The Future Of Trees Is Liquid
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
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We love trees, but the main problem is that they aren't exactly travel-sized. However, new technology wants to bring the fresh-air benefits of trees to places that the real deal just can't thrive, like dense urban areas!
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These do sound great, but as you point out at the end, these don’t replace trees, and the fact that that’s how they’ve been being talked about is, I suspect, why a lot of people are uncomfortable with them. Ultimately sell them as devices that can consume CO2 and produce oxygen, not as replacements for trees, and it sounds a lot less dystopian.
Well said
We still need tree-shade to not cook in the cities. Something that "professional" city planners often overlook.
Edit: Yes, there is a cost to trees in the city. Yet, the cost is much lower than one inquired by the deployment of water curtains and rescuing people who fainted. Lastly the word professional is in quotations to imply the lack of their professionalism.
I think it sounds more dystopian.
1:08 This is dystopian.
they aren't trying to replace trees and this prototype was made by a university, not a company trying to sell a product, a few poorly worded tweets or clickbait articles are not the views or goals of the people actually making these,
Living in Central Europe, I'd say, the most important positive effects of trees in cities are cooling (by releasing moisture and giving shadow) and scattering car sounds.
Can you just be grateful nature grows trees?
@@Artemis-eu5ql I’m pretty sure his comment is him being grateful for trees
The fact that they completely ignore this fact is mind boggling, like yes tree do remove co2 from the air bu mostly, THEY MAKE PLACES COOLER
also trees themselves are completely degradable bio matter and increase the bio diversity by providing housing space for hundreds of organisms that can be free. These tanks are gimmicky, but cannot replace urban trees. As much as I'd love them to, since I'm allergic and we only use male trees (the ones that release pollen) so we don't have the fruit lying around, molding.
And they look beautiful
I'm glad that we're not REPLACING trees with photobioreactors. I cannot live without real trees sprucing up my environment. (lol) A glowing, green tank that works as a bench, public charging station, possible art piece, etc. would do very well in a city environment, especially since cities sidewalks tend to be pretty bland. Now I'm designing some of these PBRs in my head.
Remember photosynthetic algae aren't all green, imagine a series of colorful tanks, maybe even a sculpture that's colored by the fact that its a bunch of hollow compartments that are connected to the PBR it would be so beautiful and it's like cyber punk meets fey wimsy
Not just the aesthetics of trees, there is also the benefit of greenery just being cooler than concrete. Greenery evaporates water from their leaves similar to sweat but for a city, which naturally cools down an area. It's why poorer neighborhoods with lots of concrete, little to no natural parks left, and large supermarkets like walmart with massive concrete parking lots nearby can be super hot hellscapes, while richer neighborhoods with a lot of greenery can be balmy and cozy.
I love the idea of these in a form factor the size of a window for apartments and homes to perpetually purify indoor air. And maybe even as a respirator for personal use in places like Hong Kong, Beijing, most urban areas in India, and etc
As a person that worked with wastewater during high school, I love that we can use this as a filter!
u worked with poop?
You were a…janitor in high school?
@@winstone1080 he was a professional sewage consultant for a public academic building
@@elmersito3kResumes be like.
@@winstone1080 no I literally worked the machines, clarifiers and all. But yes I still did grounds keeping and cleaning. I was 17 and my friends father owned the plant. I was given the job
I'm working with microalgae for my PhD! They are indeed super cool 😁 Thanks for bringing attention to the topic.
I'm doing a PhD on Structural Biology. Watching this and then your comment made me feel relieved I'm not the only nerd in here. 😂.
Although, Kudos to you and your work in the future 🎉😊
@@SiddhArtha96 Good luck to you too!
You two could work together and build an algae tree :)
@@SiddhArtha96you really thought you were the only nerd here? This is a science channel...
Don't some come in other colours? I'm pretty sure they do and I'm imagining a sculpture made of a bunch of hollow tanks connected to the PBRs for each type of algae so it's a glowing multicolored sculpture that brings clean air and good vibes, very fey cyber punk (high tech fairies)
I'm 44 and I am both amazed and unsettled by how much tech is starting to resemble the things I read in sci fi as a kid. I don't remember the book's name but this video vividly reminds me of a description of a city where there was algae in the walls of all the skyscrapers that functioned to clean both the air and waste water as well as providing food 🌿
Star Wars?
Does it sound like Star Wars idiot
I am 75 and delight in what I am seeing,new thing new insights. And this infomation solves a ancient puzzel of what was found inside broken ancient pipes ,it was sumised it to be algae of some kind but did not know what for or why......now they know.
lots of cool sci fi authors were coming up with the most interesting and strangely practical concepts :D
@@aazhie I AGREE with you!
