Replant Rainforests, Shoot from the Air!
Logging and land-clearing for agriculture is destroying the world’s rainforest. Forcing wildlife into smaller habitats and heightening concern over global warming. Rainforests absorb the world’s carbon dioxide.
So, the race is on to save the tropics. And a new technology developed in the U.K. promises to replant forests by raining down cone-shaped projectiles armed with seeds and seedlings.
Current air-planting techniques waste over 75% of seeds, getting eaten or are blown onto unsuitable ground.
But this new technology straps a mattress-sized launching pad to the bottom of a helicopter, allowing for up to 200 projectiles to be individually released by computer. The cones, made from biodegradable plastic and contain a seedling, soil and water-retaining compounds, borrow into the ground increasing the chances of a successful replant.
Each cone has three little legs that spring out in order to keep the seedling upright. Very cool!
Via NewScientist.
