

Synthetic "tree" captures more carbon than a real one - jingsong
http://www.physorg.com/news166374180.html

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falsestprophet
This is a very poor substitute for trees. Trees convert gaseous carbon dioxide
into solid organic molecules [1].

I am pretty suspicious of the idea that humans (especially the humans who come
up with the lowest bids to win these contracts) can store planetary-scale
amounts of carbon dioxide over geologic time.

This may very well accomplish nothing.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_fixation>

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ZachS
I'd personally much rather see the source of the problem fixed (reduce carbon
emissions). I also hope this doesn't turn into an excuse to clear-cut more
rain forests.

i.e. We'll cut down the real trees and replace them with efficient carbon
collecting "tree" buildings.

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netsp
I think that for the most part, it is expected that some sort of geo-
engineering (call it what you like) will take place.

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netsp
It would be very interesting if one of these technologies eventually made
carbon capture so cheap that multiple countries could single-handedly afford
to reduce carbon levels to whatever they wanted.

At that point carbon levels become an active decision. The words environmental
policy would take on a completely different meaning.

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baguasquirrel
"Each synthetic tree would cost $30,000 dollars to build."

I bet you could buy a whole acre of forest for that. Best part is, you don't
have to perform maintenance or anything on an acre of forest.

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jingsong
At the same time, they're 1000 times faster. Can a tree be planted for $30?

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baguasquirrel
Last time I checked, yes.

[http://www.arborday.org/Shopping/Trees/PopularTrees.cfm?zone...](http://www.arborday.org/Shopping/Trees/PopularTrees.cfm?zone=7)

Around $6 a tree, and lets say the remaining $24 goes to some middle school
kid to plant it for you.

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radu_floricica
20 cars? That goes to 1000-2000 per car, which is by far the cheapest way I've
heard of to make cars carbon neutral.

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zmonkeyz
So if you plant a lot of these around real trees will they suffocate? Will
someone think of the trees?!?!