Being an eco student in Belgrade, I remember the talks when this liquid tree was installed. Our professor said it was a small project of the university, so we only have this one singular aquarium. It's just up the street from the botanic garden which owns the project, and when it's time to replace the algae, they just scoop them up and dump them in a spinning drum in a special room inside one of the buildings in the botanic garden. From there they turn it into fertilizer they use in the garden itself, and this hot and humid room is where other algae are grown. But as my professor said, it's not there to "replace trees", that's not the point at all and I know people always misunderstand this. Belgrade has one of the worst air qualities in Europe so this small water tank really does almost nothing. Would this single project really turn this world into a treeless dystopias, to quote the same professor, "this is such a small scale project that I don't see it being appreciated by any investor" although he said this like, 2 years ago. Memes about this brought the project to light in all the wrong ways because people don't bother to read about the subject. And besides, bioreactors have been a thing for a while, it was just a matter of time someone thought of installing these in cities
air quality in Serbia is bad all over Serbia even worst in Uzice, Arandjelovac, Pozarevac... , but in my opinion in order this to work it would make more sense to put it on top of the buildings, or build multiple smaller or one large lake somewhere around the city, where they could also extract algae and use it in agriculture
This seems like something relatively easy to install on the rooftops of a skyscraper, not needing space for roots like a tree. Give building maintenance companies a small tax incentive to install them on their buildings and you could be adding the sequestration capacity of hundreds of trees pretty quickly!
Make it rooftop panels, they work where solar panels make no sense to install.
@@Philemaphobia how? They can't be used in places where there's not enough sunlight. Also not to mention a lot of countries where it gets cold enough to freeze in the winter, you'd need extra energy to keep the water in these liquid.
@@kbee225 trees need enough sunlight as well, they need underground space (which is taken in cities by infrastructure) as much if not more space than they need overground.
Freezing winters are less and less a problem in my country, adding an algae friendly antifreeze like glycerine though, shouldn’t be the problem. Our summers are so dry now that the cities ask citizens to water public urban foliage, the fire departments have to water our city trees. They get so hot and dry they regularly shed their outer layers which makes them less effective against insects in summer and fungi come autumn, less freeze resistant in winter. Not to mention all the human and dog waste water a typical urban tree has to deal with, which often leads to deformities and less leaf growth than healthy trees. Their leaves are also often ‚thickly‘ covered in emission dust, tyre rubber dust and other crap that inhibits their ability to produce Oxygen.
I love trees. Literally grew up next to the forest,forests are an important part of my whole countries culture even, but city trees don’t do as much as you think they can do.
We had trees in cities for hundreds of years (if not always) and still city climate is unsustainable even in ‚green-ish’ countries. Clearly cities need more than ‚just‘ trees.
@@Philemaphobia sounds like the trees in your area are all around *ucked
@@TheInfintyithGoofball sounds like city trees are fighting for survival, yeah. And ‚my‘ area supposedly is a quite green one - Berlin, Germany. Our trees need some help. It’s not even their job to clean up after us, they didn’t evolve for that purpose, we can’t expect that the solution to our catastrophic ecological behavior just grows on trees.
Another exciting thing about their space efficiency is incorporating them into existing buildings. Imagine rings of algae pipes around skyscrapers and apartment blocks. Eventually someday we might be able to use the excess algae/cyanobacteria for biodiesel or bioplastics.
I am still very pro-tree and plants in general. Incorporating more gardens and green spaces into our cities would be great too.
Excellent idea.
Could literally take 1 floor of any giant glass skyscraper and offset a massive amount of the building's CO2.
Agreed. I'd love to see shallow-root plants covering rooftops and green tubes winding down tall buildings. Then again, I've always loved the look of overgrowth in post-apocalypse movies/series so if covering buildings with vines and other plants could be done without negative effects, I'd be all for it.
Suuuuure
And how many companies will just buy some of these, write it off, and do nothing else to reduce carbon footprint?
@@MutleeIsTheAntiGodHow is that the bio reactor’s fault, or a bad thing in the first place? That’s like saying corporations planting trees for the carbon offset is bad. It’s not a perfect solution and it’s not the end state of carbon neutrality, but it’s better than nothing. Corporations and your average person understands this. Target far more harmful things than something that’s insufficient helping in your opinion. That’s the most efficient and effective way to work towards your goals.
Those won't replace trees, but can absolutely complement trees.
It looks like a cool solution for cities with really high density or desert lands where we can scale this to a factory size.
Apart from this, Trees are very cheap and they reduce noise pollution, they cool the cities during the summer and overall make people happier!
I am looking forward to see this in place of course!
Read about the liquid3 dee weeks ago and thought this is excellent tech! Though they shouldn’t call them “liquid trees” - they should make it known there’s algae doing the process.
