Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Trees 3: "Melbourne’s city council plans to strategically increase the proportion of the city shaded by trees."

Trees 1
Trees 2

Melbourne's city council is acting aggressively to augment its urban canopy.

New Albany's city council? It has spent the better part of six weeks arguing about the proper form of prayer for government meetings.

Meanwhile, the trees keep being cut to make room for the usual re-election enhancement projects.

Is it really possible that we're this stupid, or is it the water? Since every felled tree typically is classified as "diseased," it must be the liquid -- with added Kool-Aid.

The Best Ways to Throw Shade ... Just in time for summer: three smart ways cities, and the people who live in them, deflect the sun’s rays, by Jessica Leigh Hester (City Lab)

On really hot afternoons in crowded cities, the pavement seems to sweat and sizzle. As the sun beats down on tarry roads, the asphalt sometimes feels like it’s singeing your shoes and licking at your ankles.

Chalk that up, in part, to the urban heat island effect. Dense cities, packed with steel, cement, and glass, retain more heat than rural areas. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that cities with more than 1 million residents can have an annual mean air temperature nearly six degrees warmer than surrounding areas. On a given evening, that difference can be as much as 22 degrees.

Here are three smart ways that cities—and the people who live in them—can deflect the rays.

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