Giant Plastic Trees To Save Planet by the Removal of CO2
I found it interesting – in a report published by the BBC – that the scientist who originally coined the phrase “global warming” is backing a radical solution to stem further damage to the planet caused by CO2.
Speaking at the Hay Literary Festival in Powys, Wales, Wallace Broecker suggests the way forward must surely lie with the construction of millions of “carbon scrubbers.”
These carbon scrubbers would be giant artificial trees that would pull CO2 from the atmosphere via a specially designed plastic and the gas would either be liquefied under pressure to be pumped underground or converted to mineral.
So how exactly does this all work? From The Guardian:
The team [led by Klaus Lackner, a physicist at Columbia University in New York] says [the device] can trap the CO2 from air on absorbent plastic sheets called ion exchange membranes, commonly used to purify water. Crucially, it has discovered that humid air can then make the membranes “exhale” their trapped CO2. The discovery was “some serendipity and some working out,” Lackner said. “When I saw it the first time, I didn’t believe it.
Guardian coverage in full with a full explanation of the potentials behind the project.
An extremely interesting idea and one I hadn’t personally come across before. The concept appears to me to be a hybrid of Isaac Asimov and Lego and not at all off-putting.
There will of course be those who bleat, maintaining that these pretend trees are going to look somehow ugly. These same people casually watch the news each evening but always find it infinitely more interesting to wander over to the fridge when there’s some feature detailing further destruction of rainforest.
Personally, I find the concept of 60 million of these devices constructed worldwide (the figure given in the BBC report) not nearly so offensive a view as a bunch of apes driving around in machines yelling at each other in a smog of road rage and inconsideration.
Source:
BBC Click here for initial source.
Image Credit:
garryknight at Flickr under a Creative Commons license
I say go for it! Hopefully the process of making these plastic “trees” won’t produce more CO2 than it removes. While we’re waiting for them to be up and running, everyone plant 5 real trees for each person in your family right now. It’s fast, cheap and relatively simple. I’ve read that during a tree’s first 10-20 years of life it removes the most C02. If everyone on the planet did it, the trees would “eat” up all the CO2 produced in a year and then some. It might give us that extra time we’re going to need for creating and adopting new green technologies.
Thanks Jan for that - and I agree that we should be planting trees ourselves.
According to the Guardian link supplied, it appears that no, more CO2 would *not* be produced by going down the plastic tree route - but a point well worth raising.
[...] Plastic Trees To Remove Co2 Giant Plastic Trees To Save Planet by the Removal of [...]
Forgive my ignorance but isn’t this what trees do? Why is it a requirement to re-invent the wheel? Can’t we simply use the solution that’s already provided by nature - the humble tree? Just plant more trees and stop chopping them down. Does it really take an internationally acclaimed scientist to figure this out? I’m ashamed to be a part of the human race sometimes.
[...] | The Guardian Don’t we have leaves on plants that do this?? Less detailed article her Giant Plastic Trees To Save Planet by the Removal of CO2 : EcoWorldly __________________ Michael the Archangel m "Politicians will never solve, The Problem; [...]
What’s wrong with real trees and plants?
They have been doing this for millennia.
All plastic plants should be banned.
Can we magic 60 million fully-grown real trees in a part of the world where we cna be sure they will survive and not be cout down for floorboards/bedsteads or to make way for fuel-providing plants?
Where can I get my man-made tree! More to the point, how can I make one? Through Google, I can find construction instructions for chemical weapons, zip guns, nuclear weapons, vegan pies, but no luck with this yet.