The Three-Way Race to Exploit Deep-Sea Life The genetic bounty of the deep sea is being patented by a handful of multinationals. 🧪🐙🧵 - ThreadSky

biographic.bsky.social • 13 days ago

The Three-Way Race to Exploit Deep-Sea Life

The genetic bounty of the deep sea is being patented by a handful of multinationals. 🧪🐙🧵

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captain-mackerel.bsky.social•13 days ago

Patenting naturally-occurring phenomena should seriously be illegal. You did NOT make that, dude.

dadbeastlarge.bsky.social•13 days ago

Because if you're not exploiting as a human, what're you doing?!

Exploit, manipulate, kill, overfish, domesticate, erase, plow, drill, excavate, eradicate.

Humans fit in exactly zero percent on this planet.

exaktscience.bsky.social•13 days ago

this seems fine

biographic.bsky.social•13 days ago

Bioprospecting, looking to wildlife for valuable chemicals that can be developed into medicines and other products, is a booming field. This is especially true for the deep sea.

Chemicals from marine life have already found their way into everything from face creams to biofuels

biographic.bsky.social•13 days ago

As new technologies give humanity ever-better access to the deep ocean, the pace of bioprospecting is flourishing. Often, this work is publicly funded, with scientists collecting the data and sharing it widely.

But what happens next will _shock and surprise you_.

biographic.bsky.social•13 days ago

Thousands of deep-sea genetic sequences have already been patented. Of those, the majority have gone to just three multinational companies: BASF, DuPont, and International Flavors & Fragrances

biographic.bsky.social•13 days ago

There are several ongoing efforts through the United Nations to develop profit sharing systems that would see some of the proceeds of bioprospecting flow back to wildlife conservation, including the High Seas Treaty and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

biographic.bsky.social•13 days ago

Learn more about deep-sea bioprospecting, patents, and the efforts to fund conservation efforts in today's story by @rebekahwhite.bsky.social

https://www.biographic.com/the-three-way-race-to-exploit-deep-sea-life/

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