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I’ve done volunteer work (tangentially) with one of the organizations that got a grant in Chicago. They are very much grassroots, very much from an extremely di

I’ve done volunteer work (tangentially) with one of the organizations that got a grant in Chicago. They are very much grassroots, very much from an extremely disadvantaged area, and are routinely praised by their constituents. Turns out that poor people have diverse needs and desires, some of which is access to clean green spaces.

bombcar 3y ago
More like tree roots. Part of the problem that things like this fix is "catastrophic paralysis" where you get stuck trying to find the single most advantageous thing you can do, which often ends up being subsumed into converting money into political blathering. Whereas if you spend $400m to plant trees, you get trees (or, sadly, you get trees that die instantly because you didn't manage the project at all to verify that the trees will do something, and instead burnt it on a tree planting company that doesn't care if they survive).
Havoc 3y ago
>Turns out that poor people have diverse needs and desires, some of which is access to clean green spaces. Indeed. As I said I'm not denying said needs, but simply suggesting prioritizing more existential ones.
- notatoad 3y ago
  fixing fixable problems is always a good thing. planting trees is one of those things that doesn't tend to start a culture war. poor people have a lot of existential needs, but providing food, housing, or health care tends to draw out the people who think that's a bad thing.
- bobthepanda 3y ago
  Trees are more existential than it seems. In urban areas, poor people are the most likely to lack air conditioning. Trees provide shade, preventing absorbent materials below like concrete and asphalt from absorbing heat and baking; and they also evaporate water, cooling the air. As the climate continues to change, a lot of places will become more susceptible to heat-related death. Trees are a fairly uncontroversial way to mitigate at least some of that; some estimates have the cooling effect as high as 12 C. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2298675-trees-cool-the-land-surface-temperature-of-cities-by-up-to-12c/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/2298675-trees-cool-the-...

bombcar 3y ago

More like tree roots. Part of the problem that things like this fix is "catastrophic paralysis" where you get stuck trying to find the single most advantageous thing you can do, which often ends up being subsumed into converting money into political blathering. Whereas if you spend $400m to plant trees, you get trees (or, sadly, you get trees that die instantly because you didn't manage the project at all to verify that the trees will do something, and instead burnt it on a tree planting company that doesn't care if they survive).

Havoc 3y ago

>Turns out that poor people have diverse needs and desires, some of which is access to clean green spaces. Indeed. As I said I'm not denying said needs, but simply suggesting prioritizing more existential ones.

notatoad 3y ago
fixing fixable problems is always a good thing. planting trees is one of those things that doesn't tend to start a culture war. poor people have a lot of existential needs, but providing food, housing, or health care tends to draw out the people who think that's a bad thing.
bobthepanda 3y ago
Trees are more existential than it seems. In urban areas, poor people are the most likely to lack air conditioning. Trees provide shade, preventing absorbent materials below like concrete and asphalt from absorbing heat and baking; and they also evaporate water, cooling the air. As the climate continues to change, a lot of places will become more susceptible to heat-related death. Trees are a fairly uncontroversial way to mitigate at least some of that; some estimates have the cooling effect as high as 12 C. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2298675-trees-cool-the-land-surface-temperature-of-cities-by-up-to-12c/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/2298675-trees-cool-the-...