The Green Heart Project Is Saving This City’s Air Quality One Tree At A Time

Unsplash/D. Jameson RAGE

You’re probably no stranger to air pollution, especially if you live in an urban area and have even developed health problems related to the particulate matter in the air you breathe. And while this struggle seems to be a simple fact of life that people accept as normal in 2017, there are others in the state of Kentucky working to reduce this environmental damage with the help of Mother Nature.

The Green Heart Project, which is based out of the University of Louisville, is investing $14.5 million in its proactive (and hopefully enlightening) study of the intersection of urban greenness and human health. It’s the first of its kind and magnitude, and its implications for the future could be game-changing.

The team is going to plant thousands of trees across the city of Louisville, focusing first on high-density residential areas and busy roads. And it isn’t just throwing little seedlings in the ground and waiting for them to grow. The plan is to import fully grown trees of several varieties that are already up to 30 feet in height. This time-saving decision immediately provides an instant cooling effect for the city with high average temperatures, thanks to the tree’s substantial canopies.

Louisville is surprisingly riddled with air pollution from coal power companies and chemical plants, but the large tree leaves will help to pull the particulate matter out of the air rather than leaving it for human lungs to collect.

Unsplash/Magnus Lindvall

Once all the tree roots are in their rightful places, the research team will identify a pool of 700 Louisville residents who live both close to and far away from the expanded green spaces and monitor their cardiovascular health over several years. The team is hopeful that the introduction of new greenery will correlate to clear health benefits in the residents, making a strong case study that can be duplicated in other cities across the country struggling with similar issues.

At a time when allergies, asthma and heart disease run rampant due to neglectful human behavior toward our natural environment, it’s only fitting that we take a step back and realize that Mother Nature is powerful enough to help us fix the mess we’ve made if we just give her a chance. We have high hopes for the Green Heart Project and can’t wait to see the plans unfold in real time.

[h/t mindbodygreen]