Monday, Nov 3

Dear Reader,

I recently reached out to a writer with an assignment — to tell Bluedot readers about something called mycotourism, which is a kind of ecotourism involving travelling to hunt mushrooms. Think birding, but with fungi. And like the rise in birding (1 in 3 Americans considers themselves a birder. It’s a “booming business,” Audubon tells us), the growing popularity of mushrooms is elevating these lowly toadstools to mycelial superstars. And why not? Scientists recently found fungi that, they posit, might possess memory and decision-making abilities, if not actual consciousness. And dedicated readers of Daily Dot know that mushrooms are climate superheroes. A story in Grist tells us that “Worldwide, some 13 billion tons of CO2 flows from plants to mycorrhizal fungi every year — about a third of humanity’s emissions from fossil fuels — not to mention the CO2 they help trees capture by growing big and strong.” But all is not well with our mushroom friends, and too often their well-being is overlooked while trees get all the attention. Grist tells us that a new network aims to change that: “The Society for the Protection of Underground Networks, or SPUN, has launched the Underground Atlas, an interactive tool that maps mycorrhizal fungi diversity around the world. It’s a resource for scientists and conservationists to better understand where to focus on protecting these species so they can keep sequestering carbon and providing other critical services in ecosystems.”

Next time you’re hiking in the woods or pondering a mycotourism holiday (stay tuned for our story), pause and give thanks for the fungi under your feet, quietly saving our planet.

Mycorrhizally,

Dot