Skip to content

Letters: Trees fight heat

A Richmond News reader talks about the role trees play in fighting heat
Trees
A Richmond News reader says the recent B.C. heat wave is a reminder of how important trees are in making neighbourhoods more comfortable.

Dear Editor,

The recent heat wave was a forceful reminder of how important trees are to making our residential neighbourhoods more comfortable and healthier places to live in.

Trees are nature’s air-purifier and conditioner. They absorb CO2 and remove harmful carbon and other gases from the air, supply surrounding environments with necessary oxygen and provide shade that can help lower temperatures from five to 10 degrees — factors that are extremely important in an increasingly polluted and weather-challenged world.

Yet every time an older house is demolished in Richmond to make way for the construction of another over-sized pseudo-mansion, one of the first orders of business is to cut down any mature trees that are on, or near, the property.

We had a short respite from this process, but the demand from off-shore investors, buyers and money-launderers for large houses in Canada has picked up. In our block alone over the past month several older houses have either been demolished or are waiting for demolition, and a number of beautiful mature trees have been removed to accommodate the enormous driveways, multiple bay garages and shoddily built mega-edifices that will replace them (many of which, it should be noted, are likely to remain unoccupied).

If, as predicted, heat waves continue and grow in intensity in the future, the people of Richmond — particularly those in residential neighbourhoods — will surely regret we are still not doing enough to preserve mature foliage and trees in our city.

The next time the temperature soars, the air smells bad, you have trouble breathing, there is little or no shade to help lower the temperature and your sweat-soaked clothes become very uncomfortable, don’t forget to thank the developers, off-shore buyers and lax city bylaws for your discomfort.

Oh, and yourself, for not making city hall fully aware of the fact that you believe the loss of mature trees has severe negative consequences for your comfort and health.

Ray Arnold

RICHMOND