I think the most unfortunate thing about the current global warming hysteria is that everyone's suddenly more concerned about CO2, an inert gas, than they are about mercury, lead, cadmium, PCBs, and other toxic compounds in our soil, water, and air. These toxins build up over time, don't decompose, and cause all manner of birth defects and cancers. On top of that, they're also incredibly expensive to clean up.

Fortunately, at least a few researchers are still working on solutions to these real environmental threats. A group from the University of Washington is using genetically modified poplar trees. These trees are able to absorb 91% of the trichloroethylene toxin from contaminated water while regular poplars only remove 3%.

This sort of biological solution has incredible potential. Imagine a day when pollution cleanup could be done simply by planting trees. Trees cost next to nothing to plant, require no maintenance, and can reproduce. Even if they don't decompose the toxins (which some are able to), the first few crops of the trees containing the most contamination could be harvested, ground up, and stored. That's a lot cheaper and less destructive to the local ecology than a superfund cleanup crew bagging 100,000 tons of dirt. Instead of a big hole in the ground, formerly toxic areas become forests.

Since toxin eating trees also remove CO2 from the air, this solution should also make fans of An Inconvenient Truth happy. Cleanup operations could even be subsidized by selling them carbon credits for the trees being planted. How's that for win-win?

Posted by JoshC at October 16, 2007 6:49 PM

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