⛱Shade: A sideways look at the shadow shortage

Shade is an [environmental justice issue](. The ability to step into a shadow—of a tree, building, or shelter—should be widely accessible. Shade is not just a vital refuge from the burning sun, it can also help cool surface and air temperatures. In a warming world, it’s essential. Poor urban planning and [deforestation in cities]( leave shade in short supply, which can be fatal during extreme heat. And that’s not the only reason policymakers should cast a light on the issue. Shade trees can also reduce electric bills and carbon footprints, all while sequestering the carbon produced by urbanization. Of course, there’s more to shade than literal shadows. Metaphorically speaking, you can even throw it (and it’s so gratifying [when done well](. Let’s pull back the blinds. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( [Quartz Obsession] Shade May 31, 2019 Fifty shades of... shade --------------------------------------------------------------- Shade is an [environmental justice issue](. The ability to step into a shadow—of a tree, building, or shelter—should be widely accessible. Shade is not just a vital refuge from the burning sun, it can also help cool surface and air temperatures. In a warming world, it’s essential. Poor urban planning and [deforestation in cities]( leave shade in short supply, which can be fatal during extreme heat. And that’s not the only reason policymakers should cast a light on the issue. Shade trees can also reduce electric bills and carbon footprints, all while sequestering the carbon produced by urbanization. Of course, there’s more to shade than literal shadows. Metaphorically speaking, you can even throw it (and it’s so gratifying [when done well](. Let’s pull back the blinds. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( Giphy By the digits [96 million:]( “Shade balls” required to protect Los Angeles’s reservoir from sunlight to minimize evaporation and harmful chemical reactions [1 trillion:]( Trees Swiss climate ecologist Tom Crowther says must be planted to effectively fight climate change [9°F (5°C):]( Amount trees can lower outside temperatures through evapotranspiration and providing shade [$402:]( Estimated benefits of one tree planted in Chicago over its lifetime [40%:]( Canopy coverage needed to counteract the warming effect of asphalt on a street [$1.2 million:]( Electricity saved by 500,000 trees planted by a utility company in Sacramento, California [112,000:]( Trees lost in New Delhi from 2005 to 2017, mostly from roadbuilding [36 million:]( Trees lost annually in US urban and community areas from 2009 to 2014 [70,000:]( Death toll from a heatwave that swept Europe in 2003 Brief history The spread of shade --------------------------------------------------------------- The history of urban shade trees in the West likely begins with King Henry II, who established an ordinance that required tree planting and maintenance [in Paris in 1552](. A few decades later, a croquet predecessor called [paille-maille]( (pall-mall) became popular, and in 1597 a field was set up in Paris, bounded by lines of trees. [The trees followed the game]( Mall, a famous street in London, was laid over a former pall-mall court, as were many European promenades. In 1616, Maria de’ Medici, whose brief reign as France’s queen saw an [architectural transformation of Paris]( constructed the tree-lined Cours-la-Reine along the Seine in the shadow of the Grand Palais. Development of the even more grand Champs Élysées (“Avenue of the Elysian Fields”) began in 1670, and the boulevard model spread. In the 1850s, Baron Georges-Eugéne Haussmann’s epic citywide urban renewal super-sized Paris’s boulevards, [cutting wide, tree-lined streets]( through cramped medieval neighborhoods. Baron von Haussmann left a [controversial legacy]( and the modern urban central plan, which spread to the United States; Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago, with its wide, green boulevards, is heavily indebted to von Haussmann. The turn-of-the-century Progressive Era in the United States found new uses for shade trees. Massive population growth, and the industrialization that fueled it, created difficult living conditions that [reformers addressed]( (pdf) with light, air, and trees. Though the scientific underpinnings for the movement were not up to modern standards, the instinct and result resembles the contemporary, data-driven desire for shade. Watch this! DIY forests --------------------------------------------------------------- Shubhendu Sharma is a Bangalore-based entrepreneur who [specializes in growing forests](. He was an engineer at Toyota when a botanist named Akira Miyawaki came to plant a forest on the company campus. Inspired by the shrine plantings of his native Japan, Miyawaki [pioneered a method]( growing tiny yet dense forests in a decade. Sharma was so taken by Miyawaki’s work that he planted a [93-square-foot forest]( at his house containing 300 trees of 42 different species. Later he started a business implementing Miyawaki’s method. In a TED talk, he explains how it works. Fun fact! Do you sneeze when you walk from shade to sun? You’re part of a substantial minority with [photic sneeze reflex]( a likely inherited condition that scientists think comes from the brain confusing a signal to the optic nerve with the trigeminal nerve, “which senses facial sensations like an itchy nose.” [Read the Obsession on sneezes]( 1,000 words[Students perform under a shade made from used plastic bottles as they take part in a global protest against climate change in Gurugram](Reuters/Adnan Abidi) Students find shade under used plastic bottles during a climate change protest in India. Tree talk Planting change --------------------------------------------------------------- Shade trees are trees whose main purpose is to provide ample shade, whether that’s in cities or residential areas. These trees typically have a large canopy and crown, meaning sprawling, leafy branches. Some [fast-growing shade trees]( include the hybrid poplar and weeping willow, which can each grow up to 8 feet (2.4 meters) a year. There are many benefits to planting shade trees as well as trees in