More Tree Canopy Can Stop Climate Change from Killing Vulnerable Americans

Critics of President Biden’s Build Back Better Act have singled out for mockery two words in the two-thousand-plus-page, roughly two-trillion-dollar legislation. Seizing on the words “tree equity,” FreedomWorks, a conservative advocacy group, told its more than four million Facebook followers, “The Democrats want YOU American Taxpayers to shell out $3 BILLION for ‘non-racist’ trees.” House Republican Whip Steve Scalise tweeted, “Dems’ far-left spending bill exposed: $2.5 BILLION of American taxpayer money for ‘tree equity.’ RT so everyone sees! Don’t let them get away with sneaking this through.” Even the Times, ignoring its earlier reporting, didn’t seem to take the issue seriously, running the headline, complete with scare quotes, “From Electric Bikes to ‘Tree Equity,’ Biden’s Social Policy Bill Funds Niche Items.” The story characterized funding for the initiative as one among dozens of “obscure measures and special interest breaks.”

Although the term “tree equity” is far from “yes, we can” in terms of effective political rhetoric, it is a reference to research showing that more tree canopy can save lives. This summer, when a once-in-a-millennium heat wave enveloped the Pacific Northwest, shattering high-temperature records and ending hundreds of lives, people in neighborhoods with scant tree cover suffered the most. Five of the at least sixty-two people who died of hyperthermia in the Portland metro area, for instance, lived in the lower-income Lents neighborhood, where in some areas trees shade just ten per cent of the surface—compared with Marquam Hill, where trees shade more than sixty per cent of the surface and no one died.

A paucity of vegetation, along with dense concentrations of concrete and asphalt, create a phenomenon known as urban heat islands, which retain and intensify high temperatures. These islands are found largely in underserved communities, which often bear the brunt of extreme-heat events. At the peak of this summer’s heat wave, for example, when the Portland State University researcher Vivek Shandas measured ambient temperatures throughout the city, he recorded a thirteen-degree difference between one of the city’s poorest (and most treeless) neighborhoods and one of its wealthiest (and more verdant).

In July, Shandas testified to members of Congress—during a House Science, Space, and Technology Committee hearing—that the heat in Portland killed discriminately, just as it does in cities everywhere. “Historical segregation policies, such as redlining,” Shandas explained, “have enduring effects that . . . isolate communities of color, immigrants, and lower-income folks into areas of cities that are today upwards of twenty degrees Fahrenheit hotter than other parts of the same city.”

The tree-equity portion of the Build Back Better Act aims to redress some of those decades-old policies. In its current form, the bill, passed by the House earlier this month, earmarks three billion dollars to expand and protect urban tree canopies, with priority toward neighborhoods where thirty per cent or more residents live below the poverty line and in areas “with lower tree canopy and higher maximum daytime summer temperatures compared to surrounding neighborhoods.” Grants would go to nonprofits and state and local governments to achieve equity goals. According to one estimate, that will require five hundred and twenty-two million new trees in urban neighborhoods.

Municipal leaders say that the funding is urgently needed. In Arizona, more than three hundred people died from heat-related illness in Maricopa County last year—and at least four hundred and ninety-four people statewide. Kate Gallego, the mayor of Phoenix, the county seat, has made increasing tree cover a pillar of her administration’s agenda. Gallego was the first U.S. mayor to sign an agreement with the conservation nonprofit American Forests to achieve citywide tree equity by 2030, a goal that could require planting as many as ten thousand trees annually—all the more challenging given Phoenix’s desert climate and the need for drought-resistant trees like willow acacia and palo blanco.

Gallego said that the money in Build Back Better would have an immediate impact. “This level of funding, if we were successful in getting a grant, could mean that all of our low-income neighborhoods could see a tangible difference,” she told me last week. The bill, if approved, could help Phoenix reach its equity objective well before 2030. But she remains cautious. “We do want to make sure that the tree portion in the Build Back Better legislation continues to be in the bill,” the mayor said.

As the House version of the measure reaches the Senate for a vote in the weeks ahead, it is expected to undergo significant changes. Republicans continue to ridicule “tree equity.” “What else is in the bill?,” Senator Todd Young, from Indiana, asked rhetorically. “How about three billion dollars for tree equity—tree equity—whatever that means. You can’t make this stuff up.” And from Roy Blunt, of Missouri: “If you look at what is actually in that legislation as it comes out of the House, some of the things are pretty amazing. There is . . . a project called tree equity. Now, I don’t think that is to make all the trees the same size.” With a one-vote Democratic majority in the Senate, there’s the risk that the funding could be cut to appease moderate Democrats like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. (A spokesperson for Gallego told me that the mayor has not discussed provisions for trees in Build Back Better with her fellow-Arizonan Sinema.)

Hyperthermia is already one of the most common causes of natural-disaster mortality. As global temperatures rise, owing to human-caused climate change, we will see more and more of it. While mocking tree equity, critics of the provision ignore what it’s like to die of extreme heat. When core body temperature reaches a hundred and four degrees and higher, a person can become confused or lost in a delirium, nonresponsive. Heat-stroke victims are consumed by nausea and difficulty breathing. They vomit. They can’t hold water. Finally, the body breaks down. Organs fail and emit toxins. It is a painful, often lonely death. It’s also a preventable one.

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