Why every US citizen should live within 10 minutes of a park

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by Lucy Passmore1 view·Updated Apr 23, 2021
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  1. Hello. In today's mini lecture, I'm going to talk about
  2. the importance of green spaces and cities in the United
  3. States. A U.
  4. S. Advocacy group for open spaces has recently recommended that
  5. all U.
  6. S. Cities ensure that all of their residents live within
  7. a 10 minute walk of a park as part of
  8. their climate action strategy.
  9. According to the Trust for Public Land, a san Francisco
  10. based nonprofit 100 million us residents currently lack such access
  11. as well as providing pleasant spaces for recreation in cities,
  12. Parks provide three key benefits to city residents firstly, Parks
  13. provide a very simple method of reducing the impact of
  14. climate change.
  15. The ceo of the Trust for Public Land commented that
  16. parks for one of the few ways that cities can
  17. invest immediately in the human impacts of climate change.
  18. She predicts that the United States could boost the number
  19. of people living close to parks By 15 to 20
  20. million Over the next 10 to 20 years.
  21. Based on current funding trends.
  22. Furthermore, as cities aim to meet their commitments under the
  23. paris agreement to curb climate change, parks are proving to
  24. be a popular investment, according to the Global Climate Action
  25. Summit in California.
  26. They say that parks can be contrasted with other climate
  27. friendly measures like electric cars and adopting clean energy, which
  28. reduced planet warming emissions but provide no respite from some
  29. of the other impacts of climate change, such as rising
  30. heat. A further advantage of parks is that they increase
  31. the quality of life for city residents.
  32. People are keen for more spaces for recreation and parks
  33. tend to be more politically popular than other climate measures
  34. because they bring tangible benefits to people's quality of life.
  35. This is a big bonus.
  36. At a Taiwan's city mayors are struggling to communicate and
  37. implement climate action, sadly, parks can address additional infrastructure needs
  38. in cities, advocates believe that the best parks are not
  39. only pleasant places to spend an afternoon but can also
  40. address infrastructure needs in cities from soaking up heavy rainfall
  41. to reducing city heat and providing a coastal buffer during
  42. storms. For example, Hawaii's Honolulu is consulting with government engineers
  43. on how to rebuild its seawall as an open space
  44. that could with sat withstand storm surges rather than constructing
  45. high concrete walls.
  46. Similarly lower, Manhattan could eventually be encircled by a berm
  47. called the Big You that would provide a waterfront promenade
  48. and double as protection against hurricanes like Superstorm Sandy, Which
  49. flooded New York's financial district in 2012.
  50. There is also evidence from a number of US state
  51. that the public support investment in parks, For example, California
  52. voters recently approved A 4.1 billion bond issue to fund
  53. conservation and open space.
  54. Meanwhile, Grand County Colorado approved a 10 years sales tax
  55. increase to fund wildlife habitat protection.
  56. This suggests that there is broad support from the public
  57. but investment in parks and open spaces