I've always found it interesting how much people focus on trees as our oxygenators, considering the majority of earth's oxygenation is done by algae and other photosynthetic microorganisms
Yeah but trees are still very important and also cool cities down
I think this lady is the real issue stealing all the air talking a million miles and hr..
@@JohnSmith-bw6pv???
I think these would probably be better suited as an indoor and emergency solution to air pollution; they don’t seem like they could substitute many of the other benefits green spaces in urban areas can offer. Very happy this technology exists though, and excited to see what more we can learn :)
You can put them in places like roofs and alleys with more ease than a tree that needs dirt you can't feasibly put on a roof and they can be used along side trees to boost co2 absorption while you wait for the trees to grow. They're meant to act like a power up for trees, not to completely replace them
Looking at the tubing form, having them attached to individual buildings might very well be a feasible addition to what natural greenery does. I can't talk for anyone else, but seeing this, I really want a home that has it's south facing side completely covered in pannels/tubing or other interesting shapes. Either this or solar pannels, but the algea is kind of winning me over, especially since the system could probabbly be attached to indoor plumbing and the waste be used for a garden, roof top garden even if space is that tight.
Yeah, it would be great for a hospital I bet since there's people to maintain it as well as a need for power/seating/space-saving, etc
@@lunaliciousgeekima keep it real with you chief I don’t think the over worked staff at a hospital are going to have time to maintain this. Although hospitals glowing green would be as if they are a video game health station sounds pretty neat.
@@dillpickkleit said in the video that growing this actually take less to maintain than actual trees so if hospital can grow normal tree, they can grow this
Here in Europe we simply plant trees in our cities. Literally every street is full of them here in Berlin. Especially to keep the air cool.
Well Belgrade is also in Europe and it has parts that are full of trees but it is still very polluted because of many reasons. I think this should be added somewhere where it isnin't really possible to plant trees but not completely replace trees.
Yeah but like the host said, you'd need 50 trees to offset the carbon of one gas powered car... We're probably gonna need carbon sucking algae farms eventually to stop global warming.
@@MatthewSpencerKociolor we could stop being dependant on cars, or atleast to the extend that we are currently.
Better to fix the core issue, than symptom-treat 🤷🏻♀️
@@kristelbrok998It's not a question of being less dependent on cars, it's a question of making the cars zero emission. Because public transport is NOT a viable replacement foe a personal car, I've spent the last 15 years getting around using public transport because I have no alternative, and I've hated every minute of it.
@@shogun2215 i've been dependent on public transport, and i didnt mind it. Because the system here is actually decent
Crop production and Soil erosion is a major reason they can never possibly replace trees.
but this idea is extremely cool, we will have less pollution and better air condition, wastewater treatment and much more.
Plus it looks so damn futuristic! were advancing guys
This would work well working side-by-side with trees and also where it's a lot harder to plan trees, such as on top of buildings or incorporated into buildings, or narrow spaces between roads.
That honestly sounds amazing for those large urban areas that nowadays have little to no trees, I hope this becomes more widespread. Sure, it's not as nice as having actual trees around, but lets face it, the cities that cut down all their trees to build infrastructure are not about to go replant them on those areas again, so this is an awesome alternative to at least get some of the trees' benefits.
Not really. You would need millions of gallons to be somewhat effective.
Imagine the amount of glass/plastic, to produce it, and to move it around the cities or to other cities. It would probably be deficit of oxygen after all.
@@RortherAn acre of trees can absorb up to 2.6 tons of carbon dioxide EACH YEAR. While one acre of algae can remove up to 2.7 tons PER DAY of CO₂.
That's how overpowered algae is compared to trees.
Using them in conjunction with trees and green spaces will probably be best. Wonder if anyone considered using them in building structures like double pane windows and if the green light would provide additional UV protection and thermo cooling benefits. I know the color green has a calm healing effect on humans. Thoughts?
Sounds like a good idea to me.
Yes, because they were never meant to replace trees, just to be a supplement.
I feel like the overall better solution is to just overhaul existing roads and cities to accommodate more green space and vegetation, which would provide a lot more benefits than just better air quality.
Also trees and shrubs lower temperature in cities, provide habitats for city dwelling animals and more
We could start in the US by no longer planning city layouts for car traffic but instead by foot traffic
Sure, completely raze the 4000 or so big cities in the world and build them all anew to just be greener. It's a nice idea but not really feasible
When a solution is overall better it means it also concerns itself with logistics and unfortunately, the solution you're offering is extremely longterm and requires things like relocating entire or parts of cities which involves relocating people and industries. One of the greatest mistakes we made in the 20th century was not thinking ahead when it comes to facilitating massive and thorough infrastructural changes.
