The Next Big Thing? Liquid Trees.
Dear Leading Ladies,
I’m following two four-year-old little girls down the street in Brooklyn one afternoon as they walk home from preschool. One of them is my granddaughter. The walk is about three-quarters of a mile but can take up to a half-hour because the girls dawdle, stopping at every tree on the way to contemplate its climbability, the leaves beginning to sprout, the flowers at the base, or to challenge each other to a swing on a limb.
While delighting in their energy and shenanigans, I am also worrying about the proliferation of CO2 in their neighborhood. Once we get past the leafy single family houses, we will get to their block of low-rise coops and apartment buildings with maybe a tree in a back common space but little more. Prospect Park is nearby, a wonderful place to walk and play, but their block is pretty devoid of trees and full of traffic.
The view during my walk on East 18th Street in Brooklyn is far different from the view of the woods beyond my front porch in Beverly, where perhaps a dozen cars drive by each day. Don’t get me wrong. I love the city, the hustle and bustle, the diversity in languages and ethnicities, cultures and lifestyles.
But I worry.
Because, as Ms. Francine Pickup, resident representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Serbia, stated recently in World Marketing Insights, “It is estimated that cities are the source of as much as 75% of total CO2 emissions in the world, of which the largest percentage comes from traffic and cooling and heating in buildings.” In other words, the air in cities is not clean, and there is not enough oxygen to fight off the CO2. There is too much asphalt and not enough greenery. The results range from increased rates of asthma and other breathing disorders to heart and brain illnesses, in addition to climate warming.
Roof gardens, curbside tree planting programs, and taking back parking lots to invest in new parks are three often suggested solutions. Yet, in areas of dense population, creating green spaces, which do indeed provide natural air purification, can be complicated to achieve.
Now, we’ve learned about a new solution that seems incredibly cool: liquid trees. Also called LIQUID 3, or urban photo-bioreactors, they’re designed to reduce greenhouse gas emission and improve air quality. Created in Belgrade, Serbia, each LIQUID 3 “contains six hundred liters of water and works by using microalgae to bind carbon dioxide and produce pure oxygen through photosynthesis,” according to World Marketing Insights. “The microalgae replace two 10-year-old trees or 200 square meters of lawn. Both trees and grass perform photosynthesis and bind carbon dioxide. LIQUID 3 imitates that process. However, the advantage of microalgae is that it is 10 to 50 times more efficient than trees. The team behind LIQUID 3 has stated that their goal is not to replace forests or tree planting plans but to use this system to fill those urban pockets where there is no space for planting trees.”
According to Dr. Ivan Spasojevic, one of the authors on the project from the Institute for Multidisciplinary Research at the University of Belgrade, LIQUID 3 can use single-celled freshwater algae, which exist in ponds and lakes, can grow in tap water, and are resistant to high and low temperatures.
Dr. Spasojevic explains much more about LIQUID 3 in a great YouTube video here. Among the advantages he notes, LIQUID 3 takes just a day to install and occupies only three meters of space while a tree can take 20 years to grow to maturity with a significantly larger foot and air print. He also explains that “microalgae are at the very core of combating climate change” since “half the oxygen produced in the world is produced by microalgae” that are far more efficient than trees. The photo above shows that LIQUID 3 is also multifunctional, using solar energy for lighting and offering a spot to sit and charge one’s phone. For additional information, check out the LIQUID 3 website.
Admittedly, we do have a couple of questions and hesitations about LIQUID 3. It doesn’t cool the air or provide shade the way trees do. It doesn’t cool indoor space the way white roofs do. But perhaps one method cannot solve all the issues and there is room for several ways to combat the problem depending on the area.
What can we do to promote and encourage LIQUID 3 on our shores? Leading Ladies is going to write to Dr. Spasojevic to inquire about the cost of LIQUID 3 and the plans for its manufacture and distribution. We will share that information as we receive it. Then we will know how we might be able to garner support for the installation of LIQUID 3 in urban neighborhoods, where CO2 is causing devastating health inequities and climate change.
Before closing, a shout out to Seaside Sustainability in Gloucester and to Eric Majer, their executive director, who first let us know about LIQUID 3.
Stay tuned.
Judy (she/her/hers)
Therese (she/her/hers)
Didi (she/her/hers)
Mackenzie (she/her/hers)