The first commercial-scale “MechanicalTree” is being installed on a test pad on ASU’s Tempe campus. The creation of the university’s Center for Negative Carbon Emissions, directed by Fulton Schools Professor Klaus Lackner, the “tree” has the capability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, making it a potentially vital tool in helping to reduce the environment-threatening impacts of climate change. Lackner is working with Carbon Collect Ltd., a company that is using Lackner’s pioneering carbon-capture ideas to manufacture commercially available devices for carbon dioxide removal.  When fully operational, the MechanicalTree on campus is expected to remove about 200 pounds a day of the carbon dioxide that is trapping heat in the atmosphere and causing global warming. See previous posts on this page — dated May 5 and April 22 — for more news coverage of the MechanicalTree technology.