How to Grow Your Own Fresh Air
Researcher Kamal Meattle shows how an arrangement of three common houseplants, used in specific spots in a home or office building, can result in measurably cleaner indoor air.
Kamal Meattle has a vision to reshape commercial building in India using principles of green architecture and sustainable upkeep (including an air-cleaning system that involves massive banks of plants instead of massive banks of HVAC equipment). He started the Paharpur Business Centre and Software Technology Incubator Park (PBC-STIP), in New Delhi, in 1990 to provide "instant office" space to technology companies. PBC-STIP's website publishes its air quality index every day, and tracks its compliance to the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact, a corporate-citizenship initiative.
Meattle has long been a environmental activist in India. In the 1980s he helped India's apple industry develop less-wasteful packaging to help save acres of trees. He then began a campaign to help India's millions of scooter drivers use less oil. His next plan is to develop a larger version of PBC-STIP, making a green office accessible to more businesses in New Delhi and serving as an example of low-cost, low-energy office life.
"He has spent a great deal of time in India and abroad convincing corporate leaders, diplomats, energy ministers, and other government officials that his ideas about sustainability, individual responsibility, and respect for the environment can ensure a healthier future for everyone. 'Either you are overwhelmed by the fact that there are so many problems and so many people,' says Meattle, 'or you find solutions to help in any way you can.'"
-Kamal Meattle in MIT's Technology Review
Gary Shapiro: Why China's Green Dam Proposal Endangers American Technology and Human Rights
When any government demands control of its citizens' computers, the world must take note. I urge the technology community to tell Beijing that control through mandatory software is unacceptable.
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I want to believe that this idea will work, but I have a lot of doubts. Won't the pollution generated by installing and maintaining massive banks of indoor plants exceed the anti-pollution effects of indoor plant respiration?
On another subject, how long is it until India surpasses China as the world's most populous country? Isn't it about time that the Indian people decide that they should stabilise their population? At this point in history, it appears that most Indian leaders see their country's immense population as an economic advantage. Will they be tempted to use their new found wealth in combination with their large manpower pool of poor people for military purposes?
It depends on how the plants are fed and irrigated. If they're fed nitrogen fertilizer produced from natural gas and/or irrigated in a once-through open cycle, then the ongoing footprint of the plant cultivation would be quite high.
But there are many innovative approaches. For example, a small family farm has developed a remarkably elegant aquaponic system that cultivates tilapia and vegetables in a symbiotic closed-loop cycle. The plants feed on fish effluent, the fish feed on algae, and the algae are primary producers from sunlight in the plant beds, which filter ammonia from the fish tanks. The only inputs required are sunlight and just enough water to make up for evaporation.
Also see http://greenspaces.in/blog/ted09/ for lots more details!
Thanks so much!
GREAT INFO! Simple to follow and the benefits seem to be more than worth it. I have tried to use plants, but wasn't sure which were the best or exactly what was needed. Mr. Meattle made it easy to follow with very definite instructions.
Definitely cool idea, but it sounds like a LOT of plants. Worth a try if you are
experiencing indoor air quality problems though.
Too much lecture/ sales; nor enough VISABLE, USABLE information for actually DOING IT.
What were the latin names of those plants? too small to read in the video.....what was that web site?
It took me 1/2 hour and 3 google pages of links to find the simple answer. This society is so fond of meetings, discussing, organizing, getting it's 15 minutes of ego stroking with blogs, twitter, facebook, and MEETINGS, it misses the simple basic. ( INFORMATION PROVIDED!)
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/tips/2009/02/10/three_plants_that_give_you_better_indoor_air-2.html
the readable list of the plants in discussion...................all three of which we used to grow in our Phila. townhouse!
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