A new paper estimates that if we increased our tree canopy in cities to 30% we could cool our cities by nearly half a degree. Works better than a windmill…
Photo by Maria Orlova
The trillion dollar global warming camp obsesses over 1.5°C of heat, but the urban heat island has already made our cities 1.5°C hotter than the countryside around them, and nobody gives a toss. Cities are where the lived human experience is for most of us, and despite the threat of that extreme heat made “worse by climate change”, no government does the obvious and sets a tree cover target. There are no Ministers of Regreening, and no carbon credits for suburbia. All we’re getting is concrete bollards and fifteen-minute-cities of pain.
In the green revolution instead of growing gum trees, people are cutting them down because they shade their solar panels. In our capital city they razed a majestic avenue of trees in order to add light rail. A true Green hates cars more than they like trees.
Urban flora not only cleans the air, it also reduces suicides, improves cardiac health, and reduces particulate pollution. One Canadian study estimated that living close to green spaces even reduces all cause mortality and by a remarkable 8 to 12%. (Crouse et al 2017). We’ve known this for years but no one has organized an annual UN convention.
Greening our cities won’t change the global temperature, but it lays bare the hypocrisy
They say they are here to help but they pick the paths that make them money.
Trees could cut urban heatwave mortality by a third: study
Planting more trees in urban areas to lower summertime temperatures could decrease deaths directly linked to hot weather and heatwaves by a third, researchers said Wednesday.
Modeling found that increasing tree cover to 30 percent would shave off 0.4 degrees Celsius (0.7 degrees Fahrenheit) locally, on average, during hot summer months, they reported in The Lancet.
Of the 6,700 premature deaths attributed to higher temperatures in 93 European cities during 2015, one third could have been prevented, according to the findings.
On average, the temperature in cities was 1.5C warmer during summer 2015 than in the surrounding countryside. The city with the highest difference—4.1C—was Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Earlier studies have shown that green spaces can have additional health benefits such as reducing cardiovascular disease, dementia and poor mental health, as well as improving cognitive functioning of children and the elderly.
REFERENCES
Cooling cities through urban green infrastructure: a health impact assessment of European cities, The Lancet (2023).
Crouse et al (2017) Urban greenness and mortality in Canada’s largest cities: a national cohort study, Lancet Planet Health, . 2017 Oct;1(7):e289-e297. doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(17)30118-3. Epub 2017 Oct 5.
Photo by Maria Orlova.
The sound of leafblowers would be deafening.
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The fallen leaves makes for excellent mulch and are good for composting. City Councils could ‘clean up’. Clover Moore in Sydney, are you and others listening?
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Imagine…a permanent haze from ongoing forest fires…
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We’re talking about extra trees in a small percentage of total land area. The forests where the haze is created still need better management to reduce the fuel loads…
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Haze over forests … trees produce VOCs which can often be seen as a haze over a forest – these allow water vapour to form droplets and one of the reasons that rain forests see so much rain. Fascinated me when I first read the studies on this a few years ago.
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Jo, just to add to that there have been claims that VOCs from city trees cause asthma …
and just to expand on what you wrote “but the urban heat island has already made our cities 1.5°C hotter than the countryside around them” – in the UK the weather forecasters routinely warn during winter months that temperatures in the rural areas outside of London will be 4C (and sometimes 4-6C) COLDER than London. That doesn’t stop HADCRUT from apparently using a 1.5C figure in its ‘homogenisation’ algorhythms …. which has to be the true cause of ‘man made global warming’ coupled with the revisionist approach to temperature records, cooling the past and warming the present.
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Blue Hills?
Gwen Meredith?
The “blue” haze over the hills is caused by the permanent “fog” of water-vapour and eucalyptus oil being dumped into the atmosphere by all those fluffy gum-trees.
Just a reminder to the terminal tree-huggers:
Eucalypts are FIRE_CLIMAX species, in general. The seed pods are seriously tough and many require the heat of a passing undergrowth fire to germinate .
MILLENNIA of rotating “fire-stick ” hunting’ by nomadic bands achieved several things.
Firstly, it produced the vast area o grasslands that greeted explorers like Mitchell. He noted the prodigious grasslands and at the same time, commented on the daily sightings of smudges of smoke on the horizon.
The “dark” side of the trusty old gum tree is that if the cyclic burning of grasslands AND any saplings, weeds, etc., that have sprung up since the last burn,STOPS, the trees take over.
Eucalypts have another interesting feature; they modify the soil as they grow. As their leaf and bark litter accumulate and are steadily introduced into the soil, they acidify it, in a process called “Podzolization”. Basically, this “sterilizes’ the surfacesoil in the immediate vicinity of the tress, preventing other species from thriving.
Thus, for a lot of time, out on the plains, the nomads and the trees did their thing. When a “pastoral”culture landed, ‘fire’ was declared anathema. the plains of waving grass started sprouting trees as the burns diminished.
When a serious fire gets into a mature eucalyptus forest, the results are usually catastrophic, for the vegetation, wildlife and humans
If there is an abundance of @undergrowth, the heat of that blazing merrily, can overcome the relatively thin bark at low levels and essentially @fire-ringbark the trees. Just for added ‘thrills’, if the fire goes up a notch, it gets into all those nice- oil-rich leaves in the canopy. Crown fires ar scary things, They cab develop their own @micro-weather, complete with WINDS. The radiant heat from a decent crown fire will flash-ignite houses and vehicles 25-+ metres before actual flame contact. Wildlife and people are, literally, toast.
