Trees for Cities

Wed, Jun 20, 2012

Climate Change, Trees, UK Climate Change

Interesting facts about trees from  the Arbor Day Foundation:

* A mature leafy tree produces as much oxygen in a season as 10 people inhale in a year.

*A single mature tree can absorb carbon dioxide at a rate of 48 lbs./year and release enough oxygen back into the atmosphere to support 2 human beings.”

http://chemistry.about.com/od/environmentalchemistry/f/oxygen-produced-by-trees.htm

With the world population now at a staggering 7 billion, the importance of  preserving our existing trees and planting new ones  in over crowded cities has never been more important.

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London has a population of about 9 million with around 1.75 million people living in areas that are further than 1km from an open space containing nature or wildlife.

To make their environment more green, Londoners can now log onto http://www.london.gov.uk/streettrees and request a tree be planted outside their homes using a brilliant scheme that  Mayor Boris has created.

This programme has already planted 9,500 of the 10,000 trees it wants to have in place across the capital by 2012 in 40 areas chosen by a panel of experts including Trees for Cities, the London Tree Officers Association and the Forestry Commission. http://www.london.gov.uk/priorities/environment/urban-space/releaf-london

There are manyother projects in various UK locations that are run by Trees for Cities – check out your local tree planting project at: http://www.treesforcities.org/how-we-help/our-projects/

Tree-lined streets only have 10-15% of the dust of a street without trees and are on average  6-10C cooler. They also absorb traffic noise, provide habitats for wildlife and, most importantly, mitigate the effects of global warming by absorbing carbon dioxide.

They look beautiful as well – especially when the blossom is out !

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This post was written by:

- who has written 872 posts on My Climate Change Garden.

I am not an experienced gardener - more of an enthusiastic amateur who learns by trial and error and who is keen to "manage" the effects of shifting weather patterns on my garden. Writing this blog is my passion and it has evolved over 12 years to inspire engagement with climate change outside our back doors, in our personal gardens and green spaces. My mission is to fertilise and expand this platform to grow a community of global gardeners communicating about the effects of climate change on our plants and exploring how each individual can make small changes in our lives to become more sustainable. The future of our gardens and #OurPlanet is in our hands - please plant your own seeds for our collective sustainable future.

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