I was reading a friends blog today and I saw he’s linked to a truly fascinating news article about Scientists who have managed to genetically modify bugs in such a way that they consume waste and produce crude oil.

I’m of two minds regarding this ‘discovery’. On the one hand it’s great knowing that there could effectively be an unlimited supply of crude oil in the world - could this be the start of the road to free energy? Could this possibly mean an end to wars and and rivalry over oil rich countries?

However, I do have my concerns. Is this really the best thing for the environment - yes, it’s a way of recycling our waste. It’s also a means of gaining oil without the hassle of drilling and pumping and who knows whatever else - but is it sustainable for the environment and planet - do we really want to continue to have cars that pump out masses of CO2 or, would we prefer to find alternatives such as hydrogen power etc? Another interesting question - how much oil can these bugs really produce - too little, or as one critique on the news article says “Suppose some of these bugs mysteriously got out of the laboratory and into the environment. Would they not continue to behave in a similar fashion outside the petrie dish? So now everything around them would slowly be converted to oil. How is this scenario “environmentally friendly”?”. Then there are the moral grounds - is it right to genetically modify bugs for such things? Should we be playing God?

Overall I think it’s an interesting step, and it may even be a step in the right direction towards sustainable, environmentally friendly fuel - but I still think we’ve got a long way to go.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 9:39 pm and is filed under Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.