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I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.
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I found the Wheelie-bin for organic rubbish is ideal for street tree leaves. Lay the open bin on it’s side and rake the leaves straight in!
Bin is supposed to be for food scraps, but too smelly for that. Leaves are organic so they belong in it. No more blocked drains if others know how to easily deal with city leaves.
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And trees use/absorb that horrible ‘destructive’ gas called CO2 and lock in Carbon while sending out Oxygen. Surely a Climate Alarmists dream come true.
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“use/absorb that horrible ‘destructive’ gas called CO2”
Right up to the point where they go into their respiration stage where they convert the oxygen and glucose into growth(energy).
And as every fallen leaf composts it releases the co2 still held within it.
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Tree cover or solar panels? Can’t have both.
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We had to get permission to cut down a ‘shared’ Jacaranda tree in our retirement complex. With the winter weather getting colder here in South Africa, this tree had grown so much that it shaded all our North-facing windows, so that the house became uncomfortably cold. I would guess that SA Highveld weather may be much like some parts of Australia, but we DO love our trees (except when we’re bloody freezing!).
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Well done Jo for posting something positive. I’m not sure you can blame the ‘Greens’ for chopping down trees in urban spaces, it is almost always NIMBY concerns that force city planners to do suboptimal things. City design needs a major rethink in the face of climate change and it’s happening quite quickly.
Here are some charts that show the improbability of the Auckland rain event which no city planner had ever considered.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/sustainable-future/aucklands-historic-flooding-explained-in-five-charts
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Positive and susstainable.
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So Simon, since planting more trees is obviously an easy cheap fit with the mission statements of The Greens, and all the NGO’s that claim to be green, perhaps you can explain why they work so hard to prioritize renewables and carbon schemes rather than tree planting.
Over to you — are they really just agents for profit-making bankers and industries or are they grass roots groups that care about the environment?
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See also: Willfully ignorant “useful idiots”.
Those heavily-worshiped “rain-forests” are barely “carbon neutral, if not nett CO2 producers.
Young growing vegetation is a MUCH better bet; think- seasonal CROPS, like grains.
Another thing: CORAL is probably the major active “CO2 sink”; the original “Syn-Rock. How many Brazillion tonnes of CO2 are “sequestered” in Coral, Limestone and Marble?
Quick “pie-chart” link:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1c/80/71/1c8071217d886438554e9060ecbbfba4.png
Furthermore, when the planet finally coalesced from cosmic “detritus” and before the “proto-plants” started playing “chemistry”, there was NO free (or even “bargain-priced”) OXYGEN; it was ALL tied up in CO2, H20 and a myriad metallic oxides.
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‘ … the fingerprints of a warming world will be on almost all of our extreme weather events from now on.’
All extreme weather is probably related to climate change. It could be argued that what happened in Auckland and Albury-Wodonga was a global cooling signal, so we have to work out whether they were positive or negative feedbacks?
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‘ … the fingerprints of a warming world will be on almost all of our extreme weather events from now on.’”
Oh dear.. why do they have to put that nonsense into reports.
The World has been COOLING for the last 7 or more years and is almost certainly still significantly COOLER than the MWP, and RWP.
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The new talking point is devastating ‘atmospheric rivers’, presumably caused by global warming. Its worth debunking just for the fun of it.
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We have fallen below the line.
https://www.drroyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/UAH_LT_1979_thru_January_2023_v6.jpg
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Hardly surprising. The troposphere is much more sensitive to ENSO than the planet’s surface.
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Yep, to get the surface temps in line with reality, we would need to turn off all the tin sheds, pavements, aircraft engines, air-conditioners.
… then find someone to remove all the unwarranted past adjustments to the surface fabrications.
And actually, you are wrong anyway.. (yet again !!)
A comparison of USCRN and UAH-USA48 shows the surface responds more to both up and down changes in temperature…
…. as you would expect if you knew anything.
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a joke, you need H2O floating in the air to get your magical AGW therefore you claim it stays up there and so its now hotter, but then when it does not stay up there you claim thats AGW as well?
Now there is less H2O up there we must now have less AGW correct? Or has the story changed again Simon?
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“Or has the story changed again Simon?”
They the problem when the whole constructed fantasy is based on a series of mal-information, non-science, and falsehoods…
Really hard to keep the fairy-tale consistent. 😉
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“The troposphere is much more sensitive to ENSO than the planet’s surface.”
So you are saying that the surface warming over the period of three major El Ninos (1979, 1998, 2015) should have been less than UAH showed
…. sans-adjustments of course. 😉
Yes, the real surface warming, most probably was. 🙂
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That’s surprising that you’re hardly surprised. Are you wondering if it’s raining outside?
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The first decade of this century shows ENSO is muted because of a negative Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Can land based thermometers capture this?
https://weather.plus/pdo-index.php
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Prof Will Steffen passes out of this earthly realm.
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” the improbability of the Auckland rain event which no city planner had ever considered.” When my father built the family house in the 1950’s he noticed that the road had been built up about a foot (30 cms) above the surrounding land, so he had tons of soil bought onto the block.
That was the “thinking” of the town planner in those days – Save the Road and to hell with the rate payers.
After many years away I was struck on seeing the number of trees growing in Adelaide. As for your comment “not sure you can blame the ‘Greens’ for chopping down trees in urban spaces” is surely true, at least until a falling limb crushes the BMW. If you want further thoughts there was a book WHO PLANTED THAT DAMN THING? (Graham Calcutt 1985) contains some comments about trees in urban areas.
