How to save the world? A global journey into making our lives better…

The recent events in the gulf of Mexico are cause for terrible concern, both for the ecosystem and for the nearby populations who have seen their livelihood disappear in a matter of a few weeks. This only remind us how helpless we are in front of disasters and ecosystem collapse.

There is no magic solution and the fragile ecosystem of the gulf will take time to recover, if at all. However, here is a clue on how we could potentially help the recovery inland, and help save our world’s endangered environment.

This tool is natural, safe and inexpensive: we are talking about the amazing digesting power of mycelium. Mycelium is the name given to the root-like system which support mushrooms (In actual fact, mushrooms are the fruits of mycelia).

Mushrooms are an amazing part of the natural world. They were one of the first type of life to colonise the land, terraforming and preparing the emergence of life on solid ground, ahead of plants and animals. They are primarily digestive networks, versatile and rapidly adaptable. Their ability to break down carbon bonds is remarkable, decomposing away variety of organic molecules as their main source of food. This has practical implication when it comes to petroleum hydrocarbon contamination as we will see in the experiment detailed below.

In 1997 and 1998, Paul Stamets was granted permission by the Washington state department of transportation to run a mycorestoration experiment on a large pile of soil polluted at 2% by diesel and oil. That is a concentration similar to what was measured on the Prince William Sound beaches after the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989, and is enough to make the soil toxic to most forms of life. The experiment was conducted using a Oyster Mushroom mycelium. In parallel, a similar pile was treated with enzymes and another with bacteria.

In weeks, not only had the mycelia absorbed the oil, but eaten it, thrived on it and produced enormous 12-inches mushrooms. Insects were attracted by the mushrooms, which in turn were prayed on by birds. Birds inadvertently brought in seeds which started germinating and turned the pile of soil into a vibrant oasis of life. Chemical analysis demonstrated that the total level of petroleum hydrocarbon decreased by 99% in only 8 weeks. Meanwhile all the other piles remained dark, smelly and lifeless.

This is a very low-tech affordable way of dealing with some aspects of the problem we are currently facing in the gulf of Mexico. We urgently need more ideas of this type to restore and protect the world’s ecosystem.

To know more about mushroom and their amazing power to restore environments and save the world, learn how to differentiate major beneficial strain and how to grow them, read Paul Stamets’ book Mycelium Running

Tags: gulf of mexico, mushroom, mycorestoration, oil spill