The most dystopian thing I've seen... Fuck, idk, it's all pretty dystopian these days, I've lost count
this post was submitted on 04 May 2025
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Yeah, those are going to last at -40F/-40C nights we often experience where I live. Nor do I see them being able to add any cool relief from their shade on a hot day.
That said, it is hard to grow healthy trees in the poisoned soils of a big city. They tend to struggle and be sickly when choked by concrete and asphalt.
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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.
Aren't like half of those bullet points positives? Also in addition to what you said once you got a tree you got a tree, those tanks need constant maintenence and cycling which I doubt anyone is going to bother with for more than a year after installing them.
The comment you replying to was trying to not so subtly point out this is a business plot and little else. Nobody is going to pay a subscription fee to have a tree in front of their business, but they might cough up money for a third party to maintain a tank of algae out front if it was sold right
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How's my dog supposed to piss on that
I don't think your dog will see that as problematic.
Very cyberpunk
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)
I don’t think anything’s wrong with trees, but maybe we could also have some of these as well as trees ?
First of all nobody is proposing to replace existing trees with that, that would be silly! AFAIU the people who created this also don't want these to be used where trees could be planted. They are outspokenly designed for already densely packed cities that are already highly polluted and hostile to trees, to start turning things around. Rebecca Watson's 6min take
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.
It provides fertilizer but needs "some food".
How much food and what is it?
Typically for aquariums you have to feed these things fertilizer so it seems odd
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I appreciate Rebecca Watson's opinion. Watched the 6min video, now convinced 👍
Also learned a new term: kneejerk cynicism
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Have you ever seen how long it takes for a tree to grow?
Depends on the variety of course... my Willows need cutting down, whereas the acorns I planted before the willows are still tiny oaks in pots 🙂
at least give it some shape that is not an eye sore to start with
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Wrong community, maybe? Lol
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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.
What? You don't like future jelly tree?
Liquid Trees! Slam it down fast!
Trees grow and rip up the pavement around them. I do love the canopy though
So, uh, what's wrong with that?
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.
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
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