Slashdot Mirror
Brits Ready Crops For Global Warming
Anonymous Coward writes "Not wanting to come up short at the dinner table, British researchers are developing new crops for a dryer, hotter UK. Starting with barley, they're turning genes on and off to help plants overcome their affinity for the country's cool, wet summers."
You've got it exactly right. "Simple selection" takes several generations, that is, many many years. In the lab, the same things can be done in months.
It matters on a lot of things. Take South Africa for example. Early European settlers were shocked by the treeless terrain so they spread pine, oak, and other water hungry plants around the country side. Those trees drink a lot more water then the native plants and have cause rivers to dry up to nothing more then trickles. With less water flowing down stream other plant life suffers and the landscape is drying out.
There are now government programs that are going through cutting back these huge trees. The effects have been amazing. Not only have the rivers started flowing more water, but the native plant life is bouncing back and some of South Africa's unemployed are getting jobs and training.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
No doubt this type of change could also be accounted for with genetic engineering, but I was under the impression that the British and most Europeans in general were pretty dead set against about "frankenfoods" that had been genetically modified. Does this project really stand a chance of getting off the ground if it depends on this sort of technology?
As for the slelective breeding option, I'm not convinced that would work, either. Selective cultivation depends on having some sort of genetic variablility in the current population. The more desirable traits are slected for. Current stocks of seed are not terribly genetically diverse, and if they don't mutate fast enough, you may not be left with enough genetic variants to choose from. Also, this type of selection requires a lot of time--something which may or may not be available as the climate changes.
So they are developing crops for summer conditions. The (corrected) link about the effect on the gulf stream, OTOH, states:
So, while an interuption in the gulf stream may result in colder UK winters, it may have less of an effect on the summers, which then may be warmer due to general global warming. Lower water temperatures in the north atlantic will also mean less moisture in the air, and a drier climate. So, if you actually take the time to read both of these articles (the original and the second one liked by the AC), you'll find that they are not in conflict at all.
--
Debunk the Monk!
Weather != local climate != global warming!
Weather is something that cannot be predicted.
Local climate change, for example in the northern atlantic, is subject of interesting research and interesting scenario's, but a final verdict is stil out.
Global warming is a fact. The debate is about the amount of warming and the rate of change, not the mechanisms itself anymore. The mechanisms are really well understood. (People still denying the well-documented mechanisms are not scientists)
What global warming precisely means for different countries is partly a surprise, but some things that are probably at least partly influenced by global warming
* shift of sea currents
* shifting patterns of precipitation
* possibly local cooling effects, certainly if gulf stream slows
What is certainly a consequence of global warming:
* rising sea level
* break up of sea ice
* shift of climate zones towards the poles
--[rosso bright]--
This is substantially different to cross-polination/natural selection, since the range of genes that can be added using natural methods is limited to essentially similar plants. Ever see a fish mating with a wheat plant?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Selection and plant breeding do allow for plants to be tailored to thierenviroments, but this can and has for most crop varieties taken hudreds if not thousands of years of farmers and breeders selceting and crossing promising lines. The advantages of GM are many and varied: 1. as mentioned earlier you can take a gene from any spiceis and place it into the host, 2. you can break linkage between genes 3. you can alter promation of genes 4. other stuff...I won't go on and on. 5. you can do all off this a hell of alot fatser But as asked above it is mainly the speed factor that makes GM so very appealing.
Are you just ignorant on purpose? Go to ANY arctic research site, run by ANYONE. TAKE YOUR PICK. You won't find any credible dissent. ZERO. It's MELTING because it's getting HOTTER. that's just basic observable data, and on the planet Earth, watching the poles is a good indicator of what happens generally around the planet. And the poles haven't been in a state of melted for a FREAKING LONG TIME. they have ice cores indicating constant frozen ness going way back, now that they are obviously melting, and in an accelerated state, is REAL DATA AND BIGTIME NEWS. For whatever combination of reasons, but please, how can you possibly deny what is observable data? Just because it hasn't happened for thousands of years is no reason to negate the effects that are happening now, or to fail to come up with any reasonable extrapolations for the future. It DOESN'T MATTER if it's a "natural cycle" or "mostly human caused" or because of "causes unknown at this point", to us humans, it WILL cause profound changes in society as the planet gets warmer. End of story. And it won't be "minimal" changes, either.
Guys in BC are reporting a LOT of rain.
. html?img=ccatemp_12_s_m1. html?img=ccapcpn_12_m1_s
Trees budding already.
No doubt there is a lot of changes going on all over the place.
From where I sit, things are just not right at all.
If Alberta does not get a sustained snow/rain fall before spring, there is going to be water restrictions/bans and a whole lot of fire fighting going on.
The fire fighters I work for are already reporting for duty in January.
That is just crazy.
Just so you don't think I'm doing the Chicken Little dance, here is the long term forcast 9-12 months, from environment Canada:
http://www.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/saisons/image_e
http://www.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/saisons/image_e
If things don't go back to normal, there is about to be some serious issues to contend with.
It sounds like you're defining drinks such as (American) Budweiser (brewed with maize) as "beer" here. I suspect that a lot of people in the UK may disagree with this.
I'm from the land of 50,000 microbreweries (yes American, but Budweiser is considered cheap crap not worth boiling sausages in around here); we consider just about anything in the Lager or Ale categories that is made from grain instead of fruit to be beer (though the line blurs somewhat for some of the beers crafted for female tastebuds- it's amazing how well a Raspberry Stout will sell- a cross between a dark barley malt beer with a raspberry wine).
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.