Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Can you see three trees?

not-ship.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 155 posts

Re: Can you see three trees?

#31

Post by Jakob »

paulmooreparks wrote: post #22

Singapore here, checking all the boxes. 200m from a neighborhood park with many trees, and ~700m from a GARGANTUAN park, Jurong Lake Gardens, over 4 km in length with many times that in pathways through gardens and around a lake.

Yes, Singapore is great for that. But to be fair with the other cities, it’s very hard _not_ to have abundant vegetation in tropical rainforest climate. Everything grows rapidly and stops at nothing in its way.

In other climates, like European ones, this becomes much more complex. Germany struggles even to keep its forests alive with long stretches of missing rain, higher temperatures, and new pests. Single trees in cities constantly die. Spain is in large parts a desert etc.

I really hope we find a solution/adapted plants to keep cities from heating up so much.

Re: Can you see three trees?

#32

Post by ccppurcell »

Tree cover is great but I wish cities would just consider shade a bit more. As the world heats up, it's insane that so many places humans need to be for extended amounts of time have enough shade for a handful of people at best and often nothing. I'm thinking long sidewalks, waiting areas, playgrounds.

Re: Can you see three trees?

#34

Post by jamiecurle »

ErroneousBosh wrote: post #5

No data for NW Scotland, presumably because 140mph winds for four weeks of the year (in the local language we call that "January") is incompatible with large trees.

For sure, it was one of things that got me about Orkney.

Mind you, wars and sheep did have a pretty devastating effect on the Caledonian woodland cover of the highlands. The current population of the red deer aren't helping with natural regeneration. This is one of the reasons for the case for re-introducing predator species.

But that's a complex topic with no simple answers and easy divisions.

Re: Can you see three trees?

#35

Post by eru »

paulmooreparks wrote: post #22

Singapore here, checking all the boxes. 200m from a neighborhood park with many trees, and ~700m from a GARGANTUAN park, Jurong Lake Gardens, over 4 km in length with many times that in pathways through gardens and around a lake.

I can't see any trees from my window right now. But that's just because I'm in the groundfloor of a shophouse (in Singapore).

Yes, it's pretty green here.

Now, if we could ban street parking like Japan did [0], and perhaps take some more inspiration from Dutch traffic planning..

[0] Ideally we'd get the Gahmen out of the car parking business completely.

Re: Can you see three trees?

#36

Post by eru »

Jakob wrote: post #31
paulmooreparks wrote: post #22

Singapore here, checking all the boxes. 200m from a neighborhood park with many trees, and ~700m from a GARGANTUAN park, Jurong Lake Gardens, over 4 km in length with many times that in pathways through gardens and around a lake.

Yes, Singapore is great for that. But to be fair with the other cities, it’s very hard _not_ to have abundant vegetation in tropical rainforest climate. Everything grows rapidly and stops at nothing in its way. In other climates, like European ones, this becomes much more complex. Germany struggles even to keep its forests alive with long stretches of missing rain, higher temperatures, and new pests. Single trees in…

> Yes, Singapore is great for that. But to be fair with the other cities, it’s very hard _not_ to have abundant vegetation in tropical rainforest climate. Everything grows rapidly and stops at nothing in its way.

Eh, have a look at other tropical cities like Johor Bahru or Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur and you can see that it's very much possible to have way less greenery than Singapore.

The recent trouble with the Borkenkäfer was just a consequence of monoculture. Germany doesn't struggle with keeping forests alive: it's normal at any one time for individual trees in forests to die. Decaying dead wood is important for the ecosystems.

Re: Can you see three trees?

#37

Post by NoboruWataya »

thebrid wrote: post #16
jamiecurle wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what parts of London you were in, but there's many trees in London on sidewalks. There's even a specific species for it - the London plane (Platanus × hispanica) If you're in the very new, constantly rebuilt, concrete jungle that is the very small part of the city, then OK, greenery is going to be hard to spot. Particularly as they tend to nearly always choose the wrong species to plant and aftercare is…

I'd echo the gp's thoughts. There are parts of the City and the West End that are basically devoid of trees. My biggest bugbear in London is the number of developments that have a "token tree" with one lonely tree in one corner, often doing quite poorly, presumably included to check some item on a planning consent checklist. Of course, London has many green spaces and on the whole has plenty of trees, it's just they'…

> Of course, London has many green spaces and on the whole has plenty of trees, it's just they're quite unevenly distributed.

I would say they are pretty well distributed through places where people actually tend to live. I live in a pretty average residential area in zone 3 and not only are there nice parks nearby but there are plenty of trees. London is of course massive so I can't say it's the same everywhere but most residential areas I've visited have been quite green. The City and West End (very much commercial/touristy areas) are the exception in my experience.

Re: Can you see three trees?

#38

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

mickeyp wrote: post #9
luuundonjk wrote: post #7

I was walking in central London and something felt wrong. I couldn't quite tell what though, but I had this constant feeling of unease. It took me a few days to understand - there are no trees in central London (the City). Sure, you have a small/big park here and there, but no random trees on side walks. It's literally a (beautiful) concrete/glass wasteland. Note: I only walked a few of the main streets, I'm sure I'm…

What? London is one of the greenest cities in the world.

It technically counts as a forest

Re: Can you see three trees?

#39

Post by qayxc »

eru wrote: post #36
Jakob wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Singapore is great for that. But to be fair with the other cities, it’s very hard _not_ to have abundant vegetation in tropical rainforest climate. Everything grows rapidly and stops at nothing in its way. In other climates, like European ones, this becomes much more complex. Germany struggles even to keep its forests alive with long stretches of missing rain, higher temperatures, and new pests. Single trees in…

> Yes, Singapore is great for that. But to be fair with the other cities, it’s very hard _not_ to have abundant vegetation in tropical rainforest climate. Everything grows rapidly and stops at nothing in its way. Eh, have a look at other tropical cities like Johor Bahru or Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur and you can see that it's very much possible to have way less greenery than Singapore. The recent trouble with the Borkenk…

> The recent trouble with the Borkenkäfer was just a consequence of monoculture.

Even worse. It was monoculture of trees that aren't even native to the climate zone. The trees were imported from Scandinavia for their superior lumber quality, and were on edge even without the added stress from droughts and heat waves.

Re: Can you see three trees?

#40

Post by graemep »

jamiecurle wrote: post #34
ErroneousBosh wrote: post #5

No data for NW Scotland, presumably because 140mph winds for four weeks of the year (in the local language we call that "January") is incompatible with large trees.

For sure, it was one of things that got me about Orkney. Mind you, wars and sheep did have a pretty devastating effect on the Caledonian woodland cover of the highlands. The current population of the red deer aren't helping with natural regeneration. This is one of the reasons for the case for re-introducing predator species. But that's a complex topic with no simple answers and easy divisions.

There is already a predator species that eats red deer. Just up our venison consumption!
Post reply on HN