March 21, 2018 was International Day of Forests. The United Nations General Assembly declared March 21 International Day of Forests in 2012. The day is set aside annually to celebrate and stir up awareness of the importance of forests. On such a day all are encouraged to organize activities revolving around forests and trees. Tree planting is one such activity. The theme for 2018 is “Forests and Sustainable Cities”.
CPF AND THEME
Realizing the indispensability of the benefits of forests and trees to urban dwellers (for that matter mankind), the Collaborative Partnership on Forests came up with the 2018 theme. Themes for the International Day of Forests is chosen by the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF).
The CPF comprises of the following
bodies:
- Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations
- United Nations Environment Program
- United Nations Development Program
- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
- World Agroforestry Centre
- World Bank
- Global Environment Facility
- Others
The theme ties in with the eleventh UN
SDG goal which is “Sustainable cities and communities”.
URBANIZATION
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines urban as: “of, relating to, characteristic of, or constituting a city”. City is a space of large human settlement with a built environment, having relatively little space for vegetation. City may be defined by its population density or built environment or both. From the foregoing it can be said that an urban area is a city. Urban areas or cities are variously called megalopolis, metropolis, municipality or district in terms of status. Cities may be contrasted with rural areas; while cities comprise of more built environment and relatively little vegetation, rural areas are largely vegetative. Urbanize spaces draw people unto themselves because those are the spaces in which you can find educational institutions, financial institutions, churches, art museums, cinemas, night clubs, paved streets, better utility services, shopping malls, gated communities, automobiles, stock exchanges, epicentres of thought and trends etc.
New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles,
San Francisco, London, Manchester, Dublin, Glasgow, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Paris,
Hong Kong, Rome, Brussels, Berlin, Bonn, Stockholm, Dublin, Moscow, Kiev,
Bucharest, Bern, Manila, Tokyo, Taipei, Beijing, Shanghai, Jakarta, Bangkok, Doha,
Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Riyadh, Accra, Kumasi, Abuja, Lagos, Abidjan, Nairobi,
Johannesburg, Cairo, Tripoli, Kigali, Harare, Lusaka, Windhoek, Luanda, Lome,
Maputo and Addis Ababa are some cities around the world.
Those are urbanized spaces on planet
Earth. If you cannot find your city in my list add your city to it.
Urbanization is spreading, and rapidly too, hence the title of this post. Urbanization
is an ongoing phenomenon. It is seen as
a status symbol. Developing countries are copying developed countries. Look at
the Middle East for example. Within a short time the Middle East has been
urbanized beyond recognition, from largely a rural setting. Close to an urban
area is the suburban area which is a residential area, and between a suburban
area (suburb) and a rural area is the periurban. Conurbation is another term
associated with urbanization. Conurbation, according to definitions.net, is a
region comprising of a number of cities, large towns, and other urban areas
that, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one
continuous urban and industrially developed area. These terminologies merely
show the nuances in urbanization. The end product of urbanization is concrete
jungle.
TREELESSNESS AND CONCRETIZATION
To a large extent, where the cities I have mentioned stand now, once stood trees (forests). The trees were shaved off the earth, leaving a bare earth, for the cities to be built. The built cities are landscaped, so some trees (for that matter vegetation) are replanted. But is there a right balance between the built environment and the natural environment within the cities? Can such lopsided cities support posterity? Did urbanization take out many trees out of the city without proportionate replacement? Did urbanization take into consideration the indispensable necessity of the usefulness of tree?
