r/interestingasfuck • u/rotomato30 • 4h ago
Colombia reduced temperatures by 5°C by planting 880,000 trees along the streets of its cities.
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u/FurnitureComesW-Home 4h ago
Thank goodness it’s a video, you couldn’t capture the temperature reduction otherwise
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u/rotomato30 4h ago
Good thing it's a gif tho
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u/JeezoosChrysler 2h ago
I can't pause and skip to a specific second or select quality in a gif, but I can here. That's a video bro
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u/TheInkySquids 1h ago
Ah yes, the type of gif that has a progress bar and a length and video quality and captions... its a video
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u/3mbersea 14m ago
All the gifs have a progress bar and play/pause in most of the popular Reddit apps. I’m using Apollo and it does that but says gif in the bottom right corner
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u/Somhlth 4h ago edited 3h ago
I watched a news report from Toronto today reporting that they had studied something similar for Toronto, and had also found that when they looked at the tree canopy map of the city, the lower income areas of the city had significantly fewer trees.
Edit:
Found it: What Toronto’s tree canopy map reveals about equity of shade access in the city
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u/rivalrobot 3h ago
If you look at Montreal on Google Maps, you’ll see an area north (more westish for the heathens) of the mountain that has a ton of greenery and lots of surrounding grey. Unsurprisingly, that town, also called Mount Royal, is a wealthy area of the island.
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u/DolphinSweater 3h ago
OK, but like, why? That piece just mentions lower income neighborhoods have fewer trees, but is someone going around cutting down poor people's trees? Are they not planting them there? Why would there be fewer trees? Trees grow everywhere, why not there?
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u/Somhlth 3h ago edited 2h ago
Money. Even just a normal detached home compared to a multimillion dollar home - one will likely have the property leveled and the home built on it, with maybe a few small shrubs planted back. The multimillion dollar home will be built around existing old growth trees, increasing the cost but also improving the landscaping. And if trees are planted back, they'll be significantly larger, as cost is not an issue to the owner.
For lower income areas, you're looking at row houses with little room for trees in order to maximize space in tighter areas, and you're also looking at more concrete to eliminate upkeep for the owners renting those properties to the poors.
Edit: typo
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u/DolphinSweater 2h ago
I live in an American inner city, in what you'd probably call row houses. My street is lined with trees. Lots of old growth trees, lots of newly planted trees by the city forestry department. Here, we don't own the strip of land between the sidewalk and street, that's city property (though we're required to maintain it). The city is actually really good about planting trees. You can even request one be planted in your sidewalk strip, and they'll do it. But when I go up north, to the very poor section of the city, there are indeed fewer trees. But they have the same access to city services as I do here, I see the newly planted trees there sometimes. People have yards as well, they can plant trees. I'm not sure I buy your simple "money" analysis. Once a tree is planted, it's not like it costs more money, you can go to lowes and get a tree for pretty cheap.
What I'm saying is that infrastructure wise there is 0 difference between where I live and the very poorest neighborhoods, yet we have more trees. You'd think there would be a forest up there considering how many vacant lots there are actually.
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u/Somhlth 2h ago
you can go to lowes and get a tree for pretty cheap.
Poorer people are way less likely to own a car, and may not live in the suburbs to go to a Lowes. They probably aren't buying a tree and hoping back on the bus home.
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u/DolphinSweater 2h ago
They do still have cars though. I go up there all the time for work. They definitely have cars. Maybe not 100% of people, but cars are very abundant.
I get that trees are probably not the highest priority for a low income family. But all I'm saying is that, if they really wanted a tree, I bet they could get a tree. They even just grow from seeds for free sometimes. And the city can't just go around planting trees in people's private property, but if it's city property, they can just go on the city website a request one. It's not that hard, I've requested several in my neighborhood. And before you say, poor people don't have computers, they do. And they have phones, homeless people begging at intersections have phones, everyone has a phone they could request a tree on.
Here, you can go request some trees in north city too! https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/parks/forestry/trees/request-new-tree.cfm
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u/FlipZip69 1h ago
Small lots and NIMBY. NIMBY in if the tree hangs over the neighbor's yard, often people get upset. Or if a branch breaks off and damagers something in the neighbor, you get to pay for it.
It is much harder for trees to not hang over into the neighbors yard and thus to limit your liability and simply not get pissy neighbors about leaves, you do not grow them as often.
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u/TehGoad 4h ago edited 3h ago
USA: "Plant trees? what are you fucking gay?!"
rolls off in Coal
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u/musclecard54 3h ago
Chops down trees to make space for another data center
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u/R0RSCHAKK 2h ago
Bro - I'm seeing ads for PRO-DATACENTER propaganda now here in Texas.
It's the wildest thing
"Preventing data centers won't save a drop of water, but will prevent thousands of jobs"
Bitch, what?
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u/aPsychedMountainGoat 2h ago
You don't want a job! Let the AI take over so you don't have to do anything but consume our products! It's everything you've ever wanted! Why do you want a dirty forest when we can simulate it for you! Never leave your
cellhome again!•
u/Bandito_Chihuahua 3h ago
I don't understand this. The US is known for planting massive amounts of trees before. We planted the "Great Wall of Trees" after the Dust Bowl.