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We don’t want gum trees around living spaces. We have had 2 cars damaged by falling branches while driving down the main road, & many others have also even to write off. Gum trees drop perfectly healthy looking branches without warning, & become deadly in strong winds.
It took a bunch of locals with 14 chain saws to clear an access path through fallen trees from the 1.5 kilometers of our back road so we could get through to the main road, after the last blow. Council did not make it to finish the job for 8 days, busy elsewhere. Power took 3 days to return.
The 40 trees in my 1.5 acre house paddock do little to cool the area compared to the open paddocks that I can detect, but they require considerable effort in cleaning leaves off the house roof, & from the large shed gutters that does not yet have gutter protection.
If you want shade trees they will have to be non native, which is probably why ratbag greenies are not promoting. They pushed the local council into cutting down some lovely street trees in town, because they weren’t native.
Beware of unintended consequences with some GREAT ideas, such as this one.
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H
It is amazing how much roof gutter can be filled by just one bottle tree. And they seem to shed several times a year
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telling a lie often enough for long enough does not make it true.
No scientist can prove that even 7% more rain occurred because of the C-C equation. And 7% more rain means something like 2% higher water level.
Five inches feLL in Aukland in 1938, or over 12 cm. There is no data for comparison with a peak of 4 mm in minute, so that gets emphasized as historic.
Pure propaganda. It was on par with what happened when global CO2 levels were below 300 ppm.
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From the “news” report Simon quoted.
That’s simply not true. Actual evidence suggests otherwise.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/category/extreme-weather-2/
“Fingerprints” of anti-scientific “warmists” with a political agenda, yes.
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The guy writing the article quoted by Simon, David, is so far left he makes Mao look like a right winger. Also he is a political journalist / scribbler, so the only science he knows is political science.
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Simon, based on 1960-2019, Auckland annual rainfall is “very likely decreasing”, summer rainfall “likely decreasing”.
https://www.stats.govt.nz/indicators/rainfall
Countrywide it comes out pretty even with places increasing/decreasing balancing out.
NZ is extremely prone to atmospheric rivers historically and naturally that leads to historic rainfall totals at chance locations. It has nothing to do with climate change.
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Poor fella, them/they still can’t tell the difference between “climate” (which in NZ is often very wet..)
… and a very localised WEATHER event, that just happened to hit a major center.
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Simon is hardly surprised.
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” no city planner had ever considered.”
When was the Auckland drainage system build.?
Get a grip on reality please.. and stop making nonsense comments !
And while you are at it, where is that evidence for warming by human released CO2
We have been waiting along time for you to produce something to back up your non-science mantra comments.
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Another view on the Auckland rains Simon.
“These urban Extreme Left don’t bother to acknowledge that the Moon has great affect on tides, and weather even though many will not want to consider or concede that fact.
The Perigee Moon was last week. Combined with many of the largest high tides and in fact the Moon was closest to the earth it has been for the first time in 992 years .
Add in that the huge amount of moisture pumped into the atmosphere by the Tongan volcanic eruption last year, the greatest volcanic eruption recorded since Krakatoa in 1883. All this combined gives you what you have seen around the top half of the North Island. See Predict Weathers comments below.
Note, the Wahine disaster was within days of a Perigee Moon.
But they will conveniently put it down to Climate Change and as we know, Climate Change ain’t weather. which again the Left conveniently forget.”
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiwktfkouz8AhV5umMGHUjZCFEQFnoECDcQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fsites%2Fjamiecartereurope%2F2023%2F01%2F18%2Fwhy-the-moon-is-suddenly-closer-to-earth-than-for-992-years-and-what-it-means%2F&usg=AOvVaw2wIyjd6ulIrf1cpbRkJHQC
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjxjeuTpez8AhXizjgGHf10CyQQFnoECAoQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpredictweather.co.nz%2FArticleShow.aspx%3FID%3D221&usg=AOvVaw34UjdZveMf2dFGvtuyoEtn
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So you plant lots of trees to reduce the temperature by a fraction of a degree, and when the trees mature, and their roots start buckling the sidewalks, the cry will go out to remove the trees to keep the sidewalks walkable… Oh, wait; this is why the trees were removed in the first place…
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Done carefully, trees are wonderful, but local government prefers to have cash for U.N. conferences and green dreams rather than carry out proper maintenance and hazzard reduction.
Besides our local ecological dramas we have the major example of the Victorian devastation of a few years back.
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Hint: avoid most Eucalypts in suburban areas. They like to shed branches, and can severely exacerbate fire hazard !
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That is why they are aka widow makers.
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Sydney has a master plan.
https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/strategies-action-plans/street-tree-master-plan
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I like #3 on the list..
“and increase habitat for native fauna.”
? Kangaroos on Pitt St ?
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I know there’s a lot of galahs in Macquarie St area, at times.. !
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(for those overseas, that don’t catch that one.)
NSW Parliament is on Macquarie St.
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Those overseas probably are not aware of “galah”as a derogatory term. But they may be able to guess.
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And also for those overseas a galah is an Australian native parrot that has whacky and mad behaviour. ToM
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Sorry, for parrot, read cockatoo. ToM
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WOMBATS already there?
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But . . . but . . . such an easy solution would allow those evil climate-deniers to win! Never! No solutions, now or ever!
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Great idea but not too many Trees because they would reduce air flow in the area which can trap some air pollution longer and reduce those long desired cooling breezes.
