Artificial tree proposal to prevent climate change
by Rich Bowden - Jun 1 2008, 22:48
Respected climate scientist Wallace Broecker has suggested the construction of 60 million giant, artificial trees to absorb carbon from the Earth's atmosphere. Photo: Pollution. Credit: flickr
A respected climate scientist has proposed the construction of 60 million giant, artificial trees across the globe to absorb carbon from the Earth's atmosphere.
Dr Wallace Broecker, the man who first used the term "climate change" in the 1970s has suggested the trees, which would be 50ft high and 8ft in diameter, which would use a special type of plastic to absorb the CO2.
Addressing the the Hay literary festival in Powys, Dr Broecker said the battle against climate change was "a race against time". Proposing the "carbon scrubbers" he said the trapped CO2 from the atmosphere would be pumped underground or turned into a mineral.
"It's a race against time and we are just sort of crawling along at a slow pace," he told the festival.
"Okay, you say that's enormous, but we make 55 million cars a year, so if we really wanted to we could. Over 30 or 40 years we could easily make that number," he added referring to the 20 million such "trees" which would be needed just to absorb carbon from that produced by the United States.
Agreeing the proposal was grandiose and difficult to implement he later told BBC News, "If I were a betting man I would bet against it because I don't know if we have the political will to do it," he said. "But looking at countries like Germany and here in the UK the will is developing."
Dr Broecker said the most likely place for the scrubbers would be in the world's deserts but added it was important to get developing countries to adopt the idea.
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