LA School Breaks Up Concrete to Plant Trees in Battle Against Urban Heat Inequality
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📰 The quick summary: A Los Angeles elementary school serving primarily low-income minority students is transforming its heat-absorbing concrete campus into a green oasis with trees, gardens and natural play areas to improve students’ health, wellbeing and learning environment.
📈 One key stat: 70% of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050, making today’s urban greening efforts crucial for creating resilient environments that protect children from extreme heat and pollution.
💬 One key quote: “Green space doesn’t just support childhood development – it supercharges it,” said Dan Lambe, CEO of the Arbor Day Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to planting trees.
1️⃣ The big picture: A California non-profit called Amigos de los Rios is transforming concrete-covered school campuses in Los Angeles into green spaces with trees, gardens, and natural play areas. Their work addresses the stark environmental inequality in LA, where 20% of the city’s tree canopy is concentrated in just five wealthy, predominantly white neighborhoods that house only 1% of the population. The initiative at Washington Elementary School has removed heat-absorbing asphalt, planted dozens of climate-resilient trees, created outdoor classrooms, and installed pollinator gardens and vegetable beds. Such green spaces are critical for children’s physical health, mental wellbeing, and academic performance, especially as climate change intensifies.
2️⃣ Why is this good news: The transformation of barren school campuses into vibrant green spaces provides immediate health benefits, protecting children from extreme heat that can reach 170 degrees on asphalt surfaces and filtering harmful air pollution that contributes to asthma. Trees and gardens create natural learning environments that reduce stress, encourage physical activity, and improve academic performance. As climate change intensifies with predictions of more 100-degree days ahead, these green spaces serve as crucial adaptation measures, cooling surrounding areas by up to 10 degrees. Most significantly, these projects address longstanding environmental injustice by bringing nature’s benefits to communities that have historically lacked access, helping close the gap between affluent neighborhoods with abundant trees and underserved areas with minimal green space.
3️⃣ What’s next: Amigos de los Rios will continue expanding their vision of creating an Emerald Necklace – an interconnected network of green spaces stretching from the San Gabriel national forest to the Pacific Ocean. More schools will undergo concrete removal and tree planting as part of broader efforts throughout California and nationwide to increase urban tree canopy. Growing awareness around urban heat island effects and climate justice will likely accelerate investment in school greening projects, especially in neighborhoods that have historically lacked access to nature.
Read the full story here: The Guardian – Most of LA’s trees are in wealthy, white neighborhoods. This school is smashing concrete to plant their own
