Issue #12: Mycological Messiahs
The mushrooming possibilities of world-saving fungi (that emit carbon dioxide, how dare they)
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Wangari Maathai and The Green Belt Movement
It’s been a decade since the passing of Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental thinker and the founder of The Green Belt Movement. From professor to human and environmental rights activist to enemy-of-the-state to environmental politician to Nobel Laureate, her focus never shifted from what she believed to be the her most important duty to the World - empowering the powerless to protect nature.
I first heard Maathai speak about her journey through the various roles in an episode of the podcast “On Being with Krista Tippett”, where she discussed her life and her philosophy with the host. An excerpt of this podcast, a line that has stuck with me, playing over in my head every time I hear the word “development”:
[In response to developers who wanted to clear-cut a forest to create residential properties]
Maathai: And I said, “Are you out of your mind? You need this forest.” And they said, “We don’t need the forest; we need houses.”
- Wangari Maathai, Marching With Trees, On Being with Krista Tippett
This line is becoming increasingly relevant as development (including basic amenities like housing) seems to necessitate the destruction of important parts of the natural world.
Maathai started The Green Belt Movement (TGBM) in 1977, aiming to protect and restore nature, empower those whose livelihood depends on nature, and advocacy for the rights of women and marginalized people in rural Africa. Since then, Maathai has garnered worldwide attention for the sheer impact of her work throughout Kenya, earning her the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2004, after which she held various positions for arms of the United Nations, influencing global tree-planting efforts. TGBM grew too - satellite offices were started in England and the United States of America, focusing on research and fundraising respectively. However, the headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya run the operation for Kenya.
It is easy for organizations and movements to grow into unwieldy mechanisms when they are scaled to international or global efforts - or fizzle out after the principal is no longer with the project. However, The Green Belt Movement is a great example of a sustainable organization that has remained focused on it’s primary objectives as were set out in 1977, and continues to be effective today as a movement that empowers women and rural farming communities in Kenya to conserve and take stewardship of the nature that they depend upon. This model for an organization is a great place to learn how slow, focused change can create positive feedback loops over several decades of action.
You can visit their website and other resources to learn more about them by clicking on the links below:
The Green Belt Movement’s website
The Green Belt Movement on YouTube
“The Legacy of Wangari Maathai Women as Green Agents of Change”, The Green Belt Movement on YouTube
In an age when our understanding of ecological imbalance is painfully dichotomous (you’re either an emitter of greenhouse gasses, and evil, or you offset your emissions to some other form of degradation, and you’re good), fungi don’t really fit the form. They emit carbon dioxide while they chemically break down all dead organic matter, essentially reversing photosynthesis. However, they are one of the most important actors in preserving ecological balance (beyond carbon dioxide in the atmosphere).
This issue of the newsletter will be all about fungi - for observation and understanding, and not action. The short-form text and videos focus on the use of fungi in “myco-remediation”, medicine, architecture, design, fabrication and really expensive pizza toppings. However, considering the spirit of interconnectedness that fungi bring to just about everything they encounter, the organization of this issue will be slightly different from the ones that came before and ones that come after this: all secondary resources will be nested in the main resource for the issue: the book.
[A Book]
Entangled Lives: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
by Merlin Sheldrake, published by Penguin Random House in 2020
This book is a 10 HOUR read.
Fungi do not fit the form of saviors; molds are associated with rotting food and dead organic matter, spores are associated with respiratory diseases, and fungi thrive in ecosystems that have been destroyed beyond recovery - where the mounting pile of festering organic matter is akin to an all-you-can-eat buffet for them. But, then again, fungi do not fit any form. Neither plant nor animal, fungi are eukaryotes with their own Kingdom (subverting all attempts to classify them into the plant-animal taxonomical system).
This is a further exploration of some of the many concepts Merlin Sheldrake elaborates on with acute scientific proficiency.