I find that hiking through scattered forested areas the best as there is a nice balance of open sky and breezes getting through while providing adequate shade for the area.
Have read on some research 40 years ago when I was in FFA showing that a nice balance of trees in the city can cool up to 10 degrees F in areas and half that in most areas thus trees is a proven resources for regional cooling effects.
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Greenery of any kind is always great but I doubt whether many lives would be saved by a suppposed reduction of 0.4C or even 10C would save any lives whatsoever. Humans aren’t so fragile. And it is cold thst tends to kill people anyway.
Also, most people in cities spend most of their time indoors in a temperature-controlled environment.
Finally, I dispute the findings of any of these “models”. There are too many variables and too many cities of vastly different style and function. Cities are not comparable with each other unless you are talking about standard “off the shelf” cities built by the Chicomms.
Modeling is a dramatically overused and misunderstood term and concept. Just because a modern fast computer can generate pretty pictures doesn’t make the result meaningful.
They used to say Garbage In Garbage Out, GIGO. I don’t tbink they teach that idea any more. Anything that comes out of a computer is assumed to be correct.
Back in the day when computer resources were much more limited and people were much more scientifically and engineeringly educated and had “deep knowledge” about subjects, a “model” was something based on a well-understood physical process which would give you more or less exact results and would allow you to explore changes in the values of various parameters.
Today, almost nothing called a “model” as relates to anything to do with climate is a true model. It’s just a computer program that generates scary scenarios, scary pictures, inputs junk data, outputs junk and produces lots of research funds for its owners and money for the subsidy harvesters.
Also, if you don’t mind living with restricted freedoms, the city state of Singapore has laws requiring all new buildings have an area of greenery the same as the land used. So plenty of rooftop gardens, balcony gardens etc.. That’s much easier to do in the tropics with plenty of heat, water and fast growing plants than in the temperate cities of North America and Europe. Goolag “singapore greenery” without quote marks.
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So 0.4C won’t hurt anyone who is in robust health, but if say a 50 year old had partially blocked arteries, high blood pressure and too many risk factors, it might be the last straw. Mortality is linked to room temperature, so when air conditioning is cheap the outdoor temperature is irrelevant. But every degree below 18C or above about 21C shows an increase in mortality.
Cold temperatures cause constriction in peripheral circulation which increases blood pressure and the risk of clotting. Higher temperatures cause dehydration, which thickens blood and increases the risk of clotting.
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Don’t use gum trees! They burn, and they are particularly good at dropping branches. Use deciduous trees, because they are fire-retardant, they give much higher quality shade, and they let light in in winter.
I particularly despair at the way gum trees are planted along the sides and centres of major roads, almost as if the objective was to ensure that those roads would be closed during bush fires.
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We have a huge deciduous tree which gives shade in summer, and sunlight streams through in winter. We have room to plant more, but the big hazard is that should a tree grow large, the council will then decide that they will determine how/when/if you can prune it, and to add insult to injury require the ratepayer to employ an “arborist” to report to them, at the ratepayers cost. Dead trees apparently, are especially desirable (as homes for whatever) by the greenies. I too, like a tree canopy, but the jackbooted ones rule the roost for the moment. Growing grass avoids legal problems with council
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“Use deciduous trees,”
Which generally means, in Australia, using imported species.
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b.nice,
My wife and I became rather interested in trees from other countries, accelerating in 1983 during a Perth posting. It was a rewarding hobby. We joined the International Camellia Society, the Australian Rhododendron Society and more. Went on half a dozen international garden tours, cherry blossoms in Japan, rhodos in GB, collected very rare yellow flowering camellias in western China, dogwoods in USA, etc.
There is nothing wrong with spreading botanic beauty from one country to another. If you have not done it so far, do take a few hours exploring your nearby Botanic Garden, preferably with a guide or handbook.
Readers who are afraid of suggestions that do not involve virtual keyboards and batteries have most to gain.
Geoff S
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There are advantages and disadvantages with either evergreen or deciduous trees. A lot depends on species. I would agree that deciduous are probably better in Summer but unfortunately they are a pain in Autumn in most localities. Leaves blocking drains, nuts causing walking hazards for pedestrians. It should be a mix and where there are eucalyptus etc, they just need constant maintenance.
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Parking under some of those trees which have berries or similar can lead to a very messy car.
And some of them stick like superglue !
Not to mention the bird droppings (or bat droppings)
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The roots can also cause major issues with footpath, cycleway and road pavements…
… leading to expensive repairs or insurance claims.
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In Australia most local councils will no longer plant large trees (or to be pedantic, trees which will grow large) because they are terrified that a large tree will fall on someone or their house or car and they will be sued. So they just plant small to medium sized trees in the street. And usually quite pathetic ones.
In any case, there is no law against owners of city buildings making rooftop or balcony gardens if they want to, or even green groups getting involved and building their own green buildings. Or in suburbia, home owners making their own green solutions.
Lets stop demanding “government” do everything, including our thinking, huh?
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“Lets stop demanding “government” do everything, including our thinking, “
Well said, David.
But remember, in most councils you will need permission to plant anything on the nature strip, and they will only allow certain plant species.
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Agreed b.nice. I had in mind council plantings on nature strips.
Also, for overseas readers the Australian term “nature strip” is equivalent to US “road verge” or numerous other names, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_verge?wprov=sfla1 Interestingly the term “verge” is also used in Western Australia according to that article.
