— By Dede Williams — 

Where do you fit on the climate advocacy scale? Are you a tree hugger, a middle-of-the-roader, a sceptic? Agnostic with an open mind? So much to ponder when picking out something “green” for your lapel. Recycling’s a no-brainer. To ease a guilty conscience for choosing a single-trip container, return it to the retailer. Carbonated or natural, if it bears a green dot or chasing arrows, toss it into a recycling bin.

Yet, aluminium or PET, manufacturing that can or bottle generates tonnes of greenhouse gases, adding to the surfeit already in the air. How to integrate that into your ecological balance? The drinks industry may have an answer.

Currently sold only in the US at USD 16 (EUR 14) a six-pop, Misan Lychee, a drink made of syrupy water carbonated with CO₂ captured directly from the air (Direct Air Capture; DAC) and 14.6 g of added sugar, creates a neat human impression of the carbon capture and storage process. As its inventor, Philippine multinational food and beverage retailer Monde Nissin, touts it, the fruity drink has “a delicious lychee flavour, with a climate bonus”.

That’s one way of promoting it. But in this age of budding artificial intelligence, maybe best not to ponder the future of replacing humans with chemical processes.