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54 Comments
- jerryjamesstone, on 05/13/2009, -0/+60Weapons of Mass Forestation?
- tiresias2, on 05/12/2009, -0/+20This is one bomb even pacifists can get behind...
- nickaster, on 05/12/2009, -1/+19Awesome... but is the word "Bomb" really a good idea? This is the kind of thing that makes anti-enviro folks go crazy about the evil eco-terrorists.
- ChromaVita, on 05/13/2009, -0/+14I'm missing the part where the bomb shaped piece actually comes in handy. Couldn't you just drop the plastic capsules out of the plane? Or, you know... seeds?
- briarmoss, on 05/13/2009, -1/+14I'm going to make a judgement about a technology I read about in a 500 word article. Since I'm on digg, I obviously have a Ph.D in everything and am therefore qualified to make advanced economic and scientific judgements based on very little information. I hope my display of complete cynicism earns me many diggs.
- spookyttws, on 05/13/2009, -0/+11It seems overtly complicated, expensive, and it probably has a rather large failure rate per capita. I'd think loading one of those water dropping choppers (used to put out forest fires) with water, liquid fertilizer and a couple million seeds would create a much better chance of growth and success with little modification to the already existing Helicopters. I've had great success simply throwing seeds onto dirt and watering. The seeds mix in with the water disturbed dirt and germination begins, seems like it would scale up rather well.
- PsychoBrat, on 05/13/2009, -2/+12But it's so -cool-. That totally trumps pragmatism.
- alexforcefive, on 05/13/2009, -1/+9That still doesn't explain the actual bomb part. This isn't some kind of partisan debate, you don't have to be rude
- Secret7000, on 05/13/2009, -0/+8Reference to the Gensis device.
- cippalippa78, on 05/13/2009, -0/+7I think it depends on the context. It sure would be an overengineered solution for planting trees in your own backyard. But if you think of really remote areas where nobody lives, I think it would cost a lot more to pay for people to get there and do the planting and the watering for the first two weeks or so. This system is nice because it is amenable for use on remote or hardly accessible areas and it takes care of the plant during the first few weeks of life. Similar attempts in the past I guess failed because there was nobody there to water the plants regularly for the first two weeks...
- dazparkour, on 05/13/2009, -0/+7I'm with Alex - the little capsules could be dropped without the bomb part at a lesser cost and no loss of effectiveness.
- dvsbastard, on 05/13/2009, -4/+11Seems cost effective... and by cost effective, I mean ridiculously expensive...
This is a perfect example of an over engineered solution. - diskoh, on 05/13/2009, -2/+9That is truly cool.
- rsmith32, on 05/13/2009, -0/+6http://science.howstuffworks.com/aerial-reforestat ...
- Twenty, on 05/13/2009, -0/+6Definitely more of an artistic statement than anything.
Although, to it seems like an idea along these lines (airdropping flora) would be a quick and maybe worthy bandaid on areas that have been hastily and wrongfully deforested (like parts of the amazon). - timschuit, on 05/13/2009, -0/+6They need one that plants junglegyms.
- inactive, on 05/13/2009, -0/+6There is an alternative.
Birds. - disappointed, on 05/13/2009, -0/+5Um. There aren't any seeds yet. Or bombs. It's just a silly idea from some Japanese designers to get a bit of publicity. Keep fighting the good fight.
- alexforcefive, on 05/13/2009, -0/+4ricemonster: the seeds are inside capsules which are themselves INSIDE a bomb-shaped capsule. the question is, what is the necessity of this last piece?
- Naryuu, on 05/13/2009, -0/+4youre doing it wrong... damn hippies
- angryredplanet, on 05/13/2009, -0/+4Biomimicry is often the best way. If it works in nature already, we know it will just work.
- Rorsach, on 05/13/2009, -0/+4I recently saw something of this kind on Animal Planet (i think). Conclusion: it didn't work with the couple of thousand mangrove seeds they had dropped.
- seltaeb4, on 05/13/2009, -0/+3And much more effective and humane than airdropping fauna.
- bschonec, on 05/13/2009, -0/+3To heck with that. Just put a bunch of rooftop gutters randomly in the area. Soon they'll be clogged with maple seed "hellicopters." Or at least that's the way it works at my house....
- afritzsche, on 05/13/2009, -0/+3Seems like a lot of packaging.
- nyxerebos, on 05/13/2009, -0/+2A cheaper version, using mexican fireworks and marijuana seeds, is a cost effective way to seed your local mayoral residence/green space on the 4th of July.
TODO: find excuse to set fireworks in public in spring... - seltaeb4, on 05/13/2009, -0/+2Cluster Palms?
- Kumah, on 05/13/2009, -0/+2What about water?
....and salty soil?
And wind erosion?
sounds like these guys thought of everything.
