Bob Brockie writes in the Dominion Post on the promise that science can save the planet from climate change.
He writes about some of the exciting new science currently being undertaken, including the work of genetic engineers who have developed a means of making biofuel which does not compete with food crops.
An excerpt: (read in full here)
“And there are other problems such as the growing demand for fuel increasing competition with food crops, driving up the price of foods, increasing world hunger, and questionable land-use practices such as tropical deforestation.
“Driven by the need to overcome these problems and to produce cheap green fuels, a Dr Stephen del Cardayre and a team of American Government, university and private organisations has developed a green fuel without competing with food crops, without raising food prices, and without increasing hunger or deforestation.
“The US technique bypasses the need to convert sugar to alcohol by using altered microbes to do the trick.”