And that's before mentioning as the video pointed out, you need *a lot* more trees. It makes more sense to do something like eliminating the need for cars by having extensive and extremely efficient public transport systems before facilitating cities having more trees.
@@glenngriffon8032 dream of that day every day. Having the option to walk/short-transit to my local grocery store instead of driving would be so nice.
How many years would it take just to reach carbon neutrality after building and installing these tanks? When she said these tanks can start sequestering CO2 immediately instead of waiting 30 years for a tree to reach max potential, I immediately thought about the CO2 created to produce them. They start out pretty negative, unlike planting a tree.
The lower amount of carbon sequestration a tree can accomplish is also a factor. The equivalent of a tank of gas per year, and I assumed this is for a matured tree, does give me some pause to consider these.
If it can last then it helps. When I was in elementary school we had a project where we planted a few hundred trees on campus. I lived close by in high school so I checked out the campus one day and found that not a single tree we planted were still there. The tree my classmates and I dug a spot for, planted, and took care of for over a year doesn't exist. Neither does the hundreds of other trees that other groups did the same thing for.
Planting a tree is cool and good but it doesn't make much difference if it's dead and removed in less than 2 years.
the wording was less than a tank of gas, so that just improves the argument for using the tanks
In Athens, the mayor and his "developer " friends, planted 4 of these in a square, and used the "science " as an excuse ,to cut down 65 trees that were "in the way" (of the plans of his friends).
This is just another "market solution " to the crisis that will destroy us all.
Science doesn't have any answers we can depend on,as it is today too close to the markets and the rich and disconnected from the world .
you also have to take into account the CO2 emitted in the regular upkeep trees have to undergo in cities. Chainsaws and wood chippers for regular pruning, road sweepers to collect dead leaves in the autumn etc. These tanks might have inbuilt carbon that does not exist in a tree sapling, but trees do require carbon emissions for their upkeep.
There are some lovely big trees in my town just down the road from my house. But one got honey fungus infection last year and hat to be felled. The trunk was as wide as i am tall at the base. That trunk then had to be sawn up with chainsaws into sections small enough to be loaded onto a van small enough to get into the small park the tree was growing in. Most of the branches were turned into wood chips. And the stump was ground out with a stump grubber. All fossil fuel powered machines, and apart from the van i'm not sure there are viable electric alternatives atm. Trees win hands down out in the country where they can be planted and left to grow themselves. But in cities they may not be as carbon efficient as you might think
Trees in cities keep the sun from just beaming onto streets, these don't sound like they'll help much with shade.
or sound, and air pollution
Can't charge your phone on a tree tho and if the tank is build with the right kind of solar panel, that could provide shade too.
@@Trekki200 would be nice if it was under a tree, with a nice bench, so you could charge your phone AND get some shade. They shouldn't be mutually exclusive
I understand the hesitancy for adding plants and trees like Japan does on top of their buildings and sometimes throughout the outside of the building as it can damage the building with moisture and such but adding more types of plants and such in a soil based setup with drainage to prevent overflow/flooding would help even if its minimal.
Perhaps important to stress that the liquid 3 is installed between two trees in a row of very old beautiful trees that have been there for decades. They are not there to replace, they are there to augment.
Real Question!! :
How does 1 Car that burns through 1 Full Tank with like, let's say 70L with a weight of
Because carbon dioxide has 2 oxygen molecules on it. If you get a pound of carbon and burn it you get more than a pound of carbon dioxide and other stuff, because it pulls the oxygen from the air.
I'm not sure on the actual chemistry of the reaction that would occur during the burning process; but, the only possible way to get to that figure is that the carbon in the gasoline would have to combine with molecules already present in the air needed for combustion to end up with byproducts that weigh much.
Probably the mass of "carbon" stated is actually mass of CO2, where actual carbon is just about 30% of the mass, the rest is oxygen that's freely available in the air. Gasoline is mostly carbon with a bit of hydrogen so the 70L could maybe be 50kg of carbon that would yield about 150kg of CO2
Gasoline is made entirely of carbon and hydrogen atoms, carbon being much more massive than hydrogen. At 70 kg of carbon we could say it's about 50kg of carbon atoms. Each co2 molecule contains 2 atoms of oxygen, taken from the air, and 1 carbon atom, taken from the gasoline, oxygen mass is more similar to carbon, so we can easily see that 50kg of carbon atoms could bind to almost 100kg of oxygen atoms, thus making 150kg.
It's simple stoichiometry. Gasoline is mostly hydrocarbons. So if you assume a total combustion, you start with a lot of short chain hydrocarbons, then end up with carbon dioxide molecules which would be the same number of molecules as the number of carbons in the hydrocarbons. And each CO2 molecule is one carbon with two oxygens. The atomic weight of carbon is 12 g/mol( can be occasionally 14), the molecular weight of CO2 is 44 g/mol. So you can see that each carbon is almost a fourth of the weight of a CO2 molecule. Since you get the oxygen from the air the emissions will always be heavier than the fuel itself.
