The Download: CRISPR’s climate promises, and protecting forests with tech

Jennifer Doudna, one of the inventors of the breakthrough gene-editing tool CRISPR, says the technology will help the world grapple with the growing risks of climate change by delivering crops and animals better suited to hotter, drier, wetter, or weirder conditions.

The grand hope is that CRISPR’s ability to precisely remove specific parts of the DNA within the existing genomes of plants and animals will help avoid many of the pitfalls of earlier adaptation techniques. But there are still considerable obstacles.

Last month, Doudna sat down with MIT Technology Review on the sidelines of the Climate & Agriculture Summit at the University of California, Berkeley. Read what she has to say about the future of genetic editing.

—James Temple

Job title of the future: Digital forest ranger

When Martin Roth began his career as a forest ranger in the 1980s, his job was to care for the forest in a way that would ensure continuity for decades, even centuries. Now, with climate change, it’s more about planning for an uncertain future.

Roth uses the 3,000 acres of forest along the northeastern shore of Lake Constance in Germany as a testing ground for high-tech solutions to protect nature, earning him the moniker “digital forest ranger” (Digitalförster) in the German forestry community. Read the full story.

—Kaja Šeruga