Decisions we make today on genetic engineering may well have irreversible repercussions for the future of all life on Earth.
The effects of GE have the potential to be cumulatively catastrophic, and to affect all future generations.
Once the genetic genie is out of the bottle (or the lab), thereâÂÂs no putting it back. Yet it is difficult for ordinary people to evaluate or even take seriously because its effects are, at present, by and large invisible without a microscope. If you explode an atomic bomb over a city like Hiroshima, the immediate catastrophe gives way slowly to residual radiation effects on future generations. Although drastic and terrible, these are gradually lessened with the passage of time. But the release of genetically modified organisms will follow exactly the reverse trajectory.
Genetic engineering is a biological time-bomb, and the fuse is already ticking
