The artificial forests of the future – big picture

As global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, sucking carbon dioxide out of the air may be one way of trying to combat climate change. This image of what appear to be giant fly-swats and freight containers shows what the artificial forests of the future might look like. The United Nations climate chief, Christiana Figueres, said recently that the world might need to look at such options in order to avoid the worst effects of global warming. Tim Fox, head of energy and environment at IMechE, said: "It is clear that work needs to be done to cut the amount of greenhouse gas emissions people produce. But we also need to look at creative and ingenious ways of preventing climate change by taking out the emissions we have already put in the atmosphere, particularly CO2 – essentially cleaning up air." He said the technology to make these contraptions already existed, though some of it is at a very early stage, and called for more funding for research and development Illustration: imeche.org.uk