"Kim Stanley Robinson - Forty Signs of Rain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

Stimulating plant growth has been one suggestion, but the problem is that most of the plants discussed
have been very short-lived, and rotting plant life quickly releases its captured CO2back into the
atmosphere. So unless you can arrange lots of very deep peat bogs, capturing CO2in small plants hasnтАЩt
looked very effective.тАЭ

Her listeners nodded.

тАЬSo, the thing is, living trees have had hundreds of millions of years of practice in not being eaten and
outgassed by bugs. So one possibility would be to grow bigger trees. That turns out not to be so easy,тАЭ
and with a red marker she sketched a ground and a tree growing out of it on the whiteboard, so that it
looked like something a five-year-old would draw. тАЬSorry. See, most trees are already as tall as they can
get, because of physical constraints like soil qualities and wind speeds. So, you can make them thicker,
orтАЭтАФdrawing more roots under the ground lineтАФтАЬyou can make the roots thicker. But trying to do that
directly involves genetic changes that harm the trees in other ways, and anyway is usually very slow.тАЭ

тАЬSo it wonтАЩt work,тАЭ Brian said.

тАЬRight,тАЭ she said patiently, тАЬbut many trees host these lichen, and the lichen regulate lignin production in a
way that might be bumped, so the tree would quite quickly capture carbon that would remain
sequestered for as long as the tree lived.

тАЬSo, given all this, what weтАЩve been working on is basically a kind of altered tree lichen. The lichenтАЩs
photosynthesis is accomplished by the algae in it, and weтАЩve been using this algorithm of YannтАЩs to find
genes that can be altered to accelerate that. And now weтАЩre getting the lichen to export the excess sugar
into its host tree, down in the roots. It seems like we might be able to really accelerate the root growth
and girth of the trees that these lichens grow on.тАЭ

тАЬCapturing like how much carbon?тАЭ

тАЬWell, weтАЩve calculated different scenarios, with the altered lichen being introduced into forests of
different sizes, all the way up to the whole worldтАЩs temperate forest belt. That one has the amount of CO
2drawn down in the billions of tons.тАЭ

тАЬWow.тАЭ

тАЬYes. And pretty quickly too.тАЭ

тАЬWatch out,тАЭ Brian joked, тАЬyou donтАЩt want to be causing an ice age here.тАЭ
 тАЬTrue. But that would be a problem that came later. And we know how to warm things up, after all. But
at this point any carbon capture would be good. There are some really bad effects coming down the pike
these days, as you know.тАЭ

тАЬTrue.тАЭ

They all sat and stared at the mess of letters and lines and little tree drawings she had scribbled on the
whiteboard.

Leo broke the silence. тАЬWow, Eleanor. ThatтАЩs very interesting.тАЭ

тАЬI know it doesnтАЩt help you with your delivery problem.тАЭ