Scientists and engineers are trying inventions such as artificial trees to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere

An excerpt from David Biello’s book, The Unnatural World: The Race to Remake Civilization in Earth’s Newest Age, features the work of Klaus Lackner and his team at Arizona State University’s Fulton Schools of Engineering. 

An artificial tree on the Tempe campus — thin strips of beige, wavy plastic stacked one atop another in a clear box hidden from the desert sun by a piece of plywood covered in a black cloth — can suck CO2 out of the air.