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Comment by caturopath | Hacker News Reader

I don't quite follow. You're suggesting more trees in cities/towns?

Yes. The longer term environmental benefits are staggering and there are immediate quality of life and health improvements. There are also second order effects in jobs planting and maintaining trees and park areas, increased biodiversity, and better awareness of the need to take care of the earth which takes care of us. Regrowth is great but won't (directly) help those cities as much.

Your point seems a little out-of-place to me...TFA was about fighting climate change by having plants absorbing carbon, and cities are...not the efficient place for that, right?

Probably more interestingly, I am skeptical about the premise. Obviously, cities need parks and trees. Largely they have parks and trees.

I see a lot of newer areas designed with mini-lawns and I always shake my head - in an urban environment, the name of the game is density and accessibility. Don't put a bush between the sidewalk and your shop: the shops are supposed to be on the sidewalk. Half of the time, these shops seem to be hiding their main entrance in the back, next to a parking lot, because it's actually a suburb with some apartments over a dentist office, not a real attempt at an urban environment.

Aside from aesthetics, more plants (trees especially) within cities can reduce the local temperatures, along with providing habitat (food and shelter) for a number of animals.

Not OP but I would absolutely advocate for that. Urban areas are like huge toxic wastelands to the natural world and inhibit so much growth and biodiversity. Its very possible to imagine cities that integrate nature into their design rather than just plowing over it.

We could even surround all the homes with bushes and grasses and trees and it would just be wonderful https://i.imgur.com/JFeMEyO.png

not the OP but absolutely. if you're lucky you already live in a city with trees, not all of us are.

One of the things I love about my city is it was designed with a ring of parklands around it so even people living in the city without a car can access fairly undisturbed nature.

Visible on google maps here https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-34.9279778,138.6043731,3461...

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