'Artificial Trees' to Cut Carbon? Really?

Researchers in the United Kingdom are looking for 10 million pounds to fund analysis of the "effectiveness, risks and costs" of manufacturing artificial trees that will suck greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. Ressembling a sort of CO2 vacuum the size of a shipping container, the prototype "trees" would filter carbon dioxide from the air and store it away.

Seems like we already have a good solution to this one. Conserving, restoring and enhancing the CO2 storage potential of our natural forest "carbon sinks" must be a more practical approach. This isn't a new debate - Biopact considered the relative merits of real vs. synthetic trees and their climate benefits back in 2007.

Perhaps the landscape known for Robin Hood's Sherwood Forest is out of options. David A. Perry, author of "Forest Ecosystems," writes that the once-extensive forests of the British Isles are "virtually non-existent" thanks to historic deforestation.

Here in the United States we lose an area the size of Delaware to forest loss and degradation each year. Let's hope lawmakers invest now in conservation of a proven natural climate solution - our forest infrastructure - before we're forced to spend much more on the plastic and metal variety. Artificial trees may suck carbon out of the air faster than conventional trees, but they hardly seem like a good source of wood, water, wildlife or wilderness recreation.

And they're far less attractive.