Bamboo: saviour for next generation?

    

By snaggle1, 2023, on WallpaperCave

     When talking about bamboo, what will come to your mind? Maybe Panda? Treehouse? Bamboo Hills? They are all relevant to bamboo, but did you ever think of using bamboo to save the world from the greenhouse effect?

    Bamboo is a member of the grass family; it has a strong and quick regrow ability as a variety of grass. There are more than 1400 species of bamboo out there. Bamboos are distributed in tropical and subtropical to mild temperate regions, with the heaviest concentration and largest number of species in East and Southeast Asia and on islands of the Indian and Pacific oceans. 

    With only a growing season, some grow as high as four to six inches, while the largest can be up to 130 feet tall. When bamboo reaches a height, it will start to sprout other branches beside it; that is why you can find bamboo growing in smallish clumps on the mountain. 

    Recently, two native Mizoram types of bamboo, Bambusa tulda (BT) and Dendrocalamus longispathus (DL), have been demonstrated by researchers to efficiently store and sequester carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide can be sequestered by bamboo and bamboo can be converted into various durable products, such as floor panels, buildings and furniture. Around 17 tonnes of carbon are annually absorbed by a hectare of bamboo stands. 

After research, scientists measured the percentage of carbon content in the culm, sheath, branch and leaf. In (BT), carbon content is found to be highest in branch and followed by culm and leaves components. On the other hand, (DL) has the highest carbon content in culm, followed by branch and leaf components.

    In conclusion, bamboo has a high potential for capturing carbon dioxide and can be used in various ways, not only in construction, furniture but also in the medical and industrial fields. Besides, bamboo is a versatile and fast-growing plant. Therefore, it can be harvested on a large scale to demolish excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.