By Lorie Zimmer
Boston’s handful of scenic parks — while filled with trees — are outmatched by sources of air pollution. These huge mushroom tree things called Treepods could help filter CO2 from the air, powered only by the sun and little kids on seesaws.
The Treepods would be constructed purely of recycled plastic bottles. On top, they’d be covered with solar panels to help power the CO2 filtration process, which would take place throughout the branches using a ‘humidity swing’ process. The trunk of the tree sports an integrated seesaw, where children can get off their lazy butts and start generating some electricity to help save the world already.
Side benefits of the Treepods include providing plenty of shade as well as habitats for confused birds. And at night, the Treepods would light up in a variety of bizarre colors, because if they weren’t covered in a bajillion LEDs, they just wouldn’t be worth having around.
Developed as a concept for the SHIFTboston urban intervention contest, Treepods could, but probably won’t, be made real someday.
Story source: Inhabitat