An Australian researcher has designed a drone that can help fight the problem of deforestation by planting about one billion trees in a single year. This drone, created by Susan Graham, will first scan a region to identify ideal places for growing trees, and then launch the seeds into the soil.
Deforestation has become a concern for environmentalists. It accounts for about 17 percent of the carbon emissions in the world. Deforestation means removal of a forest or a large number of trees from an area and use the land for non-forest purpose, such as making residential apartments, ranches, farms, or other urban uses. Presently, forests cover about 30% of land surface on Earth, but this area is diminishing at a great speed in some parts of the world. Every year, more than 15 billion trees are cut by humans for multiple reasons. Deforestation without sufficient reforestation results in biodiversity loss, habitat damage and aridity. Regions where trees are cut on a large scale frequently turn into wasteland due to soil erosion.
It is estimated that about 2.3 million square km of forests across the world were cut down between 2000 and 2012. Today, only 6.2 million square km of forest area remain on Earth compared to 16 million square km of forest that earlier present on Earth.
On Sunday, Susan Graham talked to Australian reporters and revealed that her machine can even plant trees on side of steep hills. It can carry 150 germinated seeds at a time, and fires one a second. It means two operators can plant about 100,000 trees in a day using this drone. The drone follows a pre-set planting pattern (determined by an algorithm) and plants “10 times the rate of hand planning and at 20 percent of the cost.” Researchers have already tested this drone at an abandoned mine sites in New South Wales (NSW).
Susan, who is now based in Oxford, UK, said every year, 15 billion trees are cut on Earth, but only 9 billion trees are planted, which means a net loss of 6 billion trees annually.
Susan is currently working with BioCarbon Engineering team, which consists of researchers from around the world. BioCarbon Engineering is being supported by one of the world’s largest drone makers.
According to Susan, the enormous land at coal mines need to be restored—both on the active mine site as well as their offset areas.
“I worked specifically on the intersection between biology and engineering on the life-sciences programs on the Space Station, so this has given me a lot of knowledge of how you take smart, cutting-edge engineering systems and apply it to a biological system,” said BioCarbon Engineering’s CEO Lauren Fletcher.
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