Urban green spaces and micro-forests help blunt effects of global warming on cities and towns
These small to moderate sized islands of densely planted trees help reduce city temperatures and moderate air pollution
As the planet continues to warm from climate change, cities (especially those across the south, mid-west, and west) will feel the warming temperatures most keenly thanks in part to the urban heat island effect. But thankfully, more towns and cities are starting to recognize the need to re-introduce, maintain, and expand green space within urban environments where concrete and asphalt have dominated for decades. This article highlights such micro-forests in France, and goes on to detail the research that went into developing this method of re-foresting, including the need to have involvement from local communities rather than an outside group coming in and installing these plantings, in order for them to be sustainable in the long term. Projects like these highlight the need for citizens concerned about climate change to not just lobby state legislatures and Congress, but to also be involved at the hyper-local level…planning commissions and boards of supervisors, where decisions on urban and suburban zoning play a critical role in whether green projects like this happen. Thankfully, the Biden administration is helping with this by distributing grant funds to over 400 locations around the country to expand access to such green spaces.
Given that it doesn’t take a lot of green space to start showing immediate improvements in air quality and temperature, if enough towns and cities start going this direction with incorporating more green space, we can make a meaningful difference in a relatively short period of time to head off heat and pollution-related illnesses in the future, and to start to restore threatened plant and animal species.
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