Could a forest of fake, CO2-gobbling trees save the planet?
On their own, no. But if successfully deployed, they might buy the planet some precious time as we try to end our addiction to fossil fuels and curb dangerous greenhouse gas emissions. At least that’s what a new report released by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers says. The report’s support for artificial trees (the scientists say about 100,000 would suffice) is the latest in the ongoing debate over geoengineering—the deliberate modification of the planet’s atmosphere to slow global warming.
While earlier geoengineering schemes focused on blocking out solar radiation to reduce the heat trapped near the Earth’s surface, current proposals like the one outlined in this new report are aimed at actually pulling existing CO2 out of the atmosphere. Which makes sense, because even if we stopped emitting carbon today, the CO2 already floating around could continue global warming for another 1,000 years. Those geoengineering trees, it seems, can’t come soon enough.
