SUCKING CO2 FROM THE AIR WITH ARTIFICIAL TREES

SUCKING CO2 FROM THE AIR WITH ARTIFICIAL TREES

By: Gaia Vince

Published: 4 October 2012 http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20121004-fake-trees-to-clean-the-skies When searching for the article on the bbc website, don’t use all capital letters if the link doesn’t work. This, I have discovered, is what throws the search engines of magazines and similar publications. Google has no such shortcomings though and you should be able to find the article any which way you type it.

Level of Difficulty: **( This is due to the argumentative essay that follows)

BEFORE YOU READ

·         What causes the greenhouse effect?

·         How urgently do we need to find solutions to the problem?

·         What measures are currently being taken to deal with co2 emissions?

·         Can you envision any additional measures?

QUESTIONS

1.       What dilemma concerning co2 is expressed at the beginning of the text?

2.       What does the phrase “If it works” in paragraph 2 mean?

3.       The phrase “this balance” in the first sentence of paragraph 4 refers to the balance between: …………………………………, …………………………………………………… and ……………………………………………… You will need to tweak the text to get the answer to fit grammatically.

4.       What will the ultimate result of releasing more CO2 than plants can absorb be? Be specific.

5.       Why are animals and plants at a greater disadvantage as a result of climate change?

6.       Why is it better to find ways of removing CO2 from the atmosphere?

7.       What are the two current methods of lowering carbon emissions and what are their disadvantages?

8.       How exactly do Klaus Lackner’s artificial trees remove CO2 from the atmosphere?

9.       What four practical advantages do these fake trees have?

10.   What common name is given to the two naturally occurring ways of dealing with the CO2 collected?

11.   What is the common disadvantage of the above methods?

12.   What is the advantage of producing syngas from the CO2 collected? There are two answers, one obvious and one less so, find them both.

13.   Express in your own words as briefly as possible what the current disadvantage of Lackner’s system is.

14.   Read the last paragraph and decide whether the writer thinks Lackner’s system is viable or not.

WRITING TASK

Write an essay arguing in favor of Lackner’s system of removing CO2 from the atmosphere.

In your introduction: start by discussing the serious consequences of global warming and the need to reverse the trend. Then discuss briefly the two current methods employed to tackle the problem (planting trees and Scrubber devices) and state why they are inadequate. Then have your thesis statement where you advocate Lackner’s system.

In the first paragraph of your development: discuss the practical advantages. ( Leaves don’t need to be exposed to sunlight so they can overlap one another, removing the CO2 is easy, you rinse the leaves, CO2 produced in one part of the world can be removed in another. Remember to give examples)

In the second paragraph of your development: discuss efficiency.( These trees can remove one tone of CO2 a day; CO2 from the process could be used to make liquid fuel)

In the third paragraph of the development: introduce the major disadvantage – high initial cost – and refute it with the claim that it will be cheap in the long term and that we don’t really have much choice any longer.

In your conclusion: discuss the urgency of the problem and stress that we can no longer afford to sit on our hands. Assert that it is time to act and that artificial trees are a viable solution.

SUCKING CO2 FROM THE SKIES WITH ARTIFICIAL TREES

This wonderful text is all about an innovative solution to an ongoing problem. The beauty is that it lends itself to a wonderful argumentative essay which fits in with one of the standard ways of organizing such pieces of writing. So if you wish to tackle argumentative essays at a simple level, this is the reading task you want.

1.       CO2 only makes up a tiny fraction of the atmosphere but has a huge effect on the Earth’s temperature.

2.       If scientists can remove some of this greenhouse gas from the air.

3.       The CO2 we (metabolic life forms) emit, the CO2 photosynthetic organisms take in, the O2 photosynthetic organisms emit.

4.       A new balance at a hotter temperature.

5.       They may not have time to evolve to the new conditions.

6.       Because even if we stopped burning fossil fuels today, there is enough CO2 in the atmosphere that temperatures will continue to rise for a few hundred years.

7.       Growing plants that absorb a lot of CO2 and store it / we need land to grow food for an increasing population; Carbon capture and storage/ Removing the gas takes a lot of energy and is expensive.

8.       The leaves are coated in a resin that contains sodium bicarbonate which pulls carbon out of the air and stores it as bicarbonate.

9.       They don’ need to be exposed to sunlight for photosynthesis so they can be much more closely spaced and overlapped; Lackner’s trees can remove one tone of CO2 a day; If mass produced they would cost around 20.000dollars;CO2 produced in an American city can be removed in Oman.

10.   Carbon Dioxide Absorption Processes

11.   They are on geological time scales. This means they take a very long time.

12.   It can be readily turned into hydrocarbon fuels such as methanol or diesel; It can be used to make fuels for transport vehicles.

13.   Cost or price

14.   Yes