This just makes me think it’s an aquarium that needs to be cleaned.
Liquid Trees
Submitted 10 months ago by sundray@lemmus.org to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/635eaf11-bb4e-46be-915d-86b1a946d8cb.jpeg
Comments
billwashere@lemmy.world 10 months ago
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
Upkeep. Oh, wait.
SpicyLizards@reddthat.com 10 months ago
Your just thinking outside the box!
notthebees@reddthat.com 10 months ago
A few reasons: Trees need a lot of space and the space underneath a sidewalk isn’t enough for long term life. They can die after like 30 years? This is tree dependent and location dependent.
Tree roots can destroy sidewalks making it harder for people to go over them. (Think people in wheel chairs)
Liability in terms of damage (have you seen trees after a storm?)
sqgl@beehaw.org 10 months ago
Not all tree species destroy sidewalks.
WizardOfLoneliness@hexbear.net 10 months ago
fuck sidewalks, tree roots can fuck up entire buildings
keepcarrot@hexbear.net 10 months ago
My first thought, having lived in an area with trees but inadequate funding for clearing leaves, is that every sidewall just gets buried and slick with wet leaves.
Idk what the labour costs are for these things.
MightBeFluffy@pawb.social 10 months ago
Sounds like we need to remove the need for sidewalks. Rip up all the roads in the city and replace them with green space. Problem solved
spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
Yes to ripping up roads for greenspace, not to removing sidewalks too.
Make the citu green and walkable, and you solve so many problems in one go
stray@pawb.social 10 months ago
I disagree. Pavement is valuable to pedestrians, cyclists, emergency and service vehicles, and the disabled. While it’s important to preserve nature as much as possible, some urbanisation is also a good thing. That said, I’m not sure algae tanks would be necessary in areas where huge tracts of land aren’t dedicated to parking. I can’t really think of where my city would benefit from them.
Bloobish@hexbear.net 10 months ago
Still and this is the big thing, these are all possible considerations, plenty of urban areas, once they reduce street traffic to what is seen in European and other areas could also vastly greenify areas via mini parks allowing root space (and tbh if it messes with a sidewalk well then fix it like what functional societies with infrastructure budgets doi). All in all this just gives off techbro “genius solution” grifting and likely isn’t even possible on a large scale given I swear I’ve seen this same tumblr reblog before and yet areas that are hard on trees (Like LA) still has a crap ton of palms and other trees not even remotely habitable to the climate.
notthebees@reddthat.com 10 months ago
I should have mentioned this but usually stuff like this is planted in front of people’s houses etc. I wouldn’t expect a pine tree planted in one of those. Same with a palm tree.
I’m from Pittsburgh and there’s a lot of greenery projects and ecological restoration currently going on. Outside of the city, it’s very heavily wooded. But it’s slow progress.
Those giant algae tanks miss the large point of trees and their physical benefits and do feel like a tech bro solution looking for a problem.
Szewek@lemm.ee 10 months ago
I guess it would take a lot of time to accommodate Mars for trees. More than for algae ;)
Trimatrix@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Less infrastructure erosion from roots? Integration into places like above ground parking spaces? Hell could you imagine integrating them into bridge underpasses or walk ways? Heck make a semi destructible version and use that for crash bollards. Only a level 5 vegan is going to complain if some allege is spilt.
bratorange@feddit.org 10 months ago
Like I always think that people don’t get one thing about trees in a city. There purpose is is not about co2. The co2 reduction of city trees is neglectable. The reason you need them in a city is temperature regulation, shade, air quality, mood, and maybe solidifying unsealed ground. Putting these tanks in a city is laughably inefficient w.r.t. co2 conversion if you compare this to any effort to do this in instustrial capacity ( which is is also still laughably inefficient)
pdqcp@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
From the top of my head, they also help manage storm water by filtering rainwater into the aquifer, while also lowering flood risks, provides habitats for plants, insects, birds, and small animals while also being a natural sound barriers, which reduces noise pollution. All of these together greatly increase mental health for everyone too
kwomp2@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
So… are you saying the air inside a city park isn’t better at all?
entwine413@lemm.ee 10 months ago
Probably not a statistically significant difference since wind is a thing.
bratorange@feddit.org 10 months ago
I think there is a difference between air quality (pollution) and co2 levels.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 10 months ago
CO² isn’t want you should be concerned about with air in a city anyway, its the other emissions like particulates. Just being further away from busy roads reduces that significantly so the park air would be better.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
To be fair, I think it’s important to make a distinction between a city park, and a handful of trees lining a busy street.
BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world 10 months ago
They were talking about CO2 which is what the algae tank is about.
Trees have other benefits around filtering pollutants that affect air quality such as sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. Also the shading effect reduces ozone accumulation as well as generally helping reduce the urban heat island effect (which in turn reduces the amount of air conditioning needed, even a small amount saves a lit of energy and reduces pollution from power stations).
City parks have clean air partly because of tree but also because youre away from roads and buildings so further from car exhausts and chimney stacks. The concentration of pollutants in wide open spaces is lower because the wind can move it around more easily, and there isn’t a pollution source directly near by. Tree and grass do help too.
Micromot@feddit.org 10 months ago
It is, because of the humidity, temperature and also they remove air pollution
termaxima@programming.dev 10 months ago
We can have both trees and this ! Let’s replace the stupid ad spots on bus stops with these 😮
Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 10 months ago
While I don’t want to spoil the joke (but I will) and I hate techno-optimist solutions that displace actual solutions for our biosphere: supposedly, Belgrade is such a dense concrete hell that trees aren’t viable solution (at least in the short term).
