The city as an ecosystem

It is attributed to José Martí Pérez, Cuban politician and diplomat and founder of the Revolutionary Party, that in life every person should plant a tree, have a child, and write a book.

Since we have few children and writing a book requires a lot of dedication, planting a tree gains relevance given the situation of global warming and climate change we are experiencing. The concentration of people, economic activities, urbanization, commerce, and industry is not neutral with respect to the environment, the planet, or ourselves.

An interesting measure is that of trees per inhabitant. This is an indicator to know if our cities are equipped with enough green infrastructure to compensate for the gray infrastructure. It is not a minor measure! Trees allow us to cool the temperature of cities, absorb CO₂, connect us with nature, and even have therapeutic effects.

To begin with, the more trees a city has, the better prepared it is to rebalance the climatic imbalance in which we live. But this is not so simple: reversing a city's gray infrastructure with green infrastructure requires a large investment and forces large allocations for urban maintenance, public space, gardening, and water.

The city of Barcelona wants to increase one square meter of green per inhabitant by 2030, and it will do well! This figure is equivalent to 160 new hectares of urban green space, which will help regulate the microclimate, reduce CO₂ emissions, decrease pollution, and rebalance biodiversity. Furthermore, with a correct design of these new green areas that incorporates the appropriate species most resistant to water stress and climate following biodiversity criteria, it will not require excessive water consumption, which is always scarce.

Our species must be able to live in the city in balance with the environment, without giving up the advantages of the 21st century

Stefano Mancuso, in his book Fitópolis, talks about the living city and how to bring nature back to our habitat. He proposes renewed cities where the relationship between plants and animals is not broken. But what interests us most is that our species can live in the city in balance with the environment, without giving up the advantages of the 21st century.