Aren't their several studies that indicate seeing real foliage is beneficial for mental health? I suffer terrible allergies myself, but I'm pretty skeptical about replacing trees with boxes. Despite the uncomfortable symptoms caused by a trip to the park, I always feel better overall after spending some time in nature. I could see them on the outside of large buildings, pushing clean air in, perhaps?
They said in the video that these aren’t meant to replace trees. It’s more like they reduce the work load for trees
@@shizuwolf You're right! Thanks, I must have watched the video distracted.
Though the video said that trees are harmful to allergic people, while not mentioning the fact that there do exist hypoallergenic trees.
@@mr.cauliflower3536wait what??
@@Toyota-Coaster trees that don't trigger allergies exist
My main issue was the idea of using this algae as 'fertilizer,' specifically when it was described as absorbing dangerous compounds that resist degradation in nature like artificial hormones. What are the risks of some pollutants being concentrated in the algae and then released into the soil?
That's just another downstream problem to figure out. I imagine another step in the process would be either an industrial form of decontaminating the algae, or doing bioremediation with other plants and fungi that are known for higher toxin absorbption abilities, like weeds and mushrooms that often take up cadmium and arsenic.
That's really cool! I hope they go viral all around the world :)
4:36 How long do you suppose it's gonna take before that bench part grows some spikes? 😫
The dependence on car-centric infrastructure really has people thinking this is an ideal solution😭
yeah it makes me sick to my stomach lol
It's like people are happy with being forced every single day just to go to work, to take 2 full recliner chairs, a stereo system, an ac and heating system, and a giant 1 ton metal box, with full insurance, maintenance, and $5-20k cost...
whilst requiring 180 sq feet for every parking space and requiring so many spaces it makes giant lakes of asphalt near stores which waste space and money. Ugh. So inefficient it would almost be comical if it wasn't real life.
Less car centrism doesn't solve any of the problems with trees in cities. They're still big, require good soil, take a long time to grow, and undermine buildings/sidewalks/etc. If on the other hand you're claiming the only problems this solves are as a result of car centrism you're just incorrect. Even with 0 emissions from transportation theres still a ton of particulates/other pollution in the air from normal human activity.
@WaluigiisthekingASmith I'm not saying car-centric planning is 100% of the issue, but you gotta admit it's wildly inefficient and a waste of space in most cases. I've seen walkable cities that have a healthy balance of plant life, and a good train infrastructure and you can still commute by car just fine. Also trees aren't the only plants that exist. There's bushes, vines, and moss, for example. In some parts of Tokyo ive seen the use of metal grate type structures for vines to climb up to provide shade that requires little to no upkeep at all.
@@WaluigiisthekingASmith I agree there’s a lot to be done to make cities a more hospitable environment for trees. But I also think a lot of the solutions could be locally sourced. Take soil for example. A city wide composting program could easily start rebuilding damaged compacted soil. You would have to allocate space for the trees of course, but you could provide the nutrients via a waste stream.
The impermeable surfaces all over a city can be used for rainwater collection, irrigating newly planted trees. Select tough pioneer species that can handle the hostile conditions of the concrete jungle. Your oaks your fabaceae, etc.
It would take time and planning. But we can shift our cities to be more tree friendly.
It is a good thing tho, even if we did not had to worry about CO2, those biolumenecent algae are cool enough to serve as carbon neutral decoration
It had never crossed my mind that deciduous trees stop photosynthesizing in the winter when they drop all their leaves.
Why we beed more pines
@@archniki_ i love pine trees they're so calming and beautiful
It's nice to have more options to rely on, but would it also be possible to selectively breed Trees to be able to absorb more Carbon? Although if this process was possible I don't imagine it could be completed as fast as these Liquid3 Tanks.
Just get trees that grow faster. Trees have to store the carbon which means they have to get bigger.
Ah, I didn't know that. That definitely seems like a neat solution, thanks for adding to my comment! @@KaosHappens
Trees provide shade and create a nice atmosphere in those concrete nightmares.
Solarpunk is the future✊
Hey! A fellow solarpunk
If we had trees and made most city benches out of these solar algae filters, that would be nice. What's the maintenance like on them?
Wait. That's a great idea. Building benches from these!
she said that you need to remove the excess algae every 6 weeks or so, and that's about it
problem with making them benches is that A: anybody sitting on them is blocking the sunlight, B: the glass would have to be made... well, weight-resistance to the extreme, and C: vandals exist
having it function as the top of bus stops would be sick, though, and i wonder if they could be incorporated into buses somehow?