Identity, individuality and promiscuity
Sheldrake talks about the cultural and philosophical implications of the fungal lifestyle as we understand it; fungi live as symbionts: organisms that share a symbiotic relationship with other organisms. Lichen are a great example of this: they are the result of evolutionary symbiosis of fungi and algae causing them to form a seemingly singular organism; however, they are not one, but two. On closer inspection of more fungi under the microscope, mycologists are finding that macro-fungi form symbiotic relationships with a host of bacteria, viruses, algae and other fungi, enlisting each as a source of energy or as protection against disease (much like the human gut is lined with microbial colonies). Lichen are a species and an entire functional ecosystem. Fungi, organized as neither plant nor animal, live by forming symbiotic (and sometimes parasitic) relationships with a variety of “hosts”. The wood-wide-web theory, as termed by some scientists, assumes that trees and plants use mycorrhizal fungi to absorb and transfer nutrients to each other; the fungi being a medium of transfer and nothing more; fungi (having evolved some 600 million years before the first plant even existed) are probably the Kingdom using plants to get their fix of carbohydrates, in exchange for which, sure, the plant gets some nutrients. The author uses the word “promiscuity” to ability of any species of mycorrhizal fungi to form relationships with several different partners, playing a rather complex ecological game of trade-up. More promiscuous fungi form relationships with various species of plants and microbes, creating a world that is almost perfectly balanced. There are some plants that have stopped photosynthesizing altogether because the fungi that they are symbiotic with give them all of the carbohydrates they require to grow.
Fungi have evaded easy taxonomical classification for centuries (Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, considered them “plants”), and continue to confound human scientists, with our great urge to put things in neatly packed, labelled boxes. Inter-Kingdom symbioses and synergetic creatures are rather difficult for us to label; but fungi do more than just exist in this organism-fluid state. Studying and understanding fungi has shown that their effects on other species often has more-than physical or chemical influence on people who interact with fungi.
What does about 1.5 billion years of evolution1 get you? For starters, it secures your role as an indispensable part of nearly every ecosystem on earth, and it might also allow you to puppet other animals’ bodies. However, not all “mind control” is intentional; the economics surrounding certain fungi require you to understand and mimic these creatures in order to find them.
Medicine, mind control, and community
While expounding on the miracles of fungi, the Sheldrake talks about their contribution to modern (and Paleolithic) medicine. Fungi have developed ways to prevent colonies of hostile bacteria and microorganisms from infecting their hyphae - antibiotics, most notably penicillin, derived from the Penicillium molds. The development of antibiotic compounds in such fungi possibly happened because molds often feed on rotting matter, a niche that is occupied by all manner of unsavory microbial life - evolution of a defensive system was necessary. This beautifully evolved mycological immune system has been appropriated into a number of antibiotic and medicinal compounds that we use even today. Modern Homo sapiens sapiens are not the only ones to catch on; the study of a preserved Neanderthal’s teeth show that they might have medicated by ingesting the fungi that create antibiotic compounds. Various species of fungi also develop a host of compounds that have analgesic effects that are used to synthesize painkillers, or restructure neuronal pathways that are given experimentally to patients with debilitating mental or neurological illnesses.
In some cases, fungi can use their ability to control basic nervous systems to rather horrific effect. Several species of fungi have evolved to “prey” on insects such as ants. The fungi grows into the ant’s body, digesting it from within - but leaving the nervous system and essential organs intact. It then “directs” the ant to climb to a high point, such as the top of a plant, and clamp down with it’s jaws, securing it in place. Once the ant’s body is locked in, a mushroom erupts from the ant and disperses spores onto the nearby colony or colonies of ants, ensuring a higher survival rate of the fungi. This fungi zombifies flies in a similar manner. Sheldrake talks about the fact that human beings’ most potent neurological control mechanisms, even those prescribed for anxiety or ADHD, are essentially sedatives - markedly low-tech compared to the puppet-master-like control these fungi are able to wield over their prey.
