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The Biotech That (Supposedly) Almost Ended All Life On Earth - YouTube
Channel: The Infographics Show
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There have been some close calls throughout
history as to when the end of mankind may
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have been on the horizon.
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Most of these were a long time ago, such as
the Toba Explosion 70,000 years ago, that
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dimmed the sun for six years after a volcano
erupted.
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Some experts believe that after that there
were only a few thousand humans left on the
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planet, albeit the archaic kind of human.
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Much later, in 1962, itâs well known that
the world was on the brink of seeing an all-out
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nuclear war.
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This became known as the Cuban missile crisis.
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How close were we?
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Closer than we thought, seems to be the general
agreement these days.
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But today we are going to show you a much
lesser heard of world crisis, in this episode
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of the Infographics Show, The Biotech That
Almost Ended All Life on Earth.
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The story begins with the problem of plant
waste and how to get rid of it.
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Itâs an age-old problem.
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If you burned, you created a lot of pollution
that was very bad for the environment and
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the people that lived in it, but decomposing
the waste just created a lot of unusable sludge
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that was not seen as an ideal method.
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So, thought some scientists in Germany in
the 1990s, what if we turn all this waste
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into alcohol?
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This alcohol could then have many uses, including
being used as fuel.
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Great, fantastic, go for it science.
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Scientists engineered a bacterium known as
âKlebsiella planticolaâ.
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This would decompose the plant waste, and
voila, turn it into alcohol.
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What was left over would then fertilize the
land.
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This bacterium exists all over the place already.
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It can be found in the guts of mammals, but
itâs also found in the root systems of plants.
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K. planticola does a good job for this planet,
itâs our friend, it keeps the cycle churning
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when it comes to plant matter.
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Its job is to decompose plants, and then they
can grow again.
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Itâs apparently very good at this, a kind
of very effective grim reaper for the plant
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world.
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Thatâs why it was chosen by the scientists
to modify and do the job of turning plant
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waste into alcohol.
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Only things werenât that simple, as you
shall see.
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The scientists believed that by using the
K. planticola they could not only turn some
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of the useless waste into alcohol, but also
create a very powerful fertilizer.
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All the farmers had to do was collect the
waste, contain it somewhere, and in time it
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would become alcohol that could fire our burners,
cars, or even be drunkâŠand booze has never
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been in short demand.
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Anything left over would be this super-useful
nitrogen-rich fertilizer.
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It was a win-win, in all conceivable ways.
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But the scientists were doing their testing
in a lab, and the soil they were using was
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sterile.
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The problem was farm soil isnât sterile,
and so the conditions are not the same.
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What they didnât bargain for was the effect
their super-fertilizer might have when it
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was spread back into the farm soil.
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Someone thankfully tested this.
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You see, the fermentation of the plant waste
didnât kill the modified K. planticola.
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It was still there in the fertilizer.
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This wasnât good for the plants as it speeded
up the killing process.
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Usually the plants would die when ready, but
the modified bacterium just went to work destroying
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everything in its path at a frightening speed.
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The engineered version produced so much alcohol
it fermented all plant life it came into touch
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with, and so in a way gave the crops alcohol
poisoning.
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But the scientists didnât see this, and
the miracle GMO was on its way to becoming
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shipped worldwide as a formula to help one
and all.
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It had been approved by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), and marketing people
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were just working on a way to see to it that
it reached all four corners of the globe.
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Thankfully, humanity was in luck.
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That luck came by way of one scientist who
was one of those people who are skeptical
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regarding something that looks too good to
be true.
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Her name was Dr. Elaine Ingham and she hailed
from the University of Oregon.
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More testing needed to be done, said the professor.
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She was well versed to make the claim, having
written countless papers and books about soil
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and microbes.
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It turned out that what we were about to unleash
on the planet would have destroyed all plant
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life it came into touch with, much like a
scene from Revelations.
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And this was no small threat.
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Well, that was according to some people.
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The matter of how much of a threat this was
has come under some scrutiny.
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For instance, one writer wrote an article
titled, âIn 1992 the Environmental Protection
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Agency was only a few weeks away from ending
life on the planet as we know it."
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Was this overblown?
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Some people think so.
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Robert Brockway, who wrote the book, âEverything
Is Going to Kill Everybodyâ, seems to think
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not.
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On further investigation it seems Elaine Ingham
had many disagreements with the EPA, but others
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see this as one womanâs fight against a
huge organization.
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Another writer on an organics website said
this in support of Ingham: âWith billions
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of dollars at stake for companies like Monsanto,
they simply cannot afford their products to
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be thrown in the trash and sometimes theyâre
pushed into the market and our environment
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regardless if they carry huge risks or are
missing long-term studies.â
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Regardless, and not surprisingly, the spread
of the modified fertilizer, fuel creator,
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never happened.
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In Brockwayâs words, we averted turning
plants all over the globe into nothing but
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alcohol in a few weeks.
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There are of course skeptics, but the entire
story seems to be a hush hush affair.
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One website provides links to where Dr. Ingham
is supposedly discredited, but at time of
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writing we could not open any of these links.
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For her part Dr. Ingham defends her work,
in a letter she wrote anyway, stating that
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indeed releasing this fertilizer would have
been disastrous.
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She writes, âRegardless of whether the EPA
did or did not repeat the work, addition of
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genetically engineered Klebsiella planticola
to soil has been shown to result in death
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of wheat plants in laboratory units.â
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She did, however, refute the assertion that
it would end all life on Earth.
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But that isnât to say she denied it would
have a huge impact.
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In the letter she writes, âThat this engineered
bacterium could have serious implications
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for human life on earth is something that
I would say, however.
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But it would not end life on earth.â
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Life would be altered, she said, but we would
live to breathe another day.
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She ends by saying humans really must be more
careful as to what they produce, stating that
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she is only thankful the engineered bacterium
never made it out of the box, so to speak.
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She then cited scientific research that stated
this was the effect on plants K. planticola
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had when tested.
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âThe plants had no color, and were, mostly,
lying dead on the surface of the soil.â
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This is a fascinating story, and it seems
one that didnât make many headlines.
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Perhaps the truth is out there, and while
we should never jump to conclusions based
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on one story alone, it seems this is a tale
that demands some investigation.
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Tells us what you think in the comments, and
as always, please donât forget to like,
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share and subscribe.
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