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Way back when cable tv was starting out the overhead street cables were run a couple of feet below the power lines using the existing power poles. A separate council initiative some months after the cable run saw trees planted in numerous local streets to beautify the neighbourhood. These trees of course all grew at the same rate and “suddenly” the tv cables were running through the branches and branches rubbing against live wires is never a good idea. No worries. The tree whisperers came out and cut out all the centre branches of every tree endangering tv transmission and this gave us a neighbourhood of Y trees. The trees now expended all their energy growing the remaining branches which increased their overhang on the road and footpath. Trouble now became having to drive around the bits of branches knocked off whenever a large delivery truck went through the street – tv reception remained great so no worries not tv broadcasters problem.
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DM,
Agree 100%.
A few months ago I read that the writer was interested in acquiring mineral rights over a property, then ended by saying that it would not happen because the government might not agree.
How far down a sad road of no return we have come? Next, people will be considering life without children because some authority might not agree. I am old enough to have dated pre contraceptive pill and can contribute the perpetual observation that, in the heat of the moment, nobody gives a bugger who might not approve.
Yet there is a growing sector of clueless autografts paid to tell others what they can and cannot do, even to the extent of challenging Nature. How quaint! Geoff S
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I like the idea of more trees but I think the gains would be minimal.
Here’s their modelling quote from the study.
Note that 6700 premature deaths for 2015 in all of the European cities is a very small number and I’d doubt their models are very accurate anyway.
Cold deaths are the biggest global killer EVERY YEAR all around the world, even in hot countries like Australia and most deaths are from moderate cold according to another much larger Lancet study ( 74 million people) in 2015.
Note the big 2015 Lancet study was from actual global deaths and no modelling used at all.
Here’s that quote again from the latest 2023 study.
“Modeling found that increasing tree cover to 30 percent would shave off 0.4 degrees Celsius (0.7 degrees Fahrenheit) locally, on average, during hot summer months, they reported in The Lancet.
Of the 6,700 premature deaths attributed to higher temperatures in 93 European cities during 2015, one third could have been prevented, according to the findings”.
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0.4 degrees?? Models don’t walk under the trees.
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Now imagine there wasn’t
“An episode of life in a 15 minute Smart City” – “life in a small flat/pod”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2023/02/01/ill-build-a-shelter-from-the-bleached-white-bones-of-my-enemies-before-i-live-in-a-smart-pod/
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So here we are at the 2nd of February in North Central Victoria, radio is issuing sheep weather alerts with cold wet and windy conditions expected over the next 24 hour period. This, in what is traditionally the hottest month of summer, Hmmm. I think this cold outbreak is a direct result of Dan banning the harvest of native forest timber. All those extra trees have certainly reduced the temperature in my district.
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No. It’s the Governments fault – both sorts. They’ve been claiming for years to be “fixing the climate” and have you ever heard of a Government project that worked successfully?
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This from a bloke driving into Texas in a semi – due to ice
“Took an hour to get 15 miles out of Oklahoma, and I haven’t made it 4 miles into Texas in 2 hours.”
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The irony is this study actually puts a lie to not just the whole global warming scare but puts in question the data on which it’s based. I get really frustrated that many sceptics still say “ I know the world is warming but it’s not dangerous.” Don’t concede anything even the suggestion the world is warming! Everything I read tells me that the official data that supports this statement is questionable. If one looks at the homogenisation of data it always leads to reduction in historical temperatures and increasing of recent data. Logic based on the impact of the Urban heat island effect suggests the adjustments should be otherwise. If increasing the canopy causes such a reduction in the temperature what does concrete and plane exhaust do to increasing the temperature. We know for a fact that there was a decline in temperatures from the 1930s to the 1970s to such an extent that they feared an ice age but subsequent “ adjustments’ by the BOM have all but eliminated that. Audit of the BOM would I think do more to lay bare the problematic nature of the global warming theory such that I think that any warming that has taken place is way less than claimed even though that is still way less than predicted. When one takes into account that 80% of the world is ocean where temperature data is sparse the claimed increase of 1.5 degrees is probably less than the margin of error. When we then take into account that in a geological sense we are coming out of a little ice age for the last few centuries it is impossible with any certainty to say whether the impact of man made CO2 is increasing ( or even decreasing) global temperatures above and beyond a normal geological cycle.
The uncertainty of the data should mean that rather than making massive changes that are costly and detrimental to a functioning society the world should be looking at practical ways to mitigate the impacts of climate and temperature which are always prevalent.This is exactly what has happened for the last 100 years and is exactly why deaths from climate events have plunged by over 90% . Despite trillions being spent on wind turbines and solar panels I don’t believe anyone can point out one person whose life has been saved by such infrastructure. On the other hand I suspect there will be examples of people who have already died from extreme weather due to not having electricity either due to expense or unreliability.
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Agree with you. And I am happy to participate in any audit of the BOM, as I carry out Quality audits and know how to find where the skeletons are buried.
But the Left will fight to the death to avoid any in depth review of the BOM as they know in their heart of hearts there will be so many problems uncovered.
The reality is that any organisation should welcome outside assessment and this inevitably makes for better outcomes. In the Food industry we have many audits taking place annually and companies are well aware that they must keep their systems and practices up to scratch all the time.
It is quite simply appalling that the BOM and other govt organisations are not subject to independent auditing – what waste and issues we could uncover with proper in depth reviews of such organisations – but that is why the govt and bureaucrats want to stop any such thing happening. Says volumes about the terrible culture we now have in place…
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Well known that patients recover more quickly if they can see green space. Also helps avoid burn-out in medical staff. Yet we still build hermetically sealed hospitals with no natural light.
