We’ve all heard about and seen artificial trees. The advantage of not requiring such maintenance and care as trimming, watering and nurturing means that they are the choice of many to brighten homes, conservatories, office and hospitals.
However, environmentally, artificial trees generally don’t do much more than look attractive and brighten a room. it is possible that this fact is about to change dramatically. An invention of artificial trees which are supposed to behave in the same way as real plants and trees has been produced by a US scientist. Artificial trees will be used to collect and store carbon in a similar way to real trees and plants if the design were to become reality.
Unlike decorative artificial trees the invention, which remains just a draft idea, looks very little like a real tree. The scientist behind the idea, Dr Lackner describes the artificial trees as looking more like American football goalposts with Venetian blinds in between.
Similar to their real counterparts, the artificial trees would absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, as plants and trees do when photosynthesising, the difference would be that the artificial models would store the carbon rather than releasing oxygen.
It is estimates that each of Dr Lackner’s artificial trees would be capable of removing 90,000 tonnes of carbon each year from our atmosphere. This roughly equates to the output of 15,000 cars. At this level we would need 250,000 artificial trees to absorb the 25 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide that we produce each year.
The idea brings with it interesting ideas for the future of artificial trees or plants. Whilst it may still be a long way in the future, for the sake of the planet’s future let’s hope we can find a way of combining this technology with aesthetics to make a difference.
Tags: artificial trees