ABOUT:
I come from Ecuador, we are a nation who cherish our natural resources and we proudly claim part of the Amazon rainforest. Whilst my country cannot claim to be a world leader in biotechnological development such as bioremediation, we are gaining ground on our contribution to protect our own resources, ecosystems and reduce the worrying human effects of industrial development. Due my patriotism, I wanted to investigate the use of bioremediation in my home country in the hope that one day I will be able to contribute to look after our wonderful planet.
WHAT I SAID ABOUT NOAH’S ARK
The story of Noah’s Ark be it the movie or the biblical story, runs a terrifying parallel with our current world. Think of modern Noah as Greta Thumburg and the earth’s modern day population as the high maintenance humans who absorb the resources of our beautiful worlds due to our needs to fill our diesel cars with petrol, to produce perfectly shaped fruit using pesticides and to clear rainforests for our beef production. We cannot negate the impact our actions have on our ecosystems as it is becoming increasingly apparent that we need to value our resources more and reduce our escalating demands if future generations hope to enjoy our planet in the future. Sooner or later our world will not withstand more pollution and the flood will come, just as it happened with Noah, and be assured that it will be full of toxic and non-biodegradable waste and, due to our denial of our responsibility, will cause irreversible effects. I have lived at the point closest to the sun, Ecuador, the home of the Amazon, which represents more than 43% of the Ecuadorian territory and if this flood comes there will be no more Amazon, or more macaws, or more sloths or bottlenose dolphins and, ultimately as the Amazon is the world’s lung there will be no more oxygen for us to breathe. Bioremediation is one powerful alternative in an attempt to remove the toxic waste flooding our rivers and most fertile soils, the impact and viability of this method will be analysed throughout my upcoming posts.
But What is bioremediation?
It is in the alternative system that uses living organisms such as plants, fungi, microorganisms or certain modified bacteria that are capable of degrading or reducing the toxicity levels of contaminates such as pesticides, oil, plastic, heavy metals, medical analysis residues and chemical materials used in the manufacturing industry. Being organisms, they will generate bioproducts such as certain gases or water without causing damage to the environment.
Why do we need to know about bioremediation?
Once bioremediation is a house hold term, people can be aware of the damage we create to in the environment by using toxins. Although human activity has brought many advantages, these are outweighed by the contamination we cause to fulfil our most basic needs which creates agricultural, industrial and nuclear waste. Pesticides are used and pollute the water which cannot biodegrade, but the process of bioremediation uses living organisms in order to convert this waste partially or totally, so that is can become bio-degradable and reduce toxins, ultimately not harming the ecosystems with which it comes into contact.
Did you realise that buying particular fruits and vegetables from far away exotic lands could cause such harm? Keep reading my future blogs to see the variety and developments in the field of bioremediation.
Lenin's BioRevolution 