According to the author, however, zombification and effects on the mental or physiological states are only one effect that fungi have on humans and other megafauna. Communities that form around fungi may be quite similar structurally or spiritually to the fungi themselves; a global network of amateur mycologists, for example, trade information, D.I.Y. growing system designs, mushroom spawn or simply barter species’ that they grow themselves. In doing so, the informal web of interconnected amateurs are contributing to a larger whole by sharing or spreading information and scientific know-how, much like mycorrhizal fungi taking sugars from healthy trees and spreading it around to less fortunate trees. Many of the world’s fungi have been discovered, identified, or cultivated by amateur mycologists, with systems that are largely crowd-sourced or open-source. The study of fungi, therefore, requires a human being to interact with others the way a fungi would.
The study of fungi is slowly revealing that there are probably fungi that fit into every rung of a trophic ladder, i.e., fungi are a part of every ecological cycle. Rather than look to fungi (which, at the very least, are a couple of hundred times older than humans evolutionarily) as a source of inspiration, we have a tendency to consider other beings lesser than, or not as complex as beings with higher intelligence. On the contrary, fungi are responsible for the existence of nearly all life on land.
Creators, destroyers, and fear
Fungi are quite literally responsible for creating the ground that we walk on. Their digestive process can break down tough materials and aid in the formation of the substrate on which all terrestrial (and many aquatic) life forms depend. Lichen digest hard, bare rock with acid compounds that later weather into fine mineral dust, one of the components of soil. Saprophytic fungi digest lignin and other hard, woody organic matter (that most detritivores cannot digest) and make these nutrients more available for the detritivores and plants. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are crucial to the restoration of degraded ecosystems, playing a key role in improving the soil condition, increasing nutrient cycling, and boosting the local flora’s resistance against pathogens among a laundry list of other benefits.
Sheldrake lists the myriad opportunities in which we can enlist fungi as both creators and destroyers (builders and decomposers). The list is by no means exhaustive, but the suggestions range from mycelium packaging (completely biodegradable) to plastic digestion.
Mycelium is essentially the “body” of a fungus (whereas the mushroom is the “fruit”). Growing mycelium in controlled environments, in particular shapes or densities, has led to the burgeoning field of myco-fabrication. This is such a straightforward process that you can even make mycelium furniture and objects with a set of DIY instructions. A group of architects has created an organization known as Fungal Architectures to develop mycelium as a living biomaterial imbued with conductive polymers and nanoparticles for building that can adapt to changes in environmental conditions or light. Although this is largely theoretical at this point, growing mycelium building blocks is already a tested practice used in a few “flagship” installations.
Saprophytic fungi, unlike most animals, digest their energy sources through a process known as extracellular phototropic digestion, i.e., by secreting enzymes that chemically break down matter into compounds that are “palatable” to the fungi. Such fungi are being used in the agricultural industry to decompose agricultural waste such as dry stalks, hay and husk, and yield edible mushrooms in the process. However, fungi are not limited to plant matter - certain fungi can break the bonds between hydrocarbons in an oil spill, making it easier to clean up (although this is contested because these efforts often lack the empirical data required to make them accepted as mainstream practices). Several species of fungi have been found thriving on plastic, and certain species can even yield perfectly edible oyster mushrooms after decomposing plastic. Although many of these mycological practices are far from “commercial” or large-scale use, myco-remediation offers countless possibilities for ways in which fungi can save the world.
Although this may be one of the most intensive content reviews in this newsletter, it’s only a fraction of the content that Merlin Sheldrake offers in his book. To know more about Entangled Lives, you can look at this conversation with Merlin Sheldrake about fungi and his book on YouTube.
Thank you for reading through this issue of the Climate Catalogue Reader.
Fun fact: the three most-consumed mushrooms are actually the same fungi, Agaricus bisporus, at different stages of maturity. White button mushrooms and cremini mushrooms are really just immature portobello mushrooms.
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Admittedly, most of this time was spent as single-cellular life; Prototaxites only appeared about 460 million years ago.