Let us come to Ghana to share with you
what I see with my own eyes. As you go to Madina, when you reach Atomic
Junction lift up your eyes and look at the range of mountains before you. If
you use that route regularly, and you are one who is sensitive to the natural
environment, you would notice that something is happening to that range of
mountains. I use that route regularly. From house in La, La Dadekotopon I get
down at Atomic Junction and take another taxi to Ashongman Estates. Buildings
are springing up on the side of the mountains, range of mountains- Akuapem
Mountains. First I see a mountainside that is full of trees. The next time I
see a patch of bare earth; the trees standing there have been removed. The next
thing I see is buildings built on the bare earth! This is ongoing as I type
this post, patch after patch of trees is being scraped giving way to
urbanization. Trees go, and concrete, steel, glass etc. come. Interlocking
blocks cover the earth. There are some landscaping, but then again what is the
balance between what man has built and the natural environment (trees) within
the built environment? A tree is cut and replaced with a tree in a pot. How
deep is the root of the tree going to go in the pot? This phenomenon is going on
throughout the country- Ghana, West Africa. The result of this trend is a
treeless urbanization, so to speak- urban jungle.
What the 2018 theme is dealing with is
how to build cities that can sustain posterity.
UN FACTS AND FIGURES
Now let us get a clearer picture of
what is going on in a United Nations facts and figures:
- Half of humanity lives in cities
- By 2030 almost 60% of the world’s population will live in urban areas- whenever there is population concentration population spread follows
- In the next decades 95% of urban expansion will take place in developing countries. I have just cited the Akuapem mountain range in Ghana, West Africa.
- Cities of the world, some of which I have cited, occupies 3% of planet Earth’s land area, but account for 60- 80% of energy consumption, and 70% of carbon emissions (cities occupy just 3% of the Earth’s land area but responsible for 70% of carbon emissions which is negatively affecting planet Earth as a whole)
- Rapid urbanization is exerting pressure on fresh water supplies, sewage, the living environment and public health
The natural environment as a whole is
the resource from which we get materials to make things to satisfy our needs on
planet Earth, as I have been indicating in my posts. We, as earthlings, not only take
things from the natural environment to satisfy our needs, we put things back into
the natural environment. The critical thing in this in-and-out dynamics is
balance.
COMPARISON
So let us do a comparison between the
trees taken out (out) and the mainly concrete structures (in) that replaced the
trees
TREES
- Trees use carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, in photosynthesis
- Trees release oxygen into the atmosphere
- Trees remove toxins from the atmosphere
- Trees reduce noise pollution by shielding homes from noises from automobiles etc.
- Green spaces (including trees) provide the atmosphere for active and healthy living
- Trees provide shade
- Trees produce fruit and herbs for our good health
CONCRETE,
OTHERS
- Concrete absorbs heat
- Asbestos as a roofing material traps heat (the roof of the house I live in is made of asbestos)
- Concrete buildings blocks the sun from trees under them
- Concrete damages top soil
- Concrete dust pollutes the air
- Concrete and asphalt cause urban heat
The comparison should easily and
clearly show you that man cannot do without trees in their habitat. City being
the habitat. It is not just trees only, but the natural environment as a whole.
CRITICAL LESSONS
Because urbanization cleared trees
from urban spaces, urban spaces became hot. I guess the solution was to use air
conditioners! Air conditioners, not trees.
The building of urban areas did not
consider properly the green factor, as urban areas themselves have clearly
shown. Under-treed urban areas brought to the fore the need for trees! The
result of urbanization, concrete jungles, have created a wall and disconnect
between man and nature.
My information is that New York,
Singapore and Seoul are some of the cities in the forefront of getting the
urban nature mix right. They should then be the model for others. There is a
need for bolder and radical greenscientization (root-GREEN + CONSCIENTIZATION)
of earthling as a catalyst.
I have said a couple of times in my
posts that man was carved out of the natural environment and sustained by the natural
environment. However it is becoming clearer that almost every activity of man
is widening the gap between them and the very natural environment that sustains
them. For example tomato grown with chemical fertilizer consumed by man creates
a wall between them and the natural or organic tomato.
PARTING SHOT
This year, the International Day of Trees under the auspices of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests , is giving you yet another opportunity to rethink the urban tree mix in particular, and the man natural environment interconnect in general, in a quest for a sustainable clean and balanced natural environment.
About 13 million hectares of forest or
32 acres of forest are lost annually.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_concrete
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