/s - ricemonster, on 05/13/2009, -3/+5"The seeds are housed inside capsules made of artificial soil: they provide nourishment and moisture to the seed. As the sapling matures, the capsule degrades leaving only the new plant." I'm pretty sure this increase the possibility of a successful growth.
For some reason, I think reforestation is a bit more complex than tossing seeds out of an airplane.
Lastly, RTFA. - VivaLaNation, on 05/13/2009, -1/+3Feminized marijuana seed anyone?
- alexforcefive, on 05/13/2009, -1/+3I dunno man. It's not like we can just go re-plant everything by hand, you know? There's probably a point where this becomes cost-effective
Also, it's sooooo freaking cool! - hollismb, on 05/13/2009, -0/+2They tried this on Discovery Project Earth http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/project-earth/project- ... It was a ridiculous waste of time. The seed delivery mechanism was handmade, and all I could think about was how much longer it took to make a single one compared to just doing manually what they were trying to do from the sky (walk three feet, plant seed in dirt, repeat). A while after dropping them from the sky, it was a complete failure, most of the plants not hatching, and they were distributed really poorly.
- kaosethema, on 05/14/2009, -0/+1eww, is that repuglican i smell?
smells like a rotting corpse!! - hereticoftruth, on 05/14/2009, -0/+1What a bunch of crap but not the kind that will fertilize any trees. Planting trees is one of the hardest jobs in the world and the kind of work lumber companies wish they could find slave labor for and maybe will from our prison systems if they don't already do. Trying to plant trees in the Oregon coastal mountains where the soil has eroded away is quite futile but at least they keep a swath of trees along the roads so that most people don't see the devastation. See for yourself.
- sndream, on 05/13/2009, -0/+1I don't know how dense or heavy the capsules will be, but I bet that since it's dropped of an plane. Anyone get hit by this "bomb" is going to be at least in a lot of hurts.
- Altotus, on 05/13/2009, -0/+1I always thought that desertification could be addressed by a similar system. Circle the fringe and fire frozen gel darts loaded with water and nutrients at the ground from a plane. Use collections of hearty fast-growing plants, something like kudzu. It wouldn't work if you started mid-desert, but if you start on the edges and work your way in... You'd probably need something like a 1-in-100 success rate for planting, and you could simply drop tons at a time out of a large plane. This delivery system seems considerably more complex (and pricey).
- nyxerebos, on 05/13/2009, -0/+1hippies would use it to plant weed, not trees
- dazparkour, on 05/13/2009, -0/+1Hate to say it -
The article is only 500 words. The quickest route to learning more without leaving Digg is to ask questions.
Maybe the tone of the questions need adjustment, but they are still providing you with an opportunity to educate. - HeyArnold, on 05/13/2009, -0/+1Agent...Green??
- gigitrix, on 05/13/2009, -0/+1Yeah, but the free publicity that a few "just don't get it" people generate will more than recuperate the damage for SeedBomb. And you can't deny the awesomeness of the name!
- idighealth, on 05/13/2009, -0/+1lolzrofl
- Bobby1978, on 05/13/2009, -0/+1To green a desert, I think we'd need something that would first reduce the harshness of the sun. Since there are no trees in deserts to provide shade, we could cover large swaths of sand with a highly reflective cloth. Water evaporation would be reduced, air flow would not be impeded, and the heat won't destroy sprouts within a few weeks. The only problem is water. We'd have to do it initially, until the size of the experiment reaches an ecosystem threshold allowing it to function completely on its own.
- imkidred, on 05/13/2009, -0/+1^The *weight* would cause it to land with the bottom into the ground. I doubt they drop these over the streets of New York.
The site itself kept forwarding me to some offsite, throwing a malware alert. - Ascus, on 05/13/2009, -0/+1In the hands of a terrorist this could be worse than any conventional bomb. Load it up with an invasive plant species (kudzu for example) and you could permanently wreck an areas environment.
- ricemonster, on 05/13/2009, -0/+1Here's a video of an actual cluster bomb: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii5D0MbLrHI
I'm not much of a military weapons geek, but I would assume that having the capsules dispersed through "cluster bombing" would be much easier and more accurate/controlled. - SarahJaneQuick, on 05/13/2009, -0/+1Japanese Knot Weed anyone?
- Samohtneas, on 05/13/2009, -1/+1This is beyond awesome.
- cenobyte40000, on 05/13/2009, -0/+0highly unlikely to work as currently envisioned. While seeding from aircraft is not a bad idea and is used it's still seeding which means you have a much lower survival rate than planting. While this system seems to a middle ground between planting and seeding, each unit is so large that your capacity is very limited. Dropping already sprouted plants has proven to be difficult due to being so fragile.
I think you best bet for something like this is going to be a ground vehical. Something that can carry huge numbers and quickly plant them machaniclly as it moves. Then you could use already sprouted plants in a captule similar to the one shown here. - WarriorBlake, on 05/13/2009, -0/+0I just imagined the volcano from the Volvic water commercial:"WITH BIRDS!"
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