Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1999 19:12:18 +0100 From: "Toby Marsden" <tobym@technologist.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2840$foo@default> Subject: Re: An Idea to Save Plant Biodiversity
Chris,
>I was reading this article
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_411000/411639.stm
>and I came up with the idea, there are many endangered and nearly
>extinct plants all over the world, many of the carnivorous plants
>are under this category. At the same time many people who grow
>carnivorous plants also grow other rare plants or know how to
>perform tissue culture. Why not open up the field to the public and
>amateur scientists around the world? Thats the only way there will
>be enough people working on the job to save them because of the mass
>redundancy. The worst thing that can happen is nothing. It'd be
>alot like how seti@home has opened up the ability for people to
>share their processing power to crunch data. I'm sure there are
>people out there who would think would be soo cool to have a plant
>that you know only 10-20 others exist in THE WORLD.
I'm not sure I quite understand what you mean here. Is it:
a) the Public and Amateur Scientists should get together to propagate plants
that are under threat from over-collection, therefore reducing the pressure
on the wild populations for the relatively small, albeit significant, number
of species threatened by trade;
b) the Public and Amateur Scientists should tissue culture plants to
reintroduce to the wild;
c) something else.
IMO, option (a) is definitely worth pursuing (though it is happening
already), and option (b) is impractical from the genetic diversity point of
view.
Could you elaborate?
With Regards,
Toby
-- Toby Marsden Herefordshire, UK
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