"TERMINATOR" technology, which has previously been confined to crops, is
now planned for trees.

The resulting trees, genetically engineered never to flower, could ensure a
silent spring in the forests of the future, reports the Daily Telegraph
newspaper <www.telegraph.co.uk>

The trees will grow much faster than conventional trees but, because of
their lack of flowers, be devoid of bees, butterflies, moths, birds,
squirrels and other animals which depend on pollen, seeds and nectar,
scientists said Friday.

The terminiator trees are being planned by Monsanto and the New Zealand
Forest Research Agency, and will be genetically modified to secrete
chemicals through their leaves that are toxic to caterpillars and other
leaf-eating insects, and wil also be resistant to herbicides. This will
allow all other ground flora to be eliminated with a herbicidal application.

English Nature,and other organisations, agree that before such trees can be
allowed to grow in the open, they must be made sterile to prevent the
contamination of wild species with
modified DNA.

Environmental group, however, believe the sterile trees will bring a second
"silent spring", says The Telegraph. The first, in Rachel Carson's book of
that name, described the advent
of synthetic pesticides, such as DDT.

Scientists meeting at the Oxford University Museum this week for an
international symposium sponsored by Shell and Monsanto, are working on
improving the value of trees, by making them grow faster or by producing
lignin-free timber to reduce the use of chemicals and energy used in
paper-making.

David Duncan of Monsanto, told The Telegraph that: "Increasing the
productivity of tree plantations safely and sustainably will help meet the
world's wood needs without increasing pressure on native forests."

The work is being sponsored by Shell and Monsanto, along with the U.S.
Department of Energy.

George McGavin, curator of Entomology at Oxford University Museum, told The
Telegraph: "If you replace vast tracts of natural forest with flowerless
trees there will be a serious effect on the richness and abundance of insects.

"If you put insect resistance in the leaves as well you will end up with
nothing but booklice and earwigs. We are talking about vast tracts of land
covered with plants that do not support animal life as a sterile means of
culturing wood tissue. That is a pretty unattractive vision of the future
and one I want no part of."

Other groups opposed to the GM trees include Friends of the Earth, the
World Wide Fund For Nature (aka the World Wildlife Fund, and the Timber
Growers' Association, which represents private forestry companies in the
UK, who don't see any commercial value in using the plants from their
viewpoint. (It will, of course, do wonders for the profits of Shell and
Monsanto.)

"As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower
beings, he will never know health or peace. For as long as men
massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the
seeds of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love"
                                                -Pythagorus

"All beings tremble before violence. All fear death, all love life.
See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do?"
                                                -Buddha

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for
survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian
diet"
         -Albert Einstein

"He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man..." -Isaiah 66:3

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