By Dan Ashley, Lindsey Feingold and Tim Didion, Grace Manthey : abc7news – excerpt (includes video and interactive graph)
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — It may be the same sun beating down on the Bay Area, but the surface temperature it triggers during a heat wave can vary dramatically neighborhood by neighborhood. A big reason for the difference is shade and the canopy of trees that line some sidewalks but not others.
“It’s a clear pattern where you can see some neighborhoods, especially the richer and whiter ones have a lot of beautiful trees, and in other neighborhoods there’s barely any at all,” explains ational Geographic environmental reporter Alejandra Borunda.
blowup from the interactive map (white areas excluded)
Borunda spent near two years researching the shade divide for the magazine’s July issue…(more)
SPUR is concerned about the inequity of tree canopies in some neighborhoods. They are calling it the shade divide, based on income levels. Who do they blame for this? And who is cutting the trees now for dense housing now? Who wants to infill our backyards? Not us. The question to ask is, why are they cutting them now?
A good way to add shade where there are no trees is to install solar panels. Not only can you generate power, or heat water, but, the raised panels add an extra layer of air between the roof and the raised panels, and the reflective surface of the panels reflects the heat off the roof. So you get much cooler interior rooms.