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<Air
in
Peril> Project
We
speak more and more
about atmospheric pollution which causes Global warming and the
increase of respiratory diseases in human beings. People escape from
the city where the polluted air is concentrated and go to the
countryside or to the mountains to be able to breathe deeply. But they
do this without appreciating how much the forests also suffer from air
pollution.
More than one quarter of trees suffer from defoliation of more than
25%, and one tenth shows a discoloration of foliage of more than 10%.
Such are the conclusions of the 1996 report, "International Program
concerned with the Evaluation and Monitoring of the Effects of
Atmospheric Pollution on Forests, and the European Union Program for
the Protection of Forests against Air Pollution". Air pollution affects
European forest ecosystems.
“Forests suffer from discoloration of their foliage.”
The fact that vegetation produces oxygen is well-known. Would forests
begin to miss chlorophyll?! Chlorophyll is a green pigment which is
activated by solar energy and functions as a catalyst in a reaction
which produces glucose and oxygen from a mixture of carbon dioxide and
water. With chlorophyll, plants produce glucose for their own food and
oxygen for us. Less chlorophyll, less oxygen.
This subtle chlorophyll decrease of 10% in forests’ trees is still
invisible. But by the time we notice that forests are no longer green,
will it not be too late? This visual perception of the decrease in
green pigment in forests would alert us: « Air in Peril »!
The project « Air in Peril » is conceived ‘to bring aid to
the forest’, which would begin to lose its capacity of regeneration.
The project « Air in Peril » consists of three elements:
"Tree of Photosynthesis", "Air Wheel" and "Molecule of Oxygen".
"Tree of Photosynthesis" is the key element of the project « Air
in Peril ». This tree wants to revive photosynthesis. It replaces
the quantity of lost chlorophyll and tries artificially to color the
forests again with plastic PVC leaves which contain photochromic
pigments. They do not become green but purple. This violent contrast of
green and purple in forests would give maximum alarm.
The plastic leaves with photochromic pigments will react exactly in
accordance with the quantity of ultraviolet rays and will be purple
while they receive solar rays but will become translucent milky-white
by night, giving the tree the appearance of a ghost tree.
"Air Wheel" is a representation of solar energy exciting chlorophyll
and at the same time an air wheel which endeavors to provide air to the
forests, and "Molecule of Oxygen" is a scheme of a molecule of oxygen
which would be produced by the Air Wheel and would have landed 20
meters away.
(Shigeko
HIRAKAWA)
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