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City Trees Save Lives
Green spaces significantly cool our ever-hotter cities. New research suggests more trees could cut heat-related ER visits in LA by up to two-thirds.
A new paper finds that in Los Angeles, planting more trees and deploying more reflective surfaces—something as simple as painting roofs white —could lower temperatures so dramatically, it’d cut the number of heat-related ER visits by up to 66 percent. Tall trees provide shade, for one, but plants in general release water vapor as they photosynthesize, essentially “sweating.” Accordingly, a high-income neighborhood with lots of parks and landscaping might be 15 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than a low-income, more industrialized area—like so many health threats, heat disproportionately affects those who are the most deprived. Climate change may also help tree pests and diseases spread, adding yet more precarity to urban greenery: A given community might be keen on planting more of their neighborhood’s trademark species of tree—magnolias or what have you—but the future may be increasingly hostile to it.
Or read this on Wired