general. [According to the US Environmental Protection Agency]( surfaces shaded by trees and vegetation may be 20°F–45°F (11°C–25°C) cooler than unshaded surfaces. And thanks to evapotranspiration—when water from plants evaporates into the air—trees can also lower peak summer temperatures by 2°F–9°F (1°C–5°C). Shade trees can also reduce electricity costs. The US Forest Service [conducted a study]( of 460 homes in California and found that shade trees can reduce electric bills by $25 a year. But it’s about more than the money—by cooling homes, shade trees also decrease a homeowner’s carbon footprint because appliances like air conditioning or fans are used less. “A tree planted on the west side of a house can reduce net carbon emissions from summertime electricity use by 30% over a 100-year period,” the researchers wrote. [Planting trees is vital]( to combat climate change. Have a friend who would enjoy our Obsession with Shade? [ [Forward link to a friend](mailto:?subject=Thought you'd enjoy.&body=Read this Quartz Obsession email – to the email – AP Photo/Jae C. Hong Pop quiz Which English poet has an epitaph that reads, “Peace to thy gentle shade, and endless rest”? John KeatsGeorge Gordon ByronAlexander PopeNicholas Rowe Correct. A monument for the poet laureate in Westminster Abbey, England, bears those words. In literature, “shade” refers to spirits or ghosts. Incorrect. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. Non-tree talk The significance of the other “shade” --------------------------------------------------------------- Sometimes a sidelong insult is better than a direct one, and that’s what throwing shade—verbal or nonverbal—is all about. [According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary]( which added this meaning of the word in 2017, “shade is a subtle, sneering expression of contempt for or disgust with someone.” [Celebrities shade each other online]( almost constantly, and headlines accuse politicians of [throwing shade as well](. But historically, throwing shade was the art of the marginalized, not the mainstream. E. Patrick Johnson, a professor of African-American studies and performance studies at Northwestern University, [told the New York Times]( that throwing shade has roots in slave culture. “The threat of being beaten or mutilated was always there if you were to look at a slave master directly in his eye, or if you were to sass, so African-Americans developed these covert ways of communication, which, over time, have morphed into the traditional ways that they interact with one another,” Johnson said. The drag community and women of color have elevated the practice to an art form, as a means to lightly express anger or hurt. The writer [Tameka Bradley Hobbs said it thus]( “[Shade] is also the bitter residue of a people who have mastered the art of dismissing and humiliating others with humor and sarcasm after having been degraded for years ourselves.” Quotable “At its most refined, shade should have an element of plausible deniability, so that the shade-thrower can pretend that he or she didn’t actually mean to behave with incivility, making it all the more delicious.” —Anna Holmes in [The New York Times]( Reuters/Ueslei Marcelino Big idea 💡 Shade saves lives --------------------------------------------------------------- Research indicates that extreme heat waves will become [increasingly common]( due to climate change. When temperatures are so high that heat exhaustion can be fatal, and surfaces get so hot they can burn skin, shade is no longer a luxury for a moment’s reprieve—it’s a civic right. [Sam Bloch explains in Places Journal]( that the unequal distribution of shade puts many at risk, especially those vulnerable to heat stress like outdoor workers, the elderly, and the homeless. And it’s regularly poor and marginalized communities that suffer the greatest lack of shade-providing infrastructure and trees. “Shade is thus an index of inequality, a requirement for public health, and a mandate for urban planners and designers,” Bloch writes. It’s not as simple as planting a tree. City planning rules can be extremely restrictive, meaning that it’s difficult to transform what Bloch calls “shade deserts.” The issue is that many policy makers don’t yet see shade as a public health and environmental necessity. But in our increasingly hot world, it is. Take me down this 🐰 hole! China is coping with its rapid urbanization and industrialization with [epic arboreal projects](. And some of those trees are literally following the path from the country to the city. [Yan Wang Preston’s photography book Forest]( documents the process of uprooting trees from rural villages and replanting them in cities. Giphy Poll What’s your favorite kind of shade? [Click here to vote]( The type provided by leafy trees.The kind that’s well thrown.The shades of the underworld. 💬let's talk! In yesterday’s poll about [climate anxiety]( 39% of you said you were fired up to do everything in your power to beat back climate change and environmental destruction. Not everyone was so energized though—26% of you said you felt like staying in bed while the world burns, and 20% are plotting Yukon bunker. A 15% minority of you claim not to be plagued by climate anxiety at all. 🤔 [What did you think of today’s email?](mailto:obsession%2Bfeedback@qz.com?cc=&subject=Thoughts%20about%20shade&body=) 💡 [What should we obsess over next?](mailto:obsession%2Bideas@qz.com?cc=&subject=Obsess%20over%20this%20next.&body=) 📬 [Forward this email to a friend](mailto:replace_with_friends_email@qz.com?cc=obsession%2Bforward@qz.com&subject=%F0%9F%92%95Love%20Actually%3A%20The%20holiday%20rom%20com%20we%20hate%20to%20%E2%9D%A4%EF%B8%8F&body=Thought%20you%27d%20enjoy.%20%0ARead%20it%20here%20%E2%80%93%20http%3A%2F%2Fqz.com%2Femail%2Fquartz-obsession%2F1497758) Today’s email was written by [Aisha Hassan]( edited by [Whet Moser]( and produced by [Luiz Romero](. The correct answer to the quiz is Nicholas Rowe. Enjoying the Quartz Obsession? [Send this link]( to a friend! Want to advertise in the Quartz Obsession? Send us an email at ads@qz.com. Not enjoying it? No worries. [Click here]( to unsubscribe. 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