Tag: trees
Humanity Can Beat The Heat -- But Our Cities Need Millions More Trees

Humanity Can Beat The Heat -- But Our Cities Need Millions More Trees

Sitting in the AC, I look out the window and smile as dogs being walked collapse under the shade of my Norway maple. And who could blame them? Would any of us want to be out in this harsh heat wearing a fur coat?

This has been one of the few times I've given thanks I'm not in Paris. That's because, though much of Europe is baking, Paris is suffering even more than cities like London, where the temperature exceeded an unheard-of 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Climate change is happening all over, but why is Paris doing worse than elsewhere? Not enough trees.

Trees provide shade, which cools the pavement below. They also increase water evaporation, another factor moderating the heat.

The concrete, metal and asphalt of cities soak up heat and radiate it back. Without much green to offset some of it, Paris has become a case study in the "urban heat islands." That is, parts of the city were found to be nearly 20 degrees hotter than neighboring areas.

The favorite French word for the heat wave is "canicule." Translation: "dog days."


Noting that a green umbrella helps lower temperatures, MIT's Senseable City Lab has put together a "Treepedia" that compares tree coverage in a number of cities. The researchers based the calculations behind their "green view index" on Google Street View panoramas.

Paris came in near bottom. It's tree canopy covered only 8.8% of the city. In contrast, London's shaded 12.7%. In Los Angeles, trees sheltered 15.2% of the city from the sun. There should be little surprise that Seattle's tree coverage was an admirable 20%.

Interestingly, New York City's "green view index" came in at a respectable 13.5%. Gotham is not all "concrete canyons," as lore would have it.

Complicating cities' efforts to plant more trees is the competition for limited space. For example, Athens has long been a hot, paved city. But proposals there to plant trees must fight demand for parking spaces. One must choose.

The heat problem has economic implications. By 2050, "urban heat stress" could cut a person's ability to work by about 20% in the hot months, according to a United Nations report by leading climate experts. Overheated human beings are more likely to suffer exhaustion, dizziness and even organ failure.

Trees, of course, play a big-picture role in the global warming crisis. Wherever they are located, trees store the carbon dioxide gases that warm the earth's atmosphere. They also release water vapor that helps form clouds. Thus, the massive deforestation in the tropics is harming quality of life in far-distant places, including northern urban centers.

The science here is not simple, though. Some effects of climate change could actually moderate the heat trend. As the Arctic melts, Science magazine reports, trees are growing in regions where ice predominated. In parts of Alaska where there was only moss and lichen, spruce trees are rising.

The bare tundra of northern Siberia is giving way to bushes and willows. Such a development, if it continues, would create no small forest. The Nenets autonomous district alone is the size of Florida.

In arid regions with milder climates, meanwhile, increased concentrations of carbon enable plants to use water more efficiently and thrive in drier soils. Carbon dioxide also acts as a fertilizer, promoting the growth of wood and leaves.

Certainly, multibillion-dollar things can be done to insulate buildings and retrofit the urban infrastructure to absorb less heat. But trees cost so little, do not require new technology and look nice, too.

Trees don't just stand there. They can help beat the heat and may end up saving civilization. Dogs already know this.

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Happy Earth Day — But Don’t Forget Arbor Day (And Trees!)

Happy Earth Day — But Don’t Forget Arbor Day (And Trees!)

The last Friday in April is National Arbor Day. You knew that, didn’t you? Born in the Victorian era, Arbor Day began mainly as a gentle reminder to admire trees as things of beauty. As an environmental observance, it has been upstaged by the more comprehensive Earth Day (itself now almost 50 years old). But Arbor Day has been very much updated.

The status of trees as uniquely important environmental players has risen in recent years. Trees are now on the front lines in the battle against climate change. That’s because forests absorb nearly 40 percent of human-made fossil fuel emissions every year. Burning wood and rotting trees release carbon dioxide into the air.

This makes massive deforestation a harbinger of doom for the environment as we know it. Fortunately, there are ways to head this off. Proposals to create a carbon-offset market for trees, if put in motion, could reverse the destruction. Right now, these cap-and-trade setups are open only to utilities and industrial companies. Adding trees to a cap-and-trade system would let owners of forested acres make real money by not cutting down trees.

The fate of tropical forests, particularly in Southeast Asia, is of greatest concern. The ranching, mining and timber industries have played a major role in leveling more than a billion acres of tropical forest over the last 40 years. The loss of these trees contributes an estimated 12 to 15 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions a year.

Here’s a simplified version of how a market for trading carbon offsets now works: Company A reduces its emissions below a government-set cap. Company B’s emissions, by contrast, exceed the limit. To avoid paying a penalty, Company B buys offset credits from Company A.

The price of credits is set by supply and demand. That these systems are market-oriented pleases conservatives committed to fighting climate change. Trade in these markets already totals billions of dollars a year.