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More information here:
Using Trees and Vegetation to Reduce Heat Islands.
An excerpt:
Trees and vegetation lower surface and air temperatures by providing shade and through evapotranspiration. Shaded surfaces, for example, may be 20–45°F (11–25°C) cooler than the peak temperatures of unshaded materials.1 Evapotranspiration, alone or in combination with shading, can help reduce peak summer temperatures by 2–9°F (1–5°C).
Should there be annual conferences on the potential for ‘dangerous man-made cooling’?
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PS I read a while ago that evaporative cooling towers are being used – in Texas, I think it was – to reduce ambient temperature in public spaces, but I couldn’t find a reference to it just now. Anyone?
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What part of Texas? The dry inland or the humid coastal areas? The latter would welcome relief from the humidity but unfortunately evaporative cooling doesn’t work well then. See Darwin or coastal Queensland where refrigerated types work.
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I think it was a public space in the centre of Austin. Mind you, this was years ago, long before the warming scare was invented.
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AGAIN here’s the Lancet study of 74 million deaths. Here’s their findings and the link and note FIG 2 graphs of countries including Australia. Also this was for a very long period from 1985 to 2012 or 27 years.
Moderate COLD was the big killer and certainly NOT HEAT or extreme COLD deaths.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)62114-0/fulltext#seccestitle80
“Findings”.
“We analysed 74 225 200 deaths in various periods between 1985 and 2012. In total, 7·71% (95% empirical CI 7·43–7·91) of mortality was attributable to non-optimum temperature in the selected countries within the study period, with substantial differences between countries, ranging from 3·37% (3·06 to 3·63) in Thailand to 11·00% (9·29 to 12·47) in China. The temperature percentile of minimum mortality varied from roughly the 60th percentile in tropical areas to about the 80–90th percentile in temperate regions. More temperature-attributable deaths were caused by cold (7·29%, 7·02–7·49) than by heat (0·42%, 0·39–0·44). Extreme cold and hot temperatures were responsible for 0·86% (0·84–0·87) of total mortality”.
I
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AGAIN here’s FIG 2 from the 2015 Lancet study, showing 13 selected countries from around the world, including Australia.
https://www.thelancet.com/cms/attachment/79cee7d6-8e9d-4659-a6cf-f334e1403498/gr2.jpg
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If planting trees — be smart. Some are messy and some do not grow well in urban settings.
Also, search up “climbing Arborist” videos and see what it takes to remove a dangerous tree next to your house. Both danger and cost are unpredictable.
Besides, watching is more entertaining than cat videos.
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I had a nice big gum tree only 3m from my back veranda.
Early last year, it got hit by lightning.. (destroyed most electrical stuff in the house and a branch fell on the verandah roof) 🙁
The SES came next day and removed under State insurance.
Now its a stump with a bird bath on it !
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No cats were hurt in this expert felling. Woof.
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Yes!
Seventy years ago our local council planted street trees but limited them to a growth height of about two metres(6ft).
This saved interference with the power lines above and the water and sewerage lines below: we had no money then.
Now Trees have rights and anything goes; other people’s money no object.
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I have a council planted tree on my footpath, it is over 6m high, has destroyed the concrete path requiring 6m of it to be replaced, the power mob come around regularly to trim it, the garbage truck does a better job, ripping off branches each Monday, I now have to pickup the leaves every week or less, it’s a royal pain.
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Planting trees is certainly better that the grotesque windmill towers that now dot the landscape. Trees in urban areas are being chopped down by fanatical councils because too many of them are in need of expensive arbour-love to minimise “death/injury by tree branch”.
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Those trees “pruned” so the electricity wires go through the crown, are not “pretty”.
Those electricity company pruners have NO MERCY !
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Exactly. As I mention in 10.2 above I have lived in a neighbourhood of Y trees thanks to the cable tv tree whisperers.
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As usual, our previous civic leaders had way more common sense than the present batch. Drive through any of the major country towns in most Australian states and you will see lots of shady trees planted in the late 1800’s. Most were deciduous, yes, but those trees are possibly less of a problem than the eucalypts- except in Autumn. I am presently a ratepayer in 3 municipalities and their main concerns would appear to be CO2 emission reduction, non recognition of Australia day, diversity/inclusion and “pride” celebration. All pushed by “green” elected councillors. Yep, they’ve got their priorities right (sarc).
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While I understand that revegetating the urban environment can be a good idea , I would make the point that it can take over and tree root systems can destroy any construction over time . As pointed out above fire risks also multiply – imagine a tesla catching fire in a forest …..
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Planting millions of trees was Tony Abbotts plan must be nearly 20yrs ago and everyone laughed at him. He has been right about quite a few things now.
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I’m lucky to have two Morton Bay figs in the park behind me and a gate into the park. A strong north wind will blow hot air under the canopy but otherwise, it’s beautiful under there even when 40°C.
I also have enough garden space for my flat to plant small trees and vines to shade the dark brick walls. Double brick with an insulated ceiling so I rarely turn on the a/c in Adelaide summers.
It’s no surprise that the first formal gardens were in the homes of the rich in arid regions.
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This won’t happen because, as I said in another thread, the ‘environmentalists’ aren’t interested in any mitigation measures that might take the focus off CO2 reduction, a.k.a. the war against fossil fuels, a.k.a. the war against capitalism.
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Our house near Canberra had a covered verandah on three sides, most of which was draped in Wisteria and surrounded by mixed height planting. This was incredibly effective at reducing the temperature in the rooms adjacent and, when we walked around the verandah, the drop in temp as we walked through the most densely-planted part was very noticeable.
