Bombs away!What's the fastest way to plant a forest? Grab a plane and drop bombs. No, not the explosive kind, but a bomb even a mom could love--tree bombs! Engineer Moshe Alamaro of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at Cambridge; coeducational; chartered 1861, opened 1865 in Boston, moved 1916. It has long been recognized as an outstanding technological institute and its Sloan School of Management has notable programs in business, has come up with cone-shaped canisters made of biodegradable plastic Biodegradable plastics are plastics that will decompose in the natural environment. Biodegradation of plastics can be achieved by enabling microorganisms in the environment to metabolise the molecular structure of plastic films to produce an inert humus-like material that is less . That means the plastic is naturally broken down by bacteria in soil and water--it doesn't harm the environment. Then Alamaro packs year-old tree saplings, water, and nutrients in the canisters. Alamaro's bombs still haven't flown yet--he's trying to get funding for his project. But here's his scenario: When high-flying planes drop the bombs over hard-to-reach terrain like mountains, the cones hurtle hur·tle v. hur·tled, hur·tling, hur·tles v.intr. To move with or as if with great speed and a rushing noise: an express train that hurtled past. v.tr. to the ground, where their sharp points pierce the soil. Within a few days, the plastic canisters degrade and saplings spread their roots. "It's a neat concept," says Frank Burch of the U.S. Forest Service in Washington, D.C. But trying to reseed Verb 1. reseed - seed again or anew farming, husbandry, agriculture - the practice of cultivating the land or raising stock seed - go to seed; shed seeds; "The dandelions went to seed" 2. bare mountains by plane is no picnic. Shortly after World War II, foresters attempted aerial reseeding in the U.S. But the project bombed. Mice and gophers gobbled up most seeds and their populations exploded. So most trees were nipped in the bud. Now one option is to coat tree seeds, with pesticide to repel hungry rodents. Once saplings sprout into young trees, they're an environmental dream. Their roots hold on to the soil to keep it from eroding, or wearing away. They also soak up rain that might otherwise flood lowland areas. Alamaro envisions his tree bombs waging an even larger environmental baffle. He wants to combat global warming global warming, the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth's lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution. . One of the major culprits is carbon dioxide carbon dioxide, chemical compound, CO2, a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that is about one and one-half times as dense as air under ordinary conditions of temperature and pressure. , a greenhouse gas greenhouse gas n. Any of the atmospheric gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect. greenhouse gas " that traps heat in the atmosphere, raising the Earth's temperature. Trees readily absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through their leaves. They use the carbon along with hydrogen from water to make glucose sugar--their own tree food. Experts estimate that a pine-tree forest twice the size of Alaska could offset the amount of carbon humans spew into the atmosphere. Obviously, this is one case in which almost anyone would agree: Drop those bombs! FAST FACT A single plane could plant as many as 100,000 trees in one flight. Between 1980 and 1965, rain forests were destroyed at a rate of 72 acres a minute! Human activities--like burning gasoline and coal--emit 7 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year. |
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