Memo 1: Research Topic: Virtual Trees

To: Professor MacBride
From: Richard Chan, Amanda Huang
Date: February 12, 2013
Re: Research Topic: Virtual Trees

I wish to conduct research about virtual trees. I am curious about the rather ambitious notion of capturing massive quantities of carbon dioxide for sequestration that also offers the opportunity for recreational usage. My question is: Is it feasible to “plant” enough virtual trees in New York City to offset the current rates of carbon dioxide emission of the city? “Feasibility” is a question of practicality of resources as well of environmental significance and distraction (akin to the argument of aesthetics about windmills), given its possibility to be a game-like recreational unit.

My general plan of research is to use online databases as a starting point for information. It will then be supplemented with some broad googling, to identify official websites pertaining to the businesses in question, to glean more knowledge. If at all possible, I could contact one of those persons, or their representative, if appropriate, for research as well as personal opinions. I expect plenty of resistance from superfluous journal articles (bar those that sit at the top of the search page, of course), and the information from websites could be limited, or worse inaccurate.

(On a side note, I did want to do a topic on methane extraction from landfills, but then I realized that there were no landfills in New York City, as per part of the requirements in the topic, and that trying to tie in the landfills that we do use would probably be a stretch. Also, there was a gaming element for the current proposal, so that would be hard to pass up.)