Building Artificial Trees

Think back to elementary school science and good old photosynthesis - when plants turn the energy from the sun into sugars and suck up carbon dioxide in the process.

Now scientists are trying to isolate that last step. In this case, using artificial trees made out of synthetic resin instead of leafy green plants. It’s called air-capture technology and researchers say it’s one of the more practical geoengineering ideas being developed to combat climate change.

As part of our next green thing series, we’re joined by David Biello, associate editor at Scientific American who wrote about air capture technology for Yale Environment 360.

Yale Environment 360: Pulling CO2 from the Air: Promising Idea, Big Price Tag

San Diego Union-Tribune: Scientists envision trees – real or fake – extracting excess CO² from air

CNN: 'Synthetic tree' claims to catch carbon in the air

(Photo courtesy of The Breakthrough Institute)