• Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    13 minutes ago

    Short answer: the bank won’t give your shiny new tree-planting business a loan as easily as it will to a “liquid tank tree replacement” one.

    Long answer:

    • Trees take time to grow
    • Trees need to be planted
    • Trees make shade
    • Animals like birds and insects like bees and mosquitos like to live next to them
    • Trees don’t need electricity
    • Trees take in heat radiated from the pavement
    • Trees don’t look cool

    While algae are more efficient at turning CO2 into oxygen in theory, in practice algae don’t have a good climate in such a tank (no oxygen without ventilation, i.e. constant electricity and they get cooked through the glass).

    All in all, more of a gimmick than anything.

  • 𝕿𝖊𝖗 𝕸𝖆𝖝𝖎𝖒𝖆@programming.devEnglish
    5·
    41 minutes ago

    I don’t think anything’s wrong with trees, but maybe we could also have some of these as well as trees ?

    Replace the advertisements on bus stops with a really cool green liquid wall 😮 (but they’d have to make the glass super thick, these things tend to be vandalized from time to time)

  • Daniel Quinn@lemmy.caEnglish
    21·
    1 hour ago

    I had the same reaction until I read this.

    TL;DR: it’s 10-50x more efficient at cleaning the air and actually generates both electricity and fertiliser.

    Yes, it would be better to just get rid of all the cars generating the pollution in the first place and putting in some more trees, but there are clear advantages to this.

    • A_norny_mousse@feddit.orgEnglish
      1·
      21 seconds ago

      I appreciate Rebecca Watson’s opinion. Watched the 6min video, now convinced 👍

      Also learned a new term: kneejerk cynicism

  • Allero@lemmy.todayEnglish
    20·
    2 hours ago

    1. Wrong community, maybe? Lol

    2. iirc, algae are better oxygen producers per units of mass and volume, so a tank full of algae might actually be better than a tree. One issue though is that trees can grow on open ground, while algae require a tank to be built, most likely negating the economic benefits. Also, trees are more aesthetically pleasing.

  • 21Cabbage@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
    23·
    3 hours ago

    Practical answer, fits in places trees may not. Pessimistic answer, fits in some guys cyberpunk ass vision for what he wants his office block to look like.

      • xor@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        8·
        1 hour ago

        It makes it difficult to use the pavement, especially for elderly people and people with disabilities, costs the council a bunch of time and money to repair, and doing the repairs often require killing off the tree

      • splendoruranium@infosec.pubEnglish
        7·
        1 hour ago

        So, uh, what’s wrong with that?

        … with damaging infrastructure? Well, presumably the infrastructure will no longer be as good at serving its original purpose once it is damaged.

      • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
        5·
        2 hours ago

        Just give me a 4U tank somewhere where someone else can deal with harvesting the algae and a webcam aimed at it and I can enjoy it just fine from here. For me, selfhosting is mostly about the privacy, not principally about needing to be resistant to loss of Internet connectivity or the like.

    • DUMBASS@leminal.spaceEnglish
      7·
      4 hours ago

      Come on, you know there’s someone out there trying to work out how to selfhost one of these.

    • superkret@feddit.orgEnglish
      11·
      3 hours ago

      I love this about lemmy.
      Like someone stumbling into the wrong house and still being welcomed.
      It’s a lot more informal and relaxed than on the piss page of the Internet.

    • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
      3·
      2 hours ago

      As I recall, at least under US law, you can’t copyright genetically-engineered life, just get a twenty year biological patent. So I don’t think that FOSS status would be directly germane other than maybe in how some such licenses might deal with patent licensing.