The marketing shouldn't talk about tree at all. They should just push it is as solution for pollution in city.
I hate the idea of dealing with climate change mostly through adding more technologies but a solar powered air filter sounds pretty good. Put them at bus stops which an explanation of what's going on. It would be a great way to reach people who don't watch science shows.
Technology pollutes 😠
I don’t see the issue of new tech. Building a better mouse trap is kinda what we DO as humans
Bus stops is honestly one of the best places to put these. Quite a few bus stops have shelters which already take up space. Plus, in a properly organized bus system, bus stops are on every other block. Turning one of the shelter walls into one of these would be PERFECT.
@@tomtheplummer7322 you and your activities on UA-cam as well. If you are SO angry, then stop immediately
This sounds pretty cool. Hopefully the maintenance is easy - especially if you have to skim or replace a filter or however they do it every 6 weeks.
Most people treat trees like transactional relationships; "I like trees because they produce oxygen"
I like trees because they're beautiful.
It's not at all easy, in fact algal processing is an unsolved problem.
I can already see local infrastructure "forgetting" to maintain the tanks. Especially in my town.
@@TheoRae8289 purposefully: "hey mayor, we need more budget."
@@clusterstageright? I like trees cause they have homes for nature. And provide shade for all. They connect and hold the earth together, exchange water across roots and mycelium network sharing nutrients across land. Trees are above and below. Magic!
Last few I've heard on oxygen, is that most of it comes from the ocean... But yes, trees are very nice! (Unless you live next to a squirrel that tosses pinecones at your car for little to no reason at all)
this is what the Lorax warned us about
This feels a bit like a band aid solution to a bigger problem. There are other easily growable greens that have much easier requirements than trees. Another nice benefit of greenery is cooling down areas. Nice for heat waves
You still need to treat the symptoms while you try to cure the disease.
@@jaywaii3187 There are other forms of treatment that are far more appealing than a green box
@@Dsyphus0 example please?
@@Dsyphus0 such as?
"Easily growable greens that have much easier requirements than trees." Isn't that exactly what this is?
what is the cost of production and upkeep? Like, what if i wanted to build one in front of my house?
maybe 5k, but if the gov would buy it for a city it would be maybe like 2 million
You guys know you can turn these into flat floor tiles right? You can replace the sidewalks with these and have the sidewalks glow at night as well to help save on overhead lighting which causes more light pollution
Good idea reminds me of the glow in the dark trees for streetlights idea but it didn’t get traction. I think the glow was to low light. People in the city tend to be afraid of the dark.
this would be a disaster for anybody living in a city
@@GeziTheory explain why
@@Kiralmao Do you really want glass under your feet everywhere people are supposed to walk? With a shortage of sand and glass no less, that is not remotely economical.
@@MindForgedManacleyou can use it as walls and roofs
Problem is: vandalism exists, glass is way more prone to damage and "accidents"
Glass is actually incredibly strong.
So strong that it gets used in incredibly thin arrangements in most of its uses.
Imagine the difference between a piece of paper and a tree. Glass can be unreasonably strong.
Well they don't even replace trees in a city because taking the space to plant trees and greenery everywhere does not only make the city healthier to live in, looks better and cools the place to a huge degree but it is also better for the mental health of all people living there.
Real trees also have the benefit of shading the area around them which helps everything stay cooler during hot times. This makes real trees an essential part of any city. Maybe not so much in the parts of the world that never get 30°C weather, but any other place would definitely benefit from real trees when it comes to temperature
good news! the value of shade is going up because of the fact that regions that never get 30°C weather are rapidly shrinking due to pollution.
every place would benefit
@@DWal32keep burnin them fuels boys we're so close to having AC everywhere 😎
@@Paul....... even better idea burn old ruber tires
Paint and coatings can also do the same thing.
@@joshuamarksberry8642 It's definitely a good addition to fight against the issue. I don't think it's as good as trees though, but the best solution is hardly ever just one or the other
I'd like to see them integrated into the necessary city infrastructure. You mentioned the tank could be a lamp and bench. They could also replace power and traffic light poles, for example
As a person who has seen The Lorax Movie, I can’t see this ending well
Double-dip. Wrap a clear/flexible hose around a tree trunk which serves as a photobioreactor. Tree^squared.
This would also be cool to do in school if it didn’t cost so much. sort of like how kids can make water filters in science class.
spintronics is something totally different. the manufacturers should have done their research and then decided to name it something different like "torquetronics".
Or they just wanted to name it something more catchy
This narrator/host has such an engaging speech pattern. Fast paced but with such natural inflections that you quickly forget there's actually a script.
