Chief Executive Officer Maddie Hall and Chief Technology Officer Patrick Miller co-founded Living Carbon to give humanity a chance and the tools to fight climate change. By introducing genetically modified trees, they hope to reduce the carbon levels in our atmosphere.
Climate Change
The 2015 climate agreement in Paris cited that the earth’s temperature from warming more than 2°C past pre-industrial levels. However, the UN Climate Report in April 2022 highlighted that reducing carbon emissions isn’t enough to stop global warming. The current carbon levels in our climate are signs of a climatic disaster unless we proactively do something about it.
Carbon Capture
Carbon capture plants and machinery are designed to pull carbon out of the air, and they are vital in our efforts to reduce carbon emissions on a global scale. Half of the carbon dioxide extracted from the atmosphere is returned in the same year, which is due to the decomposition of biomass from plants. It seems straightforward enough that trees can help us prevent climate change.
Living Carbon’s Genetically Modified Trees
Living Carbon is a Bay Area startup that creates genetically modified trees or super trees. Maddie Hall aims to “rebalance the planet’s ecosystem using the inherent power of plants.” Plants turn light, carbon dioxide, and water into energy through photosynthesis. They use enzymes to convert carbon into a sugar called Rubisco. 25% of the time during photosynthesis, Rubisco attaches itself to oxygen instead of carbon, creating a toxic compound. To remove that toxic compound, the plant undergoes photorespiration. This costs a lot of energy.
How Living Carbon Makes Its Modified Trees
Hybrid poplar cuttings are grown in tissue culture inside Petri dishes to prepare them for transformation. The cuttings are grown till there are enough leaves and tissue. The leaves are then taken out and put in dishes and differentiated into callus tissues. Living Carbon uses a photosynthesis enhancement construct using tiny gold particles for this differentiation. Helium is used to fire those particles on plant cells, and plantlets are grown in gels.
Once they can be moved to be sown into the soil, they are moved to a facility in San Francisco for evaluation. Living carbon reduces the need for photorespiration. Thus, the plants can save their energy to grow faster and taller and release fewer toxic byproducts. They can also assimilate more carbon from the atmosphere, storing 53% more carbon for a longer period.
Actions For Climate Change
The trees have been tested in labs and are now planted in grounds and fields around the US on more than 3000 acres of land. The CEO believes that global emissions can be reduced by 1.66% if the number of acres is doubled in the upcoming year.
Living Carbon is leveraging the knowledge and process of the 2 billion years of evolution to create trees that store more carbon. They have started monetizing by selling carbon credits to companies and polluters while waiting for approval from the federal government.
