100,000 Synthetic Trees Could Help Combat Climate Change

http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/09/03/100000-synthetic-trees-could-help-combat-climate-change/

by noheartanthony • 17 years ago

11 22 17 years ago

shotmaker• 17 years ago

Climate change is a normal earth cycle of warming and cooling trends. So don't believe the hype. However I would never say no to more trees.

michaelcampbell2• 17 years ago

Serious question: how do trees, which exchange CO2 for O2, help climate change? More specifically, isn't the problem that too much CO2 is way up there? How do trees down here help that?

mseebach5• 17 years ago

It's down here before it's up there. The idea is to stop it before it goes up (by "cathing it" quickly, or by not emitting it at all), because once it's there, there's not much to do about it.

michaelcampbell2• 17 years ago

That's the only thing I could think of too, but then thought... if smokestacks (et. al.) are dumping it up there quite above tree heights, that's just gone, right? I'm not trying to be argumentative, I really don't know how this stuff works.

tome• 17 years ago

I imagine the CO2 way up there diffuses down here.

skolor3• 17 years ago

I'm sorry, but these "Synthetic Trees" seem to be incredibly stupid. Trees (real ones) serve several funtions, the ones most important to this being: They remove CO2, and the turn it into oxygen. All that these Synthetic trees do is take CO2 out of the air, and shove it underground to store. This may just be me, but this sounds like the kind of thing that will have massive ramifications a century or so down the line.

mseebach5• 17 years ago

Maybe. But according to a number of climate scientists, we've screwed the earth by then if we keep pumping it into the air.

It's not the perfect solution, but it's nominally a better scenario. Who know what we might do with a huge load of CO2 in 100 years? We might have industrialized photosynthesis, so we can convert it all back to oxygen and coal.

skolor3• 17 years ago

The thing about CO2 and O2 is that its a loop. We breathe in O2 and breathe out CO2. Plants "Breathe" in CO2 and "Breathe" out O2. It just seems very dangerous to me to sequester a lot of that underground, more so than climate change.

psadauskas• 17 years ago

The same thing happens with real trees, though. They capture the carbon in themselves. Then when they die and decay, they release the carbon again, as methane (when they rot) and CO2 (when they burn).

johnohara3• 17 years ago

I'm for planting 100,000 'real' trees. All kinds. Everywhere. 100 times that in fact.

But when it comes to CO2 processing I'm with algae. Not ponds, but highly engineered, sustainable facilities that create jobs requiring solid educations.

I look at the picture and think that's where 100,000 cameras are going to go.

StrawberryFrog2• 17 years ago

highly engineered, sustainable facilities that create jobs requiring solid educations

You're suggesting building in unnecessary complexity?

johnohara3• 17 years ago

No.

Solid biological and chemical backgrounds for research, analysis and quality control. Engineering backgrounds to design, build and maintain facilities and infrastructure including IT and automation. Business backgrounds to develop new markets, manage finances, employees, operations, etc.

tocomment• 17 years ago

Are these more efficient than real trees? I read before that our solar panels are more efficient than photosynthesis at generating energy from sunlight.

mseebach5• 17 years ago

The object, as I understand it, is scrubbing CO2 from the air, not generating energy.

Mark_B• 17 years ago

I would be curious as to the energy + carbon emissions required to manufacture one of the artificial trees.

envitar• 17 years ago

Amazing to read all these comments. One would have thought that whoever is part of the HN scene is highly educated and reasonably knowledgeable. Obviously not so. Research is only just beginning to copy the way real tree leaves operate:

http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/klug/Research/Artificial%20Photosynth...

In the meantime it is probably even better to just reduce CO2 out put rather than try and store it. But as people seem to be unable to kick a habit easily - even if it may kill them longer term see smoking - why not store it.

StrawberryFrog2• 17 years ago

"You know? They're growing mechanical trees. They grow to their full height. And then they chop themselves down. Sharkey says: All of life comes from some strange lagoon. It rises up, it bucks up to it's full height from a boggy swamp on a foggy night. It creeps into your house. It's life! It's life!"

Laurie Anderson - Sharkey`s Day

100,000 Synthetic Trees Could Help Combat Climate Change

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