Crazy Green Ideas

I love some of the go-green ideas people come up with, especially when it comes to architecture.

For example, you've probably seen the rotating skyscraper planned in Dubai, which will generate its own energy with built-in wind turbines.

And I'm a huge fan of green roofs and vertical farms, both of which are really cool/pretty ways of getting plants and food into the city.

But the newest awesome ideas, currently being touted by the U.K.'s Institution of Mechanical Engineers, are mechanical CO2-catching trees and algae-covered buildings.

Now, when I saw "mechanical trees," I instantly envisioned beautiful steampunk monstrosities and was really happy before realizing that in the illustration looked like a giant fly swatter stuck in the ground. But still, it's a cool idea, especially if they could be incorporated into existing wind farms to avoid having to develop new areas. And algae-covered building could also be interesting looking and generate biofuel to run the building, without having to do to much construction, since they could be retrofitted onto existing structures.

In short, I want a world where all buildings spin or grow plants, and beautiful real trees co-exist with handy ones that keep us from dying from global warming. Because pretty architecture AND not dying is just the best combination there is.