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Here’s the latest data about Aussie’s life expectancy from the ABS, compared to the rest of the world.
Aussie men now have the 2nd highest life exp and women are 5th highest.
Together Aussies M+F now have the 3rd highest life expectancy compared to all countries.
This from NOV 2022 ABS and TAS and NT have the lowest life exp and the ACT the highest. Big surprise NOT.
AGAIN a big Aussie jump in life exp over the last 30 years.
Of course the Biden, Albo, Bowen, Gore, Kerry, King Charles donkeys etc insist we’re facing an EXISTENTIAL threat.
And people still BELIEVE these idiots?
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/life-tables/latest-release
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While deciduous trees make sense to allow for winter sun, not all gum trees drop limbs. Red ironbarks are often used as street trees and car park trees because they don’t tend to shed branches and some of the mallee eucalypts would be excellent, small hardy street trees.
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In Australia 90% of the population live in towns and cities.
The Urban Heat Island effect can raise temps by up to 3 deg C
I dont think too many people are aware of this . .
Same difference between forests and open land eg deserts etc.
Probably even more. Anyone know . .
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Don’t worry – the new suburban building blocks are so small that no trees will be able to be planted without being a “danger” to the man made structure.
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I’ve noticed that, on a western Qld blazing hot summer day, a car with a sensitive engine temperature gauge will tell you that it runs slightly cooler across open areas like mitchell grass than when going through mulga scrub.
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What you will find is that the most effective trees are European and unbelievably that is a problem! Anti Racism now applies to trees which is a form of actual tree racism or specism. This is a real threat in the older inner leafy city suburbs.
One appalling neighbour moved to the country and chopped down every English tree on their property.
Councillors and botanists and ecologist are racists with trees now. So elms, oaks, plane trees which do what you say are being chopped down and replaced where possible by totally inappropriate pyrophytic, short lifespan, branch dropping, poor to zero shade brown trees which use less water but therefore also cool less. To some English trees are a sign of the Empire and Britain and ‘invasion’ and there is an active movement to replace them.
I find it hard to believe that with a country the size of Australia we are being told to remove signs of Empire by botanic dictators. Perhaps we should light fires in the parks and hunt for kangaroos, wombats and emus?
So where the beautiful plane and elm trees have a canopy now which meets in the middle and lowers suburban temperatures dramatically in summer, they are hated by some. Melbourne’s plane trees are even blamed for the hayfever which affects many when the airborn seeds are giants and no threat whatever and the hayfever only happens when a strong northerly drives the microscopic seeds of the millions of acres of rye grass into the city. But that’s logic and who knows any botany, so people believe what they are told. And delightful, beautiful, perfect shade trees are being blamed for everything.
In a country such as Australia, a beneficiary of British government, not French, Spanish, Portguese, there is always an element of animosity to our way of life by those would would prefer to be under the communist yoke. And unbelievably it extends to trees.
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I agree TdeF.
Sadly, Australia has almost a monoculture of various species of Eucalypteae which in my opinion are not as beautiful as the more traditional European and North American trees, at least in urban settings. And they provide more shade, although they do require more water.
Unfortunately, pre-European migrants to Australia had a practice of “fire-stick farming” (that is the PC name and it is celebrated but considered destructive when others do it) which meant all non-fire-resistant species of trees that pre-dated human settlement were rendered extinct.
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Woke botany now. The assault on our civilization never stops.
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And I just read that King Charles will not appear on our $5 note. There will be an image honoring “First Nations” culture and history. So I guess a six pack and a boomerang.
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In fact, Europeans were the true First Nations people in Australia. Prior to that, there was no concept of nationhood, just about 500 endlessly warring tribes fighting over territory, food and women.
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Yes and now fully supported by everyone else at a cost which must be in the order of $10Billion a year at a Federal level alone.
We went through the farce with the widely rorted ATSIC because no matter how much money we pay, their lives do not improve. I fear the Voice is just another river of money being planned with no improvement in the lives of aborigines and another legal way to stop any mining development which in fact benefits everyone.
Perhaps if the custodians of the land had not torched the place we would have a far wider range of trees and shubs suited to our dry climate. Let alone the loss of all the mega marsupials. Or we just started to complete the business of managing our land of ‘droughts and flooding rains’, something which has not been touched for half a century. Water conservation and distribution is key, as it is in California. But nothing is done because water conservation is against the narrow interests of a specific frog.
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Sounds like you are also in the “ I hate the term, First Nations” club.
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It’s ridiculous. Pretentious made up nonsense. At best the , people who lived here are in the world wide ‘lived here first’ group but that is not a nation and never gave any rights at all. Ask the Neanderthals. The world had many such groups so they were from the start ab originals. No aboriginal had any idea they lived in Australia or that it was an island continent on a spinning water planet circling the sun. Nor did anyone else. Europeans were just discovering and mapping the world and the stars which is what Captain Cook did so bravely, three times around Antarctica and up to the Bering strait and mapping all the way. It was not a voyage of conquest. There were no riches. The British were traders and it was not the search for gold.
This is all being reframed as a country, even a Nation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Underpants had not been invented let alone pottery, cloth, metal or agriculture. And in fact they were all relatively recent inventions compared to the time Aborigines had been in Australia.
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Dont gum trees have a liking for drains? I have a gum tree about 5m from the house. It’s right on top of a storm drain. I tried ring barking it when it was smaller, hoping it would die slowly, but it quickly scabs over the chain saw cuts, and is now large.
