Have you ever been in a city, and noticed that the air felt... heavy. The way it sets in your lungs feels just slightly off, and doesn’t feel right? I've noticed too. Running around a city is great, but when you can't run more than a few streets without feeling like your throat is coated in smoke, it takes a bit of a toll on you. Not to mention that this 'heavy air' is killing seven million people a year.
Peter Sanger, Liang Wu, Denes Honus, and Victor Splittgerber all met at Dresden Universty in Germany. Between the four of them, they also took notice to the pollution that crowds the air and the death rate. They founded Green City Solutions in Berlin, Germany, and invented The CityTree. The CityTree is an upright block formation, not more than a foot wide and seven feet tall. Inside the main, block-like part, there are a variety of plants and moss cultures that help filter the polluted air.
The CityTree is beneficial and necessary for several reasons. Pollution is one of the largest modern issues we face. Air pollution is a health risk, which has led to millions of deaths a year. Japan and India, among other cities, have a blanket of smog on them every single day that drains their resources and morale. Each air polluted city could benefit from having these around to clean their air and then maintain said cleanliness. Currently CityTrees are pretty expensive to install, but they are low in maintenance needs and they don't take a lot of space. There are 20 currently in use, and there has been significantly cleaner air in said areas. Cities with air pollution almost definitely need these. Clearly the steps we're taking to clear the air aren't working to their best abilities, or will take years to show growth, but The CityTree works immediately and shows growth within weeks.
In my opinion, what motivated the founders of The CityTree to develop their creation was their want to do better by this world. They say so in the Vision section of their About Me page, “Our vision is a world in which people in cities can live healthily. We want to create living conditions that allow all people around the world to permanently have cleaner air to breathe.” Air pollution is a suffocating thing that tends to go unnoticed when it’s a hinder on your life. They want to help people in areas with lots of pollution, such as India, which is outlined in their plans on the website.
I believe this innovation will change the world for the better. That an air cleaner in a compact space spread across cities being choked by pollution could be very beneficial. Especially a cleaner that doesn’t need a whole lot of attention unless broken. Green CIty Solutions created The CityTree, which has proved beneficial for the areas they are in,“They claim that the environmental benefit of CityTree is equivalent to 275 real trees. CityTrees can absorb 250 grams of pollutants per day and remove 240 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year.” 240 metric tons of carbon emissions is equal to 528, 960 pounds of carbon emissions. If you couldn't tell, those are significant numbers,
especially considering the severity of air pollution in certain areas.
If the CityTree gets popular, we may see the seven million death rate drop. This could clean our
air, obviously not all on it's own, but it could be a needed player in the games we keep playing
with our environment. The CityTree could be the oil paints of our generation, the next major
invention that shapes the field. This could eradicate so much air pollution in our major cities,
we just have to give it a chance to.
Sources :
Peter Sanger, Liang Wu, Denes Honus, and Victor Splittgerber all met at Dresden Universty in Germany. Between the four of them, they also took notice to the pollution that crowds the air and the death rate. They founded Green City Solutions in Berlin, Germany, and invented The CityTree. The CityTree is an upright block formation, not more than a foot wide and seven feet tall. Inside the main, block-like part, there are a variety of plants and moss cultures that help filter the polluted air.
The CityTree is beneficial and necessary for several reasons. Pollution is one of the largest modern issues we face. Air pollution is a health risk, which has led to millions of deaths a year. Japan and India, among other cities, have a blanket of smog on them every single day that drains their resources and morale. Each air polluted city could benefit from having these around to clean their air and then maintain said cleanliness. Currently CityTrees are pretty expensive to install, but they are low in maintenance needs and they don't take a lot of space. There are 20 currently in use, and there has been significantly cleaner air in said areas. Cities with air pollution almost definitely need these. Clearly the steps we're taking to clear the air aren't working to their best abilities, or will take years to show growth, but The CityTree works immediately and shows growth within weeks.