The big thing about city trees is "male" trees are generally less messy because they don't fruit. Cities preferred male trees so there was less to clean up year-to-year. Unfortunately they also throw pollen. Cities created a pollen problem within cities and didn't realize it until it was too late.
I look forward to algae tanks, so long as they don't smell bad, and the city keeps them clean. I have a feeling that they're subject to vandalism though.
These would be an interest and idea to put outside around a house like a secondary wall, or space a bit away from the wall for an enclosed pathway, it would keep houses cool by absorbing sun rays!
I wish you explained the way we measure "150kg of carbon in the air" because to my brain I hear that and then that it's less than one tank of gas and I'm lost because obviously a tank of gas is not 150kg, seems impossible
This
Maybe 150kg per x measurement?
How heavy should a tank of gas be? 👀
@@TheXeartot 330lbs of carbon from one tank of gas, lol.
Less than half the mass of CO2 comes from the carbon, and only the carbon component comes from the fuel. Most of the mass is oxygen, which is from the air.
These can be great additions to public places and as decorations in buildings .
400million years of trees existence and we think we have the future 😅😂
I want one of those bioreactors in my home, thanks.
As an ecologist, I have a question… how many species of invertebrates, fungi, mammals, birds and related plant communities does this soup sustain? An English oak for example supports over 300 other species.
This is the problem with human meddling; we try to “improve” parts of a system that has evolved over eons. We chose one or two factors that suit us to justify use, however completely disregard the other key ‘ecosystem services’, to the detriment of the environment long term.
Monoculture agriculture was a good idea, pesticides, fungicides, and chemical fertilisers were a good idea, coal was a good idea, oil was a good idea, plastics and so on… however ubiquitous indiscriminate use has massive global repercussions.
Plus I’d rather admire a mature tree in all its glory, transitioning through its seasonal cycle throughout the year, than a glass vessel of algae.
where does all the glass come from? Not entirely carbon neutral!
I picture cities of the future with glowing green tubes as part of the infrastructure of the entire city, pumping algae-rich fluid through the whole city and producing rich oxygen. It just sounds so sc-fi and cool.
Woah, I had no idea that thing was actually a pioneering science experiment, and has all those interesting side-benefits.
Belgrade is, luckily, already a very green city, full of trees and parks, and it's wonderful to walk around the city centre, especially in spring and summer - but we have a terrible terrible problem with air pollution in winter and I don't think there's a liquid tree big enough to help with that.
Winter by winter Belgrade is consistently the most polluted city in Europe, oftentimes we top the worldwide charts as well. I think that's a good illustration of how there's no quick and easy solution to pollution and how it can't be fought (just) with cool sciency gimmicks like this, but rather has to be fought at it's core and prevented if possible.
You need a lot of these!
How much did the prototype cost for materials?
Yeah, I was wondering the start cost. I mean to implement these in cities could cost a ton. I mean the cost of one of these or the cost of planting two trees. The tree will be way cheaper and people are familiar to them. It might be great long term but the issue is short term. It is way expensive. Also I really worry the reactions of the public. I mean many would almost immediately vandalize, protest or destroy these wonderful and hopeful creations. God help us on regarding the public. Phew.
Prototype is always gonna cost more
Since it can fit in any shape, then it might be best to put it into a form that's more similar to a tree in function. Like an awning or a pergola, but made of thin algae tanks.
I think these would be awesome in places like arizona. Creating algae would be a nice soil amendment for growing desert hardy plants. So liquid trees would be like a complement to environments that are nutrient depleted. It's a way of catching sewage and farm runoff nutrients before they end up in rivers or the oceans. Different cities would use different species of algae too for what the local soil needs. So rather than a liquid tree, its more like a fertilizer rebalancer.
I know this sounds silly, but this concept was what I thought about in my "dream" underwater base when I was younger. The algae was used in conjunction with UV lights, which were these powered by huge solar arrays that floated up and onto to the oceans surface to capture energy. There was also a nutritious version of algae used for sustained food.
Yeah right. You sound like a boomer grandpa saying he fought a bear
Glad I’m not the only one who wanted an underwater base as a kid!
And as cool as a tree house is, I’ll have a second club house inside a bubble of green algae too.
Wasn't there a Sealab type cartoon that had some of these elements? I think they made fun of it in Venture Brothers.
@@xenontesla122 you guys can’t seriously believe that this person remembers a dream from their childhood to so much detail? Right? This is coming straight out of their anal cavity.
my city has lost something like 70% of its tree cover in the last 15 years, contributing to higher temperatures and reduced water retention in the soil. we need our trees back.
Surely someone wont go and smash them
It may fix air quality in cities, but the removal of shade is going to make cities inhospitably hot.
No one is removing shade. She said this wouldn't replace trees, just supplement the ones already there.
