Getting too hot out there? Think trees!

With record global temperatures stoking more drought and heat waves, the simple acts of planting new trees and letting existing trees grow are taking on significant new importance.

“The tree is such a fundamental and often overlooked piece of geoengineering,” says Robert McDonald, at the Nature Conservancy in Wash. D.C. Increasing the tree cover on a property tempers the “heat island effect” – hotter zones caused by larger concentrations of heat-absorbing rooftops and pavement that make developed areas hotter than surrounding rural areas.

The starkest tree cover disparities exist in the Northeastern U.S. where low-income blocks in many communities have up to 30% less tree cover and temperatures up to 7 degrees hotter than more affluent neighborhoods in the same cities. In direct response, cities across the U.S. are launching wide-scale plans to plant trees by the millions.

Excerpted from “Beat the Heat”, Wall Street Journal, June 11, 2021