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Yes they can. My experience was with a Plane tree- had to dig up the whole yard to replace the pipes.
This was a top google hit from an Australian plumbing firm which, as well as gum trees, list a number of very common suburban exotics.
https://www.jetsetplumbing.com.au/blog/what-kind-of-trees-can-invade-sewer-pipe-lines/
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They missed the Athel tree
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarix_aphylla
Also taking over the Finke River
https://nt.gov.au/environment/weeds/weeds-in-the-nt/A-Z-list-of-weeds-in-the-NT/athel-pine
Known as “Salt Cedar” in USA, where it is a major problem in their south west rivers.
One caused me to have to re-dig a septic drainage line in a very hot summer.
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Salt cedar
https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/terrestrial/plants/saltcedar
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” A true Green hates cars more than they like trees.”
Anybody, wanna take a stab at the causes of this pathological psychology?
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I blame the flintstones.
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Dave, car hate.
I live in Melbourne Australia where many friends have their favourite streets up for discussion when wrecked by inner city greens.
Ours is the Wellington Street that connects Alexandra Pde to Victoria St. It used to be a normal 60 kph auto road. Now, from one side to the other, it has a bicycle lane, a car park lane and two narrow car traffic lanes, one each way, with speed restricted to 30 kph 24/7.
It goes without saying that bicycle riders are seldom seen.
A 5 minute car trip has been replaced with a 15 minute crawl.
I used to think that traffic control and road safety were done by rational, decision-making engineers. Now, there is abundant evidence they have been replaced by car-hating extremist ignoramuses. Geoff S
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Yep. Trees are the original, most efficient, beautiful and cheapest air conditioners. They efficiently convert solar energy to food and storable energy as sequestered carbon. What a blessing.
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The Lancet…..after the COVID era, enough said…thanks I’m busy.
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There are trees and trees. The ideal street tree, or suburban tree for somewhere like Perth in Western Australia is a deciduous hardwood, such as oak, maple, ash, plane etc. Full shade in the summer and lets in the sunlight in the winter.
Tall eucalypts (gum trees) as recommended in the urban forest policies of some Councils are to be avoided. They drop their leaves in the summer, and the leaves do not make good compost. In the outer suburbs adjacent to bushland they exacerbate bushfires. Small flowering eucalypts like the coral gum are fine, but the best trees for street verges and urban gardens are the decidous hardwoods.
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Hi Roger and thanks for your expert advice. For readers that don’t know Roger is a bushfire and forest genius involved for decades in both in WA.
I personally love the gum trees, but understand the point about fire risk.
I’d happily settle for European trees all over Perth. Any tree is better than concrete, and yes gum leaves have waxes and toxins which are not good for mulch.
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hi Jo
The danger with eucalypts is that in a bushfire situation the oil in the leaves is just like diesel. Once alight the draughts from the fire fan the air/fire and the next thing you know the canopy is alight. Once the canopy is alight good luck putting it out.
The only way to manage eucalypt forests is to control burn them very regularly, which is not done. The aboriginals did so in the past because that is how they caught their food, some light a fire on one side and some wait for the tucker to come out and beat them to death. Or that is what an aboriginal man told me in the forrest between old bonalbo and kyogle nsw, and yes he was a real black fella, and he told us so.
However back to your article there would not be enough eucalypt trees to form such a canopy in an urban environment. Other posters are correct about the mess eucalypts make and the issues with falling branches. I like the morten bay fig trees, with their big green canopy and reasonably strong branches. I also like the oaks and other non eucalypts. They handle wind and pruning a lot better than eucalypts.
The trouble today is that those wanting to protect forests and the inhabitants do not have any understanding of what they are talking about. Locking up eucalypt forests to eventually burn which they will kill the forest and ALL the inhabitants, whereas control burns in the winter months allow the undergrowth to be controlled and give the inhabitants the ability to avoid the fire. A controlled burn moves very slowly whereas a canopy eucalypt fire can travel very fast and even faster up hill.
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Tim, you are correct. I’ve covered fuel loads and aboriginal cool burning so many times I forget to say things that I assume readers here know. Bill Gammage’s book “The Great Estate” is excellent if you have not read it.
See my posts: Fuel Loads Not Climate Change Are Making Bushfires More Severe
Bushfires may be 20 times more intense than the largest fires humans can control.
I have felt tempted to play Johnny Appleseed and bring seeds from the Port Jackson Figs at Dongara south to Perth, but I wouldn’t want to put one in the wrong spot. Love those buttressed roots.
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Even the northern hemisphere is beginning to understand this:
On average, the temperature in cities was 1.5C warmer during summer 2015 than in the surrounding countryside.
https://www.newsmax.com/health/health-news/heatwave-weather-hot/2023/02/01/id/1106804/
The location of the weather/temperature reading stations may be providing bias in the temperature history?
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In the UK councils have gone round felling trees to save on maintenance costs. In Sheffield the police had to be brought in to stop protesting residents blocking the tree felling. Councils won’t plant new trees as they bring a cost such as for watering in the early stages and then leaf clearance. With the blame culture they are afraid of people slipping on the leaves they haven’t cleared, or on fallen fruit, or people being injured by falling acorns and conkers, then there is the increase in car ownership and berries and nut dropping on cars and residents complaining. And yes, these waste millions on woke rascist diversity jobs and have all declared a ‘climate emergency’ so they can waste money on that too!
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