City Trees Save Lives, First-of-Its-Kind Study Finds

 Ecowatch - A new study published in The Lancet Tuesday found that increasing the tree cover to 30 percent in 93 European cities could have prevented 2,644 heat-related deaths over a summer period. “We already know that high temperatures in urban environments are associated with negative health outcomes, such as cardiorespiratory failure, hospital admission, and premature death,” study lead author Tamar Iungman of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health said in a press release. “This study is the largest of its kind, and the first to specifically look at