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by sethammons 36 days ago
I predict that we will acknowledge that tree loss and city sprawl are significant drivers of drought and there will be a massive "plant trees" campaign someday.

Agriculture and city replacing trees wiped out the Mayans: https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2012/08/20/forest-razing-b...

Tree loss being a 60% contributing factor to the Mayan case. When the Mayans ran out of water, their civilization collapsed, and their technology and advanced astronomical science faded from memory.

We are speed running toward the same peril in modern times.
1 comments
harrisi 36 days ago
Your prediction came true decades to centuries ago, depending on where you are in the world. Urban forestry has been an important part of city planning for these (and more) reasons for quite awhile.
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sethammons 36 days ago
Near Raleigh, NC, we've lost over 15% of our tree canopy this last decade.

https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/wake-county-news/these...

When I think of a real plant-a-tree project, I think of replacing tree canopies to historic levels.

My prediction hasn't come true because we are still seeing net reductions in tree canopy.

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harrisi 36 days ago
I see what you mean. That article makes a few things seem more dramatic than they are as far as I can tell. The report says there was a 2% reduction in canopy coverage between 2010 and 2020 for Wake county. Or 3.6%, relatively. I can't find exact numbers for Raleigh.

I'm not trying to take the stance that there's no problem. I think we should spend far more resources, time, and education on the importance of nature. I was just pointing out that urban forestry has been a thing for awhile. The two unfortunate sides to it, at least if you ignore all the rest of modern infrastructure, is that one, there's only so much space you have to add more trees in urban areas, and two, it's treated more as a necessity which has a lower-bound to reach than an ongoing project to improve.

So, succinctly, we should plant more trees. :)

Side note: it's unfortunate that the news article doesn't link to the report, as far as I can tell. I believe it's referencing this: https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wakegov.com.if-us-west-1/...

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