In my opinion, what motivated the founders of The CityTree to develop their creation was their want to do better by this world. They say so in the Vision section of their About Me page, “Our vision is a world in which people in cities can live healthily. We want to create living conditions that allow all people around the world to permanently have cleaner air to breathe.” Air pollution is a suffocating thing that tends to go unnoticed when it’s a hinder on your life. They want to help people in areas with lots of pollution, such as India, which is outlined in their plans on the website.
I believe this innovation will change the world for the better. That an air cleaner in a compact space spread across cities being choked by pollution could be very beneficial. Especially a cleaner that doesn’t need a whole lot of attention unless broken. Green CIty Solutions created The CityTree, which has proved beneficial for the areas they are in,“They claim that the environmental benefit of CityTree is equivalent to 275 real trees. CityTrees can absorb 250 grams of pollutants per day and remove 240 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year.” 240 metric tons of carbon emissions is equal to 528, 960 pounds of carbon emissions. If you couldn't tell, those are significant numbers,
especially considering the severity of air pollution in certain areas.
If the CityTree gets popular, we may see the seven million death rate drop. This could clean our
air, obviously not all on it's own, but it could be a needed player in the games we keep playing
with our environment. The CityTree could be the oil paints of our generation, the next major
invention that shapes the field. This could eradicate so much air pollution in our major cities,
we just have to give it a chance to.
Sources :
- “Introducing: The CityTree.” Go Green, www.gogreen.org/blog/introducing-the-citytree#targetText=CityTree%20was%20invented%20by%20Green,of%20CO2%20emissions%20per%20year.
- “Home.” Green City Solutions, greencitysolutions.de/en/.
- “7 Million Premature Deaths Annually Linked to Air Pollution.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 25 Mar. 2014, www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/air-pollution/en/.
You said "Especially a cleaner that doesn’t need a whole lot of attention unless broken. " How would they fix this cleaner if it was broken, and how would the sudden lack of an air filter affect the people living in the polluted areas?
ReplyDeleteTo be honest with you, anything that would be broken would be with the watering and internal hardware. The people owning the particular CityTree would have to contact Green City Solutions to send a mechanic. As to the affect on people in the surrounding area, it depends on how long the CityTree has been around. If it's only been a few weeks, obviously progress would be made, but not enough that couldn't be eradicated by a week of inactivity. However if it's been around for a year or so, and there have been other attempts to clear the air, then nothing should really change if it's only out for a few hours or days. To the people, there shouldn't be any sort of drastic change other than the inconvenience if it only out for a little while.
DeleteHave you ever thought of elaborating on why there is a blanket of smog covering these cities? What do people do to cause think blankets of smog? What do you think would happen if we stopped polluting the air and go green as well?
ReplyDeleteI didn't think about that actually. Smog became a common sight, or lack thereof, when big cities began burning coal and other toxic fuel sources. The smog we see today is mostly photo chemical, National Geographic describes it as, "Photochemical smog is produced when sunlight reacts with nitrogen oxides and at least one volatile organic compound (VOC) in the atmosphere. Nitrogen oxides come from car exhaust, coal power plants, and factory emissions. VOCs are released from gasoline, paints, and many cleaning solvents." If we stopped polluting the air, that would be great. However, it's going to take several years and a lot of money, that no one seems to have when it comes to saving the planet, to solve this problem. If everyone went green, the world be much better off, but people have always been stubborn and unwilling to see other's points, which makes it difficult to get everyone on board with Green Living.
DeleteI was wondering, how does air pollution and smog exactly lead to the deaths?
ReplyDeleteAccording to WHO (World Health Organization), air pollution, smoke, and smog all increase the chance of stroke, heart disease, COPD, as well as respiratory problems/ infections and lung cancer. 4.2 million people die from outside air pollution, or ambient air pollution. 3.8 million people die from household exposure to air pollution like smoke and fuel.
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