@Kleineganz Problem is, in the future, city planners will just put these in instead of trees, not thinking about the fact they're removing sound buffers and increasing temps.
@@KEVMAN7987 How do you know? Maybe they'll strategically do both?
@@Kleineganz How do I know? Because I know people are stupid a lot.
WOW! I WANT A FEW OF THESE FOR AROUND MY HOUSE/PROPERTY!!!
When I saw an infographic about single tree removing CO2 of just a single car... it is very good picture of why personal cars should mostly be replaced by effective public transportation network.
How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress.
These tree tanks could be incorporated with the green curbside-internet/telecom box/crates that adorn so many street corners.
This seems... Gimmicky...
Also I see a future where artists make really cool public sculptures using this technology.
This is a consequence of society treating trees as decor rather than life forms that share the earth with us.
This is just gonna go the way of solar roads
Or you yanks could, oh I don't know, design livable cities. Because I don't know if you noticed but trees serve more purpose than turn carbon dioxide into oxygen.
The US isn't the only country with sprawling cities though. Look at the cities in China, India, etc. They would benefit from this as well. This would even be great in places like Dubai, where it's too hot and dry to grow a lot of trees.
Yeah issue is we already have terribly designed cities and there isn't much we can do about those
Never been to China, have you? How about a walk through London? You dont have much room to talk here lil bro.
1:30 Sorry, I'm not a chemist, but average fuel tank has a volume of ~70-80 liters. I just can't understand how can it produce more CO2 than there was fuel in the firstplace?
I hate all of this, even if it has positive aspects, it just feels like one more step towards a dystopian future...
Humanity would so so less sh*t if people started relying more on logic instead of feelings
This is depressing. Stop creating polluting creatures instead of cfeating new things.
It’s become a known fact that trees do not provide nearly as much oxygen as the same area as diverse grassland. A proper ecosystem compared to a human cultivated “Columns of trees down the street” does comparatively nothing, we need to stop mowing fields to plant trees. And cut trees to plant fields. They look better, trees give us resources. AND THEY WORK!
humanity has been living with flora as long as it existed, the eyes are used to organic shapes, we do not need depressing geometric architecture replacing the beauty of the unpredictability that comes with nature's structure.
This sounds great! Are there any downsides, like expense or maintenance issues? I'm ready to see these in my city.
Seen another video about this that wasn’t too in favour but this has outlined very valid use cases and justifications 👍
This isn't even really a prototype, this is like a finished product in my eyes
So basically, those green disgusting alien starships are legit designs 😮😮
The comment on the quantity of carbon a car produces sounds funny and in accurate.
The most important thing urban trees provide is shade, which is only going to become more important as summers get increasingly more sweltering every year.
This sounds great when you say it, but when you said they require some algae to remove 6 months, though low maintenance if you have hundreds of these it'll stack upon each other. It would less viable than maintaining tress, having to change the water, or check on the algae. Imagine millions of these and they'll be so expensive maintaining, they can't adapt like trees. Not including the fact humans are pretty dumb and like breaking things, I bet someone will smash the glass or fall into it.
We just can’t stop from reinventing stuff that already do the thing perfectly. The problem is that we are addicted to cars and paving green spaces. Cities don’t need to be concrete jungles, the auto industry needs that
Put billboards on this and it'd probably be easy for local governments to give it a go.
I did a project about this in high school!!! Growing algae in urban areas is the future !!
So... more things to tax the already stressed power grid? When the simple answer is to plant a tree and give it water? The only thing a tree should have in common with a fish tank is that both need water. Not that it has to be constantly watched to make sure it's electic-powered internal system and organic life/ecosystem isn't on the brink of demise.
Could they plant a tree inside the thingy like a hydroponic friendly tree or shrub... Then benefits would be doubled?
I’ve always wondered, if photosynthesis is a chemical reaction, how come we haven’t replicated in the lab yet
I love the cool idea. That said people are trying that hard throw a bandaid on a gash. She herself said that a tree doesn't cover a tank full of gas. Maybe the solution isn't try to clean faster than pollute. Maybe the solution is cut down on the pollution so we don't have to keep coming out with new innovative ideas on how to not slowly poison ourselves
Since there seems to be a widespread problem finding space for trees and facilitating proper care, start planning ahead in metropolitan design to mandate the inclusion of trees and other useful flora. Cities complain about not having ample opportunity to add them, but it isn’t a problem of vegetation being “difficult to maintain”, it boils down to the issue of urban areas displaying poor design judgment and not incorporating them from the get-go. Add trees and various greenery to upcoming developments, and take advantage of remodeling and renovation to include them in the refurbishment of existing zones.
I don't see why this would be considered dystopic. Having these help trees in the city just seems more helpful than anything.