Leafless wonder. (Earth/Global Warming).The latest brainstorm in the struggle to slow 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. : a synthetic (fake) tree! The leafless wonder soaks up thousands of times more heat-trapping 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. gas (C[O.sub.2]) from the air than any real tree. "It looks like a goal post with Venetian blinds," says designer and physicist Klaus Lackner of Columbia University Columbia University, mainly in New York City; founded 1754 as King's College by grant of King George II; first college in New York City, fifth oldest in the United States; one of the eight Ivy League institutions. in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . Trees play a key role in the circulation of carbon molecules between organisms and the environment--known as the carbon cycle (see diagram, above). Leaves collect C[O.sub.2] from the air for photosynthesis, the process in which plants use light to make food and release oxygen gas as waste. Why invent a pseudo-tree when we have the real thing? Because, says Lackner, even if trees blanketed the entire planet they couldn't absorb all the C[O.sub.2] that humans pump into the air: Tailpipes and power plants spew 22 billion tons of C[O.sub.2] a year. An acre of real trees can snag only 10 tons, but the panels of a fake tree can soak up to 90,000 tons a year. "We're just accelerating a natural process," Lackner says. THE GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE Carbon continuously flows between organisms and the environment. Plants absorb carbon dioxide gas (C[O.sub.2]) from the atmosphere. When plants respire re·spire v. 1. To breathe in and out; inhale and exhale. 2. To undergo the metabolic process of respiration. 3. To breathe easily again, as after a period of exertion. (burn stored sugars), decay, or become food, their carbon returns to the environment. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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