Trees offset half of urban heat, but poorest cities left out, study finds
By Main Street Independent
A new study of nearly 9,000 cities published in Nature Communications found that trees reduce urban temperatures by an average of 0.27°F (0.15°C), offsetting roughly half of the heat island effect from dark roofs and pavement.
In 31 large cities, about 185 million people experience tree-driven cooling of at least 0.5°F (0.3°C), the researchers reported.
By contrast, residents of 20 major cities each with more than 3 million people feel less than 0.1°F (0.05°C) of cooling from trees, underscoring a deep disparity.
Cities in wealthy nations are far more likely to have significant tree canopy: nearly 40% of them achieve at least 0.45°F of cooling, compared with just under 9% in the poorest countries.
Dakar, Senegal; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Kuwait City; and Amman, Jordan — with a combined 15 million residents — have such minimal tree cover that they receive essentially no cooling benefit, the study found.
Even aggressive tree-planting campaigns would reduce future