Something’s wrong with the world and nature wants to help.

It is clear that there is something very wrong with the way that humans run (or attempt to run) the world. Landfills, wars, pollution of all forms, toxic ingredients in our food, and deposits of plastic materials littering the planet are only barely scratching the surface of the extent to which humans have abused nature and themselves consequentially and directly.

But there are always ways to fix things and nature is an extremely adaptable entity. Our species, being a product of nature is a great example of this. Regardless of our collective ignorance and hesitance to fix these issues, it seems that nature can play a part in reversing the damage we have done to this planet.

Fungus that can safely break down plastic

Fungus that literally eats plastic was found in Ecuador. Researchers have also been able to isolate the enzymes that safely break down the plastic. Theoretically, people will be able to use either (or possibly both) the fungus itself or the enzymes the fungus produces to eliminate the threats of landfill and plastic pollution.

The fungus is very resilient and even survives without the presence of oxygen on plastic alone. It’s spores, like the spores of psilocybin and countless other fungi strain, could survive in deep space and even colonize the galaxy if let loose thanks to their resistance to radiation and ability to breakdown compounds that most other organisms would never be able to make use of.

See and article about this here and the report to the scientific study here.

Relevant artwork

My artwork seem to knew this was happening before even I did! Coincidence or artistic vision, it’s up to you how you look at it. I made this prior to coming across the above article. that strikes me as predictive having made it before ever hearing about this. It’s an older piece that I call “Ironic”. I used watercolors on paper.

More plants and mushrooms that could help save the world 

It appears that both hemp and sunflowers could be used to absorb radiation. That’s why it’s nice to hear that sunflowers are growing near Fukishima, the nuclear reactor plant in Japan that has been spewing horribly toxic, radioactive waste into the ocean at increasingly rapid rates for years. It also nice to hear that people are considering growing hemp near the plant to absorb the radiation as well as hemp has similar properties in absorbing radiation. Hemp appears particularly effective a this.

You can read more about plants that absorb radiation, toxins and heavy metals here.

Radiation from Fukushima is a serious threat not just to the ocean and Japan, but the entire world. The leaked toxins are on their way to the west coast of America now. This will affect fish in the very large space of ocean between Japan and California, causing contamination. When the radiation hits the west coast it will be absorbed in the agriculture which will then be shipped around the world along with the fish. Radiation will travel up the food chain and we will end up absorbing it if we don’t do something about it.

Read more about the travel of toxins from Japan here

Conclusion

It seems that nature is continually presenting us with plants that have the best intentions of the life on earth and it’s environment in mind. That includes fungus that absorbs plastic and flowers that absorb radiation.

I found it fascinating and interesting that my piece “Ironic” unintentionally predicted something similar to this fungus that eats plastic.

What do you think? Can nature help humans save the world? Is the world a creation of art or is art a creation of the world? Share your opinion by commenting!