CaseStudies-NaturalFuse-PeterZuroweste

"Natural Fuse" harnesses the carbon-sinking capabilities of plants to create a city-wide network of devices that act both as electricity outlets and as a shared resource that offsets CO2 generated in the production of that electricity. These Natural Fuses allow only a limited amount of energy to be expended based on the amount of CO2 that can be absorbed by the plants that are growing in the system, becoming natural "circuit breakers". By networking them together, the plants are able to share their capacity and take advantage of carbon-sinking-surplus in the system, since not all Natural Fuses will be in use at any one time. If people cooperate on energy expenditure, then the plants thrive (and everyone may use more energy). If they don’t, then the network starts to kill plants, thus diminishing the network’s electricity capacity. During project research and development, several issues arose that influenced the design process. These issues highlight the kinds of challenges faced by "carbon sinking" initiatives in general. For example, the amount of CO2 that a single houseplant can sink is much smaller than expected. What would you do? Use less energy? Or supersize the fuse? You might need 420 plants to offset your 50W lightbulb! Further, when a plant dies any carbon sequestered during the growth period is, in the absence of continued sequestration (e.g. by sealing it deep within the earth), soon released back into the atmosphere. A zero-sum situation depends entirely on where the arbitrary boundaries of the system are drawn. What would you do with your plant? Eat it? Bury it? Weave it?
 * Project Name:** Natural Fuse
 * Project Credits:** Usman Haque
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