A top United Nations environment official said that forest fires, droughts, salinity, and other forms of land degradation cost the global economy as much as 15 trillion dollars every year and are deepening the climate change crisis. Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), said land degradation was shaving 10-17 per cent off the world economy, which the World Bank calculates at 85.8 trillion dollars.
Deforestation results in changes that will ultimately affect all of us. Changing the environment will, of course, change the climate in that environment. What used to live in the shade at 25 degrees Celsius now has to live in full sunlight at 35 degrees Celsius for example. Everything we are relies on our planetary layer of organic insulation and the gasses it produces. All life requires a favourable environment towards its preferred bias, and to alter that, means change.
Ultimately, environment change is the cause, and climate change is the consequence.
Strains of a particular bacteria of significant interest, such as Variovorax paradoxus, can be categorised into two groups, hydrogen oxidisers and heterotrophic strains, both of which are aerobic and enjoy the availability of oxygen around it. The diverse metabolic capabilities enable it to degrade a wide array of organic pollutants, including aliphatic polycarbonates and polychlorinated biphenyls. V-paradoxus is involved in cycling numerous inorganic elements, including arsenic, sulphur, manganese and rare earth elements in a range of soil and freshwater. The species is also tolerant of many heavy metals, including cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, silver, and zinc.
It also promotes the formation of complex biofilm that enables carbon sequestration into the soil from the atmosphere. This has enormous implications when considering the regeneration of lost productive farmland and can significantly ameliorate further destruction of existing stressed pastures and ecosystems. The isolates of V-paradoxus found in both H2-treated soil and the soil adjacent to H2 producing soybean nodules had significant impact on plant growth. Furthermore, molecular hydrogen soil treatment will lead to further development of V. Paradoxus naturally within the soil, potentially improving the detoxification of contaminated soil while promoting plant growth.
The development of this knowledge represents an ability to repair farmland thought lost for generations and will enable regeneration and the ability to resume productive farming. We strongly encourage support into this space as we believe that the HBRC can play a major role in our planets agricultural biodiversity stewardship initiatives, and offer insight into potential not thought possible before now.
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