Every time I read a story like this I’m reminded of the old joke about the first totally automated commercial airplane flight. You remember, as the flight taxied out on the runway the intercom system came on and said, “You have the privilege of being on the first totally automated flight. We have no human crew on board. Every system uses the latest technology, so sit back and enjoy your flight. Nothing could possibly go wrong…go wrong…go wrong…go wrong.”

A scientist who mapped his genome and the genetic diversity of the oceans said Thursday he is creating a life form that feeds on climate-ruining carbon dioxide to produce fuel.

Geneticist Craig Venter disclosed his potentially world-changing “fourth-generation fuel” project at an elite Technology, Entertainment and Design conference in Monterey, California.

“We have modest goals of replacing the whole petrochemical industry and becoming a major source of energy,” Venter told an audience that included global warming fighter Al Gore and Google co-founder Larry Page.

“We think we will have fourth-generation fuels in about 18 months, with CO2 as the fuel stock.”

This little tidbit is a bit worrisome.

“If they could produce things on the scale we need, this would be a methane planet,” Venter said. “The scale is what is critical; which is why we need to genetically design them.”

The genetics of octane-producing organisms can be tinkered with to increase the amount of CO2 they eat and octane they excrete, according to Venter.

The limiting part of the equation isn’t designing an organism, it’s the difficulty of extracting high concentrations of CO2 from the air to feed the organisms, the scientist said in answer to a question from Page.

Scientists put “suicide genes” into their living creations so that if they escape the lab, they can be triggered to kill themselves.

Now I’m not saying that anything is wrong with this. I know nothing about the science other what is in the article. Of course anything that has the support of the Goracle does raise a bit of a red flag. In spite of that I wish the project success. Still, I hope that someone involved with the project is taking a long hard look at what could go wrong…go wrong…go wrong…go wrong.