Readers' Forum

Faux trees fail to impress
Editor’s note: In October, we ran an item in This Way Out about an Institute of Mechanical Engineers study that reported forests of artificial trees could help sequester CO₂. Readers weren’t impressed. What do you think? Send your comments to Managing Editor Chuck Bowen at cbowen@gie.net.

I don’t know where to begin on how insane this is. $24,000 for an artificial tree? Plant a real one for a couple hundred dollars and invest a couple hundred more in some simple maintenance and save $23,000. Whatever these are made of it’s going to take energy and resources to build them. This coating that absorbs CO₂ – what else does it do? Even if it’s completely neutral, it doesn’t contribute anything to the environment. Anything you build needs maintenance. How long will they hold up without a recoating of this CO₂-eating stuff? The point about what happens to the ‘stored’ CO₂ is good, but way down on my list of reasons that this is unbelievably dumb.

Trees do the same thing and add habitat, shade, water conservation – the list goes on and on. Another example of man thinking he can do something better than nature. One thing 35-plus years of landscaping has taught me is that you can’t fight nature for long. And if you go along with her, you’ll be way better off and way less frustrated.

Karen Morby, estimator and arborist
Robert Ebl
Carol Stream, Ill.

Well, let’s see. The manufacture of synthetics generally involves heat (derived from fossil fuels) and then there is shipping and installation (more fossil fuel). So right off the bat, you are adding to the carbon problem. Then there is the monetary cost: Let’s say we can plant a real tree for $100. So we could plant 240 real trees for the cost of one fake. Would one fake tree absorb more carbon than 240 real ones? Then you say we could put the fake tree underground in the voids from oil and gas production. That sounds like an engineering feat in and of itself, plus would require more shipping and processing.

Carbon scrubbers that have been in use for decades in the space program. Why not simply place scrubbers on top of downtown buildings to deal with the problem where it is most needed?

I have never seen any man-made object that is actually more pleasing than the day to day show provided by nature. Might as well build a fake sunset.

Paul Dowlearn, owner
Wichita Valley Nursery
Wichita Falls, Texas

This is just another example of “the sky is falling” attitude that is so pervasive in our culture the last few years. Plastic trees that absorb CO₂ through filters and then store it underground. That idea is laughable! When I was growing up (1970s) the “scientists” were promoting the next ice age was upon us. Now we have everyone jumping on the band wagon over this supposed global warming phenomenon.

Oh wait, it is not global warming anymore, now it is called climate change!

Temperature variations are cyclical (el Niño, la Nina), they always have been and always will be. We as a society have contributed to CO₂ increase in the atmosphere but what about seismic events and volcanic eruptions around the world? How can any one definitively predict that we can control it? Yes we can drop our output of CO₂ which is not a bad thing, but at what real cost? No one has that answer, and we probably never will.

I fear for my children and grandchildren that their lives will not be in their own control, that our government and the UN will be making the decisions for them through different CO₂ schemes.

Our family owns a landscape company. I can’t wait until we will be forced to go back to using non-powered tools to do our jobs due to idiotic rules and regulations put forth to change something that we are not in control of. And our prices will have to increase exponentially to cover our new inefficiencies.

Also could you tell me where the temperature has gone up more than one-tenth of a degree and remained there? This whole subject is only wasting valuable time for America and setting up a few individuals to profit while constraining the rest of us from the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.

This is just more socialism in our time.

Scott M. Rich
A1A Landscape Maintenance

Correction
The location of Bill Prout’s business, Fallen Leaf Lawn & Yard Care, was incorrect in the October State of the Industry report. It is in East Haven, Conn., not Stamford, Conn.