One of the winners of the global environmental initiative conceived to harness the universal power of the arts to galvanise climate action, Emery is to exhibit at the Hong Kong Museum of Climate Change as well as the Nest Summit NY

Emery’s work ‘The Future of Fungi: Fungi Our Future’ highlights the little known importance of fungi as we move into a more sustainable future.

LCE: Although fossilised mycelium have been traced back further than any other life-form, more than 90% of the estimated 3.8 million remain unknown. Mycology deserves our attention and support as its findings continue to be inextricably linked to the solutions for many of our ongoing challenges. The vast, highly intricate and collaborative subterranean networks of mycorrhizal fungi feed and protect plants from disease and aid the rapid absorption of carbon from the atmosphere. Already 15% of all vaccines and biologically produced drugs, including many antibiotics like penicillin, come from fungi, which also harness compounds that can aid in the treatment of cancer, diabetes and potentially even HIV and the Zika virus. A recently found type of mycelia, growing in the soil of a landfill in Pakistan, has been found to break down polyurethane plastic in a matter of weeks, while others are able to degrade harmful heavy metals, absorb pollution from oil spills, consume persistent pesticides and even rehabilitate radioactive sites. Neither plant nor animal, fungi act as biocontrol of plant disease, bio fertilizer, a solution for food insecurity, agricultural waste disposal, biofuel, soil regeneration or plant-based commodities such as vegan leathers, they are one of the most promising agents in relieving the pressures we put on the natural world. As industrial farming continues to erode our forests and soil while fueling climate change as a whole, fungi are disappearing and with them their potential to save us. In our quest for a sustainable and reciprocal relationship between man and nature, mycology offers us a view of our past and the possibility of a more symbiotic future, where human and non-human animals, plants and fungi co-exist in thriving ecosystems.