Prehistoric DNA being dug up to see if it can help modern-day crops cope with climate change
Researchers from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh are working with European scientists to analyse microbes from the palaeolithic period, when, like today, the planet was becoming warmer.
The university team has been awarded £500,000 by Horizon Europe, a European Union scientific research initiative, to spend four years examining ancient soil samples extracted from deep below the Arctic under a project named Tolerate.
Dr Ross Alexander, a plant molecular biologist at Heriot-Watt, said researchers were "using samples from the palaeolithic period, around 100-200,000 years ago, because the planet was warming then, much like now".
Ah, "the planet was warming then, much like now". That would be due to emissions from prehistoric air travel, clogged motorways and lack of sustainable industry...
Nope, doesn't work, too ludicrous for sarcasm. Not the research itself which could be interesting, but endlessly insistent political narrative which supports the funding. How about funding it simply because it's scientifically interesting?
6 comments:
They must have had a real dilemma about what to do with the data on warming climates before human activity. They could have denied that warming had taken place because it didn't have an identifiable cause, which would have raised the question as to why we should trust the current data, if it can be so wrong. They chose the second option, which is to acknowledge the warming, but to leave themselves open to the charge that the same causes are in play now, and there's nothing to be done about it.
Obviously the historical warming was the wrong kind of warming, and now that we have been alerted to the social justice issues bedevilling the minds of The Powers That Be the new warming is obviously different. Somehow.
/sarcasm
I've enjoyed Simon Reeves' travel programmes but may now have reached the end of the climate change. Last night, in an episode from central America featuring climate change that he had written and produced himself he managed to blame virtually every ill in the area on climate change and mention climate change in every second sentence. Internal gangster politics and drug running were mentioned in the passing but then the climate changed and the memsahib told me to stop moaning . . .
Sam - it's one of the puzzles, because professional scientists must know that the history of our climate doesn't support the narrative they supposedly believe. Rather like bowing to the King, it's just something people have to go along with.
DJ - yes it's the kind of warming which makes Gaia uncomfortable, unlike the warming she was comfortable with for many millions of years.
Jannie - I don't think I've ever heard of him, but it's a long times since I watched much TV. It's weird how climate change is one of those things mainstream presenters have to deplore without the need to do anything about it. Not that they could.
Prehistoric DNA being dug up…’
I think I’ve seen this movie…. it doesn’t end well.
Macheath - ha ha, I think I've seen it too.
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