A fungus could save millions of lives. Unfortunately, it's endangered
It is big, bulbous and prehistoric -- and it may be as important to human health as penicillin.
It is agarikon (Laricifomes officinalis), an ancient fungus that mycologist Paul Stamets believes could cure bird flu, smallpox and tuberculosis.
In fact, the Greeks used it to treat tuberculosis -- what they called "consumption."
It exists solely in old-growth forests -- and typically only on Douglas Fir or Larch trees.
But agarikon is endangered and difficult to maintain in laboratory settings. And many old-growth forests are disappearing fast as trees are cut down to feed the world's paper needs and cleared away to make room for farming.
"What we're doing here could save millions of lives," said Stamets, the author of Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World, in a recent Mother Jones article.
"It's fun, it's bizarre, and very much borders on something spiritual."
GET INVOLVED
- Sign a Greenpeace letter to Kimberly-Clark CEO Thomas Falk that says you will not purchase Kleenex, Cottonelle or any Kimberly-Clark products as long as he continues to buy from logging operations that are environmentally destructive and socially irresponsible
- Download the Greenpeace Tissue Guide so you can purchase tissue and toilet paper that is manufactured from recycled paper -- not old growth forests
- Blowing Noses Into Dead, Ancient Trees (February 25, 2009)
- Ancient Forests Not Something to Sneeze At (September 18, 2008)
- Swedsh Tree May Be Oldest Living Thing (April 19, 2008)
- Canadian Logging May Explode "Carbon Bomb" (April 12, 2008)
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