Artificial trees to reduce carbon dioxide?

[snabald]

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2...tic_trees.html

Ugh... why don't we, you know, plant some REAL trees?

[Jim]

Well, that part of Arizona isn't too conducive to trees.

The blurb doesn't say how the CO2 is removed, or what's done with it afterward.

[01101001]

Well, that part of Arizona isn't too conducive to trees.

It mentions Arizona-sized area for deployment, and references an article about an Arizona-based company, and depicts dessert deployment, but I don't think they are aiming for only Arizona. Other material indicates the researcher suggests the possibility of small versions in people's yards to lower a family's carbon footprint.

The blurb doesn't say how the CO2 is removed, or what's done with it afterward.

Columbia University, Earth Institute press release: Carbon Sequestration Could Be Employed Today To Help Alleviate Greenhouse Emissions

Columbia University researcher presents "A Guide to CO2 Sequestration"

[Klaus] Lackner’s research shows that it is feasible to render fossil fuels environmentally acceptable. In Science, he outlines a number of ways in which CO2 can be captured (from the power plant point of emission and from the atmosphere), neutralized, and safely and permanently stored. There are many options for storing CO2. Some options, like injection into the ocean, do present their own environmental dilemmas. Oceans are limited in their absorption capacity and because deep water eventually surfaces, the CO2 would escape. Other options, such as underground injection, which is currently used for enhanced oil recovery, are naturally limited in scope. While underground storage of CO2 is a good way to start, Lackner argues that such storage capacity is likely to be inadequate or rely on reservoirs that are not sufficiently stable, posing, for example, a leakage problem that future generations would be left to deal with.
Lackner presents a more permanent method of CO2 disposal through neutralization in carbonate form.

[NEOWatcher]

Yep; discussed last week as part of a larger article.
I followed my link, and see that the article includes Klaus Lackner in it. So, now I can say with confidence...ToSeeked.

[trinitree88]

Drought tolerant grasses will also tolerate grazing by sheep. The sheep leave their manure, and they leave the roots to live and grow again another time under less adverse conditions. They won't tolerate grazing by goats. Goats not only eat the foliage, they eat by digging out the drought tolerant roots. So you gradually turn arid grassland into desert. If you want bigger deserts raise goats, if you want smaller ones plant drought tolerant grasses and raise sheep. There's lots of arid land that could be fixing carbon too

[Pinemarten]

Just so I can do some math.

How many tons or tonnes would we have to take out to get back to an acceptable level? Say 1960 or earlier.

[Pinemarten]

I have done this simple math:

http://www.bautforum.com/showpost.ph...&postcount=367

As well has there ever been any discussion on whether CO2 can be converted to 'dry ice' and stored at the poles to keep them from melting?

[Grashtel]

I have done this simple math:

http://www.bautforum.com/showpost.ph...&postcount=367

As well has there ever been any discussion on whether CO2 can be converted to 'dry ice' and stored at the poles to keep them from melting?

The problem is that the poles aren't cold enough to store solid CO2 without additional refrigeration. The assorted other ideas for long term storage of CO2 without needing active systems are better solutions (assuming that they are actually workable).

[publiusr]

I seem to remember a footnote of Rudy Rucker's (Infinity and the Mind) about Von Neumann's floating artificial algae plants to be scooped up some way...