Ruth Ryals rryals@comcast.net ________________________________ From: Comcast <rryals@comcast.net> Sent: Saturday, October 10, 2020 1:07:51 PM To: portersquare@googlegroups.com <portersquare@googlegroups.com> Subject: Fwd: [livablecambridgeopen] The Atlantic defends our urban trees Ruth Ryals rryals@comcast.net ________________________________ From: livablecambridge@googlegroups.com <livablecambridge@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Heather Hoffman <heather.m.hoffman.1957@gmail.com> Sent: Friday, October 9, 2020 10:52:46 PM To: Heather Hoffman <heather.m.hoffman.1957@gmail.com> Subject: [livablecambridgeopen] The Atlantic defends our urban trees The Atlantic has a new article<https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/10/trees-need-be-future-proofed/616660/> about how important and how endangered urban trees are. Here's a taste: American cities are host to 3.8 billion trees—on sidewalks, in parks, in our front yards and backyards, outside houses of worship and office complexes. They’re crucial for urban life: Most notably, trees cool down cities by creating shade and engaging in transpiration, the process by which they return water vapor into the atmosphere. Together, these effects can lower the temperature of a city street a few degrees<https://thought-leadership-production.s3.amazonaws.com/2016/10/28/17/17/50/0615788b-8eaf-4b4f-a02a-8819c68278ef/20160825_PHA_Report_FINAL.pdf> (and as much as 10 degrees, as one recent study found<https://www.pnas.org/content/116/15/7575>). Studies have also found that well-placed trees can reduce air-conditioning costs by about one-third<https://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr201/psw_gtr201.pdf>. Trees also remove up to 24 percent of dust<https://blog.nature.org/science/2016/10/31/planting-healthy-air-can-urban-trees-help-clean-up-pollution/>; studies show that kids who live near urban trees have lower rates of asthma<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3415223/>. Trees can even make pavement last a decade longer<https://www.fs.fed.us/psw/topics/urban_forestry/products/cufr639mcpherson-JOA-pavingshade.pdf>. And yet Cambridge is not protecting our canopy, much less expanding it, especially in places where the non-wealthy live. We will soon be launching a search for a new City Manager and talking about whether we should make changes in our city charter. Two commercial upzonings in East Cambridge and one in Alewife, totalling well over a million square feet, are currently on the table. Next November we'll be voting for City Councillors and School Committee members. Maybe the trees need to be an important part of all of these decisions. Heather Hoffman -- Livable Cambridge is a consortium of neighborhood associations that encourages and supports citizen input to ensure that Cambridge remains a livable and sustainable community. This is a public group. If you feel the frequency of these emails is too much. you might want to consider consolidating the communications to a once a day summary. Join our Livable Cambridge Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/327170258117294/ How do I join the LivableCambridgeOpen Public Google Group? 1. For those who have an email address: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/livablecambridge/join 2. For those without a Google account, you can email: livablecambridge+subscribe@googlegroups.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "LivableCambridgeOpen" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to livablecambridge+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com<mailto:livablecambridge+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/livablecambridge/CAKZ_dR9_i1yDVSz9v1D%2BYeBkedr2LbWPzeQHmkSnWOBh_qz4fQ%40mail.gmail.com<https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/livablecambridge/CAKZ_dR9_i1yDVSz9v1D%2BYeBkedr2LbWPzeQHmkSnWOBh_qz4fQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.