Ciència Afterwork Fighting Climate Change with Plants: lt takes a global village to solve a global problem

Conference by Joanne Chory, Research Professor at the Salk Institute (USA) recognized with the 'Princesa de Asturias de Investigación Científica y Técnica 2019' award and conversation with Michele Catanzaro, scientific communicator.

The world is facing a global sustainability crisis. The population stands today at >7.5B and is expected to increase to 11B by 2100.  The increasing demand for food, fuel, land, and other natural resources is creating consequences, including rising temperatures, weather extremes, collapsing ecosystems, and ocean acidification. This exceeds the planet’s capacity to absorb change and maintain stability.

At the current pace of change, human life as we know it may not be sustainable on earth in a little over 100 years. Feeling the urgent need to be a part of the solution, Salk Institute plant scientists have developed a plan to bend the upward trending curve back down to a range where the planet’s natural systems of maintaining balance can cope.  The idea is to improve plants’ natural ability to capture and store carbon in the ground.

I will tell you about our plans to alter 3 traits in plant roots (increase root depth, enhance root biomass, and increase suberin content) that we hope will allow us to draw down CO2 at a global level in 10 years. Recent advances in plant biology suggest that this goal is within our reach. By improving plants’ natural ability to deposit carbon in the soil in a form that does not easily decompose, we can sequester enough CO2 to make a significant contribution to the global effort on many fronts to become carbon neutral or net negative.

Free activity upon registration >

Organized: Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera i CRAG

Collaboration: Severo Ochoa