{"id":1230,"date":"2026-05-07T10:44:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T10:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=1230"},"modified":"2026-05-07T10:44:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T10:44:52","slug":"study-says-trees-counter-half-the-worlds-urban-heating-but-not-in-the-places-that-need-it-most-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=1230","title":{"rendered":"Study says trees counter half the world\u2019s urban heating, but not in the places that need it most"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By SETH BORENSTEIN<\/strong><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Trees are countering nearly half the urban heating from pavement and buildings in the world\u2019s cities, but they\u2019re not doing enough cooling in hotter, poorer cities where it\u2019s needed the most as the world warms, a new study found.<\/p>\n

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When averaged out over all the world\u2019s cities, tree cover \u2014 by giving shade and releasing water vapor \u2014 cools an average of 0.27 degrees Fahrenheit (0.15 degrees Celsius), according to a study in Wednesday\u2019s Nature Communications.<\/p>\n

Without those trees, the world cities would warm on average by 0.56 degrees Fahrenheit (0.31 degrees Celsius) due to the urban heat island effect, where dark roofs and pavement absorb heat. The human-caused warming mechanism is distinct from climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

Researchers built their analysis of Earth\u2019s nearly 9,000 large cities by measuring temperatures for segments of about 150 city blocks each. That allowed them to capture cooling effects for cities and neighborhoods so that trees in New York\u2019s Central Park, for example, weren\u2019t credited for cooling more built-up areas miles away in the Bronx.<\/p>\n

About 185 million people living in 31 of the larger cities already feel an average cooling from tree cover of at least half a degree Fahrenheit (0.3 degrees Celsius). But study lead author Rob McDonald, a scientist at the Nature Conservancy, said poorer and hotter large urban centers that need it the most aren\u2019t getting as much relief from higher heat, which can kill by confusing the brain, shutting down organs and overworking the heart.<\/p>\n

Meteorologists measure the temperature difference between a city center and nearby rural area to find the urban heat island effect. Scientists in this study used a combination of weather station measurements, satellite data and computer models to see the cooling trees provided.<\/p>\n

Little tree relief in hot, dry poor places<\/h4>\n

In 20 cities with at least 3 million people, residents feel less a tenth of a degree Fahrenheit (0.05 degrees Celsius) from cooling trees. In four cities \u2014 Dakar, Senegal; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Kuwait City and Amman, Jordan \u2014 there\u2019s such minimal tree cover that the more than 15 million people who live there get essentially no cooling from trees.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

On the other end of the spectrum, McDonald looked at cities where tree cover cools at least 0.45 degrees Fahrenheit (0.25 degrees Celsius). Nearly 40% of cities in wealthy nations get that much cooling, but just under 9% in the poorest countries have that amount of tree relief, the study said.<\/p>\n

The list of places that cool the most is topped by Berlin and includes Atlanta, Moscow, Washington, Seattle and Sydney, which have more trees. For example, Atlanta has 64% of its land area under tree canopy, McDonald said. Wealthy areas in North America have larger lot sizes, individual ownership and residents with more political clout, all of which contribute to more trees growing and providing larger cover, said Chris Greene of the University of Dalhousie in Canada, who wasn\u2019t part of the study.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s this inequality,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cWhen you look at cities globally, there are many, many cities, especially in developing countries, that have very low tree cover, and so I think the air temperature cooling number was a little less than we expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas Crowther, an ecologist at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, said every little bit helps. He\u2019s in a region where cities have nearly no cooling from tree cover, often because water is at a premium.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cAs up to 75% of the human population shifts towards living in urban environments, these buffering effects of urban vegetation are going to be vital,\u201d said Crowther, who wasn\u2019t part of the research. \u201cBut we have to overturn the devastating inequities in the distribution of urban trees, so that their benefits can be experienced by the low- and middle-income communities that are often most vulnerable to the effects of extreme temperatures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Planting trees won\u2019t save us from climate change<\/h4>\n

The study\u2019s authors said that cities, especially poorer and hotter ones, can and should do more to increase tree cover. But because of limitations in availability of water, land and proper species, combined with worsening climate change, at most they\u2019d reduce future urban heating by 20%, McDonald said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrees won\u2019t save us from climate change,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cThe climate scenarios are showing a much warmer world and there\u2019s only so much of that that tree cover can help with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, planting trees has benefits beyond lowering heat. In 2019, Crowther and Jean-Francois Bastin in a study in the journal Science suggested planting a trillion new trees \u2014 on top of the 3 trillion trees already growing on the planet \u2014 to suck up carbon dioxide, not so much for their cooling.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlanting trees does help fight climate change in multiple ways, but this strategy is not nearly enough to slow climate change to a significant degree,\u201d said University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck, who wasn\u2019t part of the study. \u201cOnly by transitioning away from fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy and battery storage can we hope to halt the climate change that is wreaking havoc around the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Researchers found a global average of 0.27 degrees Fahrenheit of cooling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment"],"yoast_head":"\nStudy says trees counter half the world\u2019s urban heating, but not in the places that need it most - Silicon Valley Moving Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=1230\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Study says trees counter half the world\u2019s urban heating, but not in the places that need it most - 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