Planting more trees in cities could reduce deaths caused by the summer heat, according to a recent study.
Increasing the level of urban tree coverage from the European average of 14.9% to 30% can lower the temperature in cities by 0.4C, and it could reduce people dying from increasingly high summer temperatures by 39.5%.
The lead author, Tamara Iungman, from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, said: «This is becoming increasingly urgent as Europe experiences more extreme temperature fluctuations caused by climate change».
In urban environments, high temperatures are associated with negative health outcomes, such as cardiorespiratory failure, hospital admission, and premature death. Furthermore, heat-related illness and death are expected to present an even bigger burden to health services over the next decade than cold temperatures.
The main goal of Iungman’s team is to make cities greener, “more sustainable, resilient and healthy”.
The cities most likely to benefit from the increase in tree coverage are in the south and eastern Europe. There, summer temperatures are highest and tree coverage tends to be lower.
Planting more trees in cities should be prioritized because it brings a huge range of health benefits: beyond reducing heat-related deaths, it could reduce cardiovascular disease, dementia, and poor mental health.
Moreover, many studies show urban trees bring many co-benefits beyond climate change adaptation: seeing and smelling treesbenefit health and well-being, as well as enhancing urban biodiversity.
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