Yet More Data on the Value of Trees to the Built Environment

Brad Plumer shares news of a new report from the Nature Conservancy, which argues for a well-planned tree campaign as one of the "smartest investments a hot, polluted city can make." 

The new study joins a growing body of research onto the life-saving value of trees in the built environment, aggregating the findings of all that recent study to scale up the thinking about urban forestry in the era of climate change. Plumer explains:

At the high end, a massive new tree-planting campaign in the world’s 245 largest cities, costing around $3.2 billion in all, could save between 11,000 and 36,000 lives per year worldwide from lower pollution. Those trees would also prevent between 200 and 700 heat-wave deaths per year — with that number presumably going up over time as global warming unfolds.

The catch is that trees must be planted strategically and scientifically to achieve maximum benefit. Plumer also details some of the study's findings in that regard.