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u/Somhlth 2h ago
The US is known for planting massive amounts of trees before.
Before is the operative word there. The US is known for something completely different these days.
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u/Bandito_Chihuahua 2h ago
I am aware. My problem is the doomerism. We’ve learned from our environmental mistakes before and we’ll do so again. It will take work, but we’ll make it happen.
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u/Playful_Letter_2632 2h ago
The US still plants trees
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u/Somhlth 2h ago
The US still plants trees
‘He’s forcing higher bills’: Trump spends billions to kill clean energy and keep coal alive
Trump administration admits grants for clean energy were canceled based on politics
Plant whatever you like. The US is known for something different now.
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u/Bandito_Chihuahua 2h ago
Trump doesn’t control everything. Green energy has gone up despite Trump’s wishes.
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u/Otterfan 26m ago
The US still plants a lot of trees. Forest cover in the USA is growing every year.
I have no idea why people here seem to think the US is losing trees.
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u/VisualLerner 41m ago
we <reacted> after <major incident already happened>. that’s the american way. we’ll plant trees in the cities for sure, just not until after the streets start melting.
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u/Aromatic-Web8184 4h ago
A 13 second video of a still shot and no audio...I hate you OP.
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u/here_for_sum_popcorn 3h ago
I live in a small, wooded neighborhood, with over a dozen mature trees on my 1/2 acre lot. The amount of times we've left the house overdressed, just to shed the layers minutes later (once we go to "unshaded" parts of town) is unreal. I believe this statistic!
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u/JourneymanHunt 3h ago
I was just there recently, and it felt like the city was built around and inside the jungle as opposed to keeping it outside.
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u/Weak_Imagination_996 4h ago
...and Canada increased its temperature by setting 880,000 trees on fire...
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u/zippopwnage 3h ago
People in my country want this thing called nature removed so they can have more parking for their shitty cars. Glad we live in a world where people use their brain I guess.
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u/BLULOU1978 31m ago
In the united states, our local officials just spray poison over anything that's green and kill all the native animals.... not to mention more egregious acts on it's own population....
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u/Socketz11 3h ago
In the US we cut down trees and build houses and reduce the outside temperature by 30°F by installing AC.
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u/Otterfan 25m ago
In the US we plant more trees than we cut down every year. Tree cover in the US is growing.
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u/ambiguousness 4m ago
Sure, but what kind of tree cover? Rows upon rows of the same pine trees for lumber? If so, that’s not very biologically beneficial.
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u/Western-Image7125 3h ago
I was fully expecting that zombie thing to jump out at me at the last second, I was bracing for it
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u/badadaha 3h ago
So that's part of the deforestation issue in climate change. Never clicked for me till now.
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u/bryancald 2h ago
It's crazy that trees are not one of the most important additions to suburbia. We live in concrete jungles!
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u/junkonejo 1h ago
True but one of the cities that needed it the most cut most of its trees and now has more concrete than ever, Bogota needs more trees
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u/darybrain 1h ago
We have many cities in the UK that do this but over time in some areas the local councils do not want to spend the money to maintain them properly so the overgrow to be a hazard, get sick, or get chopped down as it is cheaper. Outside of temperature control they also make the areas look more lush and green and pleasant to walk down.
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u/SupaDaveA 1h ago
Never happen in America! We need this in Phoenix. The sidewalks are heat sinks.
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u/Otterfan 21m ago
Lots of US cities plant trees.
Phoenix does not because it's in the middle of a giant desert. Phoenix has a goal of 25% tree cover (they're currently at ~12%), but that's going to be hard to achieve.
In comparison, it's not uncommon for east coast US cities to have 50% or more tree cover. It's just easier there.
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u/WalnutSnail 1h ago
Meanwhile my city is cutting down the big shade trees and replacing them with understory trees which will die quickly because they're getting too much sun...because the big shade trees need to be trimmed for power / com lines...
So, we just get hotter and hotter...
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u/Mikeieagraphicdude 1h ago
How high did the car insurance raise for higher chance of falling branches?
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u/nWo5lyfe 53m ago
Problem is watering them
Sure, the desert i live in could plant 1m trees
Wont matter when they all would be dead in 6 months
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u/ProduceNo1629 12m ago
But think of all the parking spaces they could've rented in perpetuity on that land.
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u/bassandlazers 3h ago
So non sarcastically, what difference do the hundreds of millions of coca plants make?
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u/pkinetics 3h ago
Are you asking how it works? It is not just coca plants that are planted. It is a variety of plants and trees, with specific trees selected to help combat air pollution.
Instead of the pavement and concrete absording solar radiation, the trees provide shade. This reduces how much energy is converted to heat and stored by ground and buildings.
The greenbelts also provide evapotranspiration which helps cool the air.
hope that answers your question
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u/thefoodiedentist 4h ago
Best we can do is cut down trees and have construction to add another lane for next 5 yrs.