#4)
Mole, Beth. “Engineered Plants Demolish Toxic Waste.” Science News. EPA, 21 Oct. 2014. Web. 23 Aug. 2015. <https://www.sciencenews.org/article/engineered-plants-demolish-toxic-waste>.
Scientists have recently been researching the possibility that greenery could help cleanup oil spills and air pollution. With the help of science, plants can now digest polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which are peculiar to the ooze of oil spills and smog of air pollution. Plant environmental cleanups are estimated to be one tenth the price of current methods being used. The economy could save from the 50 billion dollars spent on cleaning up waste throughout the globe.
Although this research is not fully developed, it could be the answer to many of our problems. I think it is a area in science that should really be explored in order to provide a more economical way to protect and cleanup our environment. It makes me hopeful to see scientists finding solutions to very current problems.
I think using plants to clean up oil spills and air pollution is awesome! Its seems like it has environmental and economic benefits. However, I think more research needs to be done to make there are no detrimental long term impacts on the greenery. It would be upsetting to learn that using the plants to clean up the environment was actually hurting the plants.
We definitely need to do more research on it, but i think this could solve many of our problems.
It’s great to see that scientists are finding new and environmentally friendly ways to approach environmental issues, and I think that the use of plants to fight pollution is a great step in the right direction. I’m curious to know what the scientists do to the plants to make them able to digest PAHs? How does that work?
I am not sure of the exact chemistry about it, but i know there are only certain plants that can perform this task.
This research is very surprising and hopefully in will be further developed in the future. However couldn’t it be possible that the plants absorbing the harmful pollution could harm them in the long term?
Yes, it is possible and that is why I think we need to do more research on this.
I think that the possibility of green methods of cleaning up toxic spills is an innovation that would greatly impact our economy for better but would the plants that digest the toxins and unnatural substances cause the deterioration of the surrounding environment?
It could possibly happen and that is why scientists are conducting experiments to test the plant’s tolerance.
This would prove to be a healthier and cheaper means to clean up the globe. However, would it be easy to implement this form of environmental cleanup across the world it the question.
It would be hard to implement around the world because it would require all countries to put in money, time, and effort.
this research seems very promising as oil spill cleanup is very hard to contain and our methods are poor when it comes to coping with such disasters. new tools such as these are why we need to invest in such research.
I totally agree. I think it is super exciting that we are finding more sustainable ways to clean up our environment.
It’s amazing that we could use natural resources to help save our planet! Are there any experiments proving that it works?