Some 40 countries now put a price on carbon. Some do it via cap-and-trade. Others, such as Canada, place a tax on fossil fuels, with most of the proceeds going back to Canadians through reductions in their tax bills. The United States does none of the above, but California and nine Northeast states have established their own cap-and-trade systems.

Where do trees come in? Removing trees increases emissions. Letting them grow reduces them. Putting a price on leaving them alone would act as a powerful incentive to not cut them down.

There remains the dilemma that many locals in and around tropical forests currently make a living in ways that require their destruction. Under a proposal known as the Rainforest Standard, however, mechanisms would be set up to spend some of the money building new livelihoods not dependent on axing trees. Examples include ecotourism, fishing and harvesting tree products, such as nuts and palm fruit.

Ordinary homeowners don’t have big forests to preserve but can nonetheless use trees to reduce their carbon footprint. Trees shading the house have a cooling effect in hot weather, reducing the need for air conditioning. And there is some money in this, of course, in the form of lower electricity bills.

So National Arbor Day is coming. Bear in mind that your state’s Arbor Day may fall on a different date than the national one. Many states move their observance to coincide with the best times in their area to plant trees. The big news this year is that in addition to providing beauty and serenity, trees can play a major role in saving our world from catastrophe. Is there a poem for that?

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Web page at www.creators.com.

IMAGE: A fire burns near trees in a peatland area on the outskirts of Palembang on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, September 9, 2015. REUTERS/Beawiharta

Trump Golf Course Illegally Cut Down Protected Trees

Trump Golf Course Illegally Cut Down Protected Trees

Late last month, the Trump Organization decided to clear-cut a bunch of large trees at Trump National DC, its golf course in Loudoun County, Virginia. Then, they just threw all the trees in the Potomac River.

However, it turns out that it was a protected area, and therefore removing the trees — not to mention throwing them in the river — was completely illegal.

First there’s the part where tossing the trees in the river is a safety hazard. Then there’s the fact that regulations require permits to cut down trees on that part of the river because it is designated as being prone to flood. Next, this was no small removal operation; Loudoun County officials said that the golf course cleared nearly three-quarters of an acre of land. Finally, removing the trees leads to increased sediment in the water and ends up, eventually, polluting the Chesapeake Bay.

But, apparently, Trump believes his golf courses should not be beholden to any laws, environmental or otherwise. His clubs, for example,  employ massive amounts of undocumented immigrants even as Trump viciously rails against the immigrants who enter at our southern border. Trump also battled the government of Scotland for years because he believed the presence of wind turbines to be an abomination. And at his Bedminster golf course in New Jersey, he was cited by that state’s Department of Environmental Protection when he cut down trees and disturbed wetlands.

This isn’t even the first time that this particular golf course was in the news for clearing trees. Back in 2011, the Washington Post reported that the Trump Organization had mowed down over 400 trees along the Potomac River, all so that the people paying $100,000 to join and another $700 per month to be members could have a better view of the water.

In a thoroughly Trumpian move, they replaced some of those trees with a giant American flag, and in the process they created an environmental nightmare, leaving migratory birds and bald eagles with nowhere to go.

Not much, it seems, has changed since 2011 at the golf course, which Trump has visited over 40 times since becoming president.

Published with permission of The American Independent.

Trump Golf Course Illegally Cut Down Protected Trees

Trump Golf Course Illegally Cut Down Protected Trees

Late last month, the Trump Organization decided to clear-cut a bunch of large trees at Trump National DC, its golf course in Loudoun County, Virginia. Then, they just threw all the trees in the Potomac River.

However, it turns out that it was a protected area, and therefore removing the trees — not to mention throwing them in the river — was completely illegal.

First there’s the part where tossing the trees in the river is a safety hazard. Then there’s the fact that regulations require permits to cut down trees on that part of the river because it is designated as being prone to flood. Next, this was no small removal operation; Loudoun County officials said that the golf course cleared nearly three-quarters of an acre of land. Finally, removing the trees leads to increased sediment in the water and ends up, eventually, polluting the Chesapeake Bay.

But, apparently, Trump believes his golf courses should not be beholden to any laws, environmental or otherwise. His clubs, for example,  employ massive amounts of undocumented immigrants even as Trump viciously rails against the immigrants who enter at our southern border. Trump also battled the government of Scotland for years because he believed the presence of wind turbines to be an abomination. And at his Bedminster golf course in New Jersey, he was cited by that state’s Department of Environmental Protection when he cut down trees and disturbed wetlands.

This isn’t even the first time that this particular golf course was in the news for clearing trees. Back in 2011, the Washington Post reported that the Trump Organization had mowed down over 400 trees along the Potomac River, all so that the people paying $100,000 to join and another $700 per month to be members could have a better view of the water.

In a thoroughly Trumpian move, they replaced some of those trees with a giant American flag, and in the process they created an environmental nightmare, leaving migratory birds and bald eagles with nowhere to go.

Not much, it seems, has changed since 2011 at the golf course, which Trump has visited over 40 times since becoming president.

Published with permission of The American Independent.