Germany--Organizations and scientists <1> from around the world spoke today about their opposition to genetically engineered trees which will be negotiated at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity's Ninth Conference of the Parties (CBD COP-9) beginning next week in Bonn.

They are demanding that governments at the UN agree to accept the proposal to suspend all releases of genetically engineered (GE) trees into the environment, due to their extreme ecological and social threats.

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"Genetically Engineered trees threaten to contaminate native forests around the world with unnatural and destructive traits such as the ability to kill insects, or have reduced lignin--the substance that enables a tree to stand up straight and withstand disease," stated Anne Petermann, Co-Director of Global Justice Ecology Project (the North American Focal Point for Global Forest Coalition) and Co-Coordinator of the STOP GE Trees Campaign.

"Escape of these GE tree traits into forests would devastate wildlife, biodiversity and forest-dependent communities. It is for this reason that 137 groups from 34 countries have become members of the STOP GE Trees Campaign to demand a global ban on genetically engineered trees," she added.

At the CBD COP-8 in Curitiba, Brazil in 2006, the CBD passed an historic decision that urged countries to use the precautionary approach with regard to genetically engineered trees.
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There is a madness running amok on this Earth

[orleans]

1. omg. there sure as shit is maddness running amok. n/t

[lostnfound]

2. Oh my God. Are they crazy?

Just when I think that we've seen all the ecological madnesses inflicted on our environment, they come up with another. This can not be good for ecosystems. Think of the problems caused by invasive exotics.. mix in some insecticides.. a dash of memory of an elm's vulnerability to Dutch Elm disease. I can imagine something going awry.

[NickB79]

3. With the proper selection of species, there wouldn't be much risk of escape

For example, the hybrid Siouxland poplar tree is a widely planted cultivar for windbreaks and pulpwood production. The tree is both male and its pollen sterile. The only way it can propagate itself is via root suckers, and even these will only form a grove rather than spread far from the parent tree. The grove can be killed with either chemical or mechanical means if desired. A genetically engineered version of this variety would pose little risk to native ecosystems, and is indeed one of the varieties they've been working on.

However, any tree that is self-fertile, or produces fertile pollen that can spread to related wild populations, pose too much risk to allow for further development, IMO.

[lovuian]

4. Yep

this is true madness

[OneBlueSky]

5. humankind has to stop fucking with Mother Nature . . .

no engineering, no genetic tinkering, no product of human imagination can ever match the elegance and balance of the creation we all share . . . thinking that humans can somehow improve on something that has taken millions of years to evolve and perfect is sheer hubris, and it's coming back to bite us in the ass every time we try . . .

the best thing humans can do for nature is to learn to live within it (as was intended) -- and otherwise leave it the hell alone . . .

[TZ]

6. Ebola, malaria, HIV, TB are all natural

Should we leave them be as well?

[bean fidhleir]

7. Says who?

You don't know the origin of HIV or ebola - malaria and tb are the only ones that pre-date our ability to create plagues.

[AdHocSolver]

8. Mother Nature is already fucking humankind back. The ones guilty just haven't gotten the message.

[Posteritatis]

9. I've gotten used to not dying of smallpox lately, though. (nt)