Facts about trees that will blow your mind
The other day, as I was taking the bus to go to work, I decided to count how many trees I saw on my way there. I only saw 10.
I live in a big city, so seeing 10 trees seemed to be a pretty reasonable number of trees to see on my 25 minutes trip to work. Nevertheless, it sparked some curiosity in me about the subject, and, being the nerd that I am, I decided to do some research about the topic.
I tried to find how many trees a city should have and I couldn’t find anything specific, but I found how much money trees can save for a city. The numbers are fascinating!
According to research done on ten megacities by Dr. David Nowak of the USDA Forest Service and Scott Maco of Davey, on average, a square Kilometer of tree coverage saved $38 per citizen, annually.
They further explain that, after converting all the data, tree services provided can save a city a median value of $967,000 per square Kilometer of tree coverage.
But how do trees save us money?
The answer: it’s all about the services they provide. In nature, everything serves a purpose and that applies to trees.
Because of their physiological and functional characteristics, they provide us ‘’services’’.
Here on this video, you can learn more about those services:
One of the biggest services that trees provide for us, aside from oxygen production, is CO2 sequestration and storage. Trees are able to capture CO2, as part of their carbon cycle, and they store it in their cellulose cells. A single tree can absorb 48 pounds/21,77Kg of carbon dioxide a year.
According to an article published by nature, trees could provide more than one-third of the CO2 reductions needed to keep global warming below 2 °C through to 2030.
This could be huge for SDG 13- Climate Action. In a report from last year on this SDG, scientists mentioned that greenhouse gas emissions keep rising and they are contributing in full force to Global warming.
We get it, trees are amazing, but what is the real issue?
Trees are amazing and it’s true, more and more cities are becoming more aware of the importance of adapting our architecture projects to include trees in cities.
We can take a look at Singapore, which became the world’s first sustainable Garden City. Approximately 50% of Singapore’s land space is covered in trees and vegetation. Not only is the city amazingly beautiful and magical, but it is also one of the greenest cities in the world combining a big population and the green that we need.
Although at the same time many are following Singapore’s lead, trees are being cut down from the world’s forests at an extremely alarming rate!
In the Amazon rainforest alone, a portion of the same size as a Football field is lost every minute!
To top that, in the last 50 years, we’ve lost approximately 17% of the Amazonian Rainforest! And the number keeps on rising!
So, as you can see, deforestation can have a huge impact on climate change! It’s not enough to add trees to the cities, we also have to stop cutting them down from our forests!
The truth is, destroying forests and cutting down trees also contributes to the growing problem of habitat destruction. The same way trees help us with air pollution, they also provide shelter for wild animals.
Why is habitat destruction a problem? If we want to avoid a future pandemic, scientists believe we have to take action towards this issue.
As I mentioned in a previous blog, it is very likely that, since we are destroying wildlife habitats, we are forcing animals into proximity which then leads them to spread diseases between each other — that they never shared before — and, consequently, they end up spreading them to us because they are also forced to be closer to us.
So, what does this mean for the SDGs?
It means we have to own up to our mistakes and take action. Deforestation doesn’t only affect SDG 13, it also affects SDG 15 — Life on Land.
Deforestation is a big contributor to habitat destruction. SDG 15 aims to achieve sustainable management of all types of forests and halt deforestation. You know, we can’t have Life on Land if we don’t have ecosystems where life can bloom.
It’s a very good thing that we fight to make our cities better, make them more sustainable. Especially because according to data regarding SDG 11 — Sustainable Cities and Communities — 47% of the world’s population lives within 400 meters walking distance to open public places.
And, if this is not shocking enough, air pollution caused 4.2 million premature deaths in 2016!
So it’s mandatory that we take action. You can take action by signing urban development petitions or even commute in a more sustainable way by using public transportation!
Step by step we can make our cities and our planet a better place and it’s up to us to be the change that the world needs!