There is some rumbling that liquid trees are not the solution to the real problems caused by large-scale deforestation, nor does it reduce erosion or enrich the soil. However, much of this wrath is misplaced as Liquid tree designers say that it was not made as a replacement for trees but was designed to work in areas where growing trees would be non-viable. Initiatives like Trillion Trees are laudable, but there is something to be said for the true utility of this tiny bioreactor. The fact that they can capture useful amounts of carbon dioxide from day one is another benefit for them. Such bioreactors are expected to become widespread in urban areas around the world as the planet battles rising carbon levels in the atmosphere.
blockheadjt@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Can’t they just put the algae in the ocean?
loomy@lemy.lol 10 months ago
Trees arent liquid
umbraroze@slrpnk.net 10 months ago
Insert random copypasta about biotech breakthrough that turns water and CO2 and nutrients into building materials which sounds like space age technology but it’s just trees
Vinny_93@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Green shit on your terrace, leaves fucking everywhere, looming threat of bird shit on your head, seeds everywhere, roots growing through everything, blocking the sun at every step, tough lessons in gravity for things kids climbing them, lot of damage when it’s stormy out.
But nah trees are great, really.
jerkface@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 10 months ago
blocking the sun at every step
That’s a feature. I don’t want to be grilled by the sun everywhere I go.
Great for local air quality, too.
PunnyName@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Oh no, nature is getting in the way of…a civilization of bipedal animals that encroached on nature!
It’s abhorrent!!
wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Gray shit everywhere, concrete fucking everywhere, looming threat of 2-ton steel death machines caving in your head, overheating everywhere, asphalt plowing through everything, soaking up the sun at every step, tough lessons in momentum for kids crossing them, lot of traffic and pollution when there are drivers out.
You could change half of your words, and keep the meaning the same, and make a compelling case that roads, or any other things, are humanity’s greatest scourge.
Go touch whatever remaining local flora people like you have allowed to continue to exist, and quit being an imbecilic bellend online.
TxzK@lemmy.zip 10 months ago
trees are not as profitable
DandomRude@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Has the manufacturer even calculated how much energy is needed for production and how long it will take for the corresponding CO2 emissions to be amortized?
We are living in strange times…
SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 10 months ago
And trees that are planted in cities are not seeded. They are grown in a forestry until they reach a certain height. And then dug up with machines transported with machines and then planted with machines. The CO2 produced to plant a single tree also takes quite a while to be absorbed by that tree.
Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 10 months ago
Who cares? You can sell these tanks for a better profit than trees.
rivvvver@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
im guessing “where will the animals go” is also a stupid question?
wiccan2@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I would guess into the tree soup.
RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Also, where do I find the shade?
ExtantHuman@lemm.ee 10 months ago
Under the actual tree next to it. This is effectively just a large bench. Which also helps the air.
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Real answer is probably that they’d be used in addition to trees, designed to fit in places unsuitable for a tree.
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 10 months ago
Like walls of high-rises.
psx_crab@lemmy.zip 10 months ago
Yes. Algae is better in absorbing co2 than tree, but tree is important as a shade and creating a cooling effect for the surrounding. Both is important for different thing and combine it you get the best of both world, especially in a lot of urban area where planting big tree isn’t possible
DasFaultier@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
This. Trees (especially large ones) are a pain to irrigate properly, might not be drought-resistant, grow very slowly until they reach their full potential at removing CO2, interfere with infrastructure that we humans are used to (piping, electricity, telco), roots break up pavements, branches can be a hazard after storms, fruit might attract rats, …
I’m very much pro trees (despite what I’ve listed in the first paragraph), but I’m sure there are places in cities where you can’t plant trees but could put up algae tanks.
If you understand German (specifically Austrian dialect) you might like this podcast episode about challenges and methods to overcome them in the context of greenery in the city of Graz:
Simple Smart Buildings: Bäume in der Stadt
Webseite der Episode: podcasted3e6b.podigee.io/153-baume-in-der-stadt
Mediendatei: …podigee-cdn.net/1742586-m-9ecab280e580cd07f75c83…
TL;DL of this episode: it’s not as simple as “just plant more trees”.
Madrigal@lemmy.world 10 months ago
You can’t charge a subscription fee for trees.
abbadon420@lemm.ee 10 months ago
What you can do is take all the trees and put them in a tree museum and charge the people a dollar and a half to see them.
loomy@lemy.lol 10 months ago
That’s where youre wrong.
jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
They get in the way of parking spots. The steel cages must run supreme.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
The steel cages must rule supreme.
Just ask The Undertaker and Mankind…
illi@lemm.ee 10 months ago
These gave to take up more space than a tree…
Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
I think the idea behind this is that algae are more space-efficient than trees at producing oxygen and/or capturing CO2. Of course this is also ignoring that the bulk of a tree’s volume is high above the ground, and they also provide other things like shade and shelter for insects etc.
jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
When this was proposed the idea was that one of tank can replace two trees and it can be put in corners that are too small for trees (and cars). When you consider the space for roots you can get at least one parking space per tank at the cost of making car-centric cities even more of an hell hole.
Phegan@lemmy.world 10 months ago
This is missing out on likely the most important part of trees in urban areas. Shade. They give you a cooler place to stand or walk through.
desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
taller buildings and smog do a more consistent job of providing shade than a new tree will in a decade.
But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 10 months ago
My condo complex is easily 5 degrees cooler than the rest of my city cause we’re covered in trees. It’s always noticeable when you leave the complex and go across the road
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 10 months ago
No standing or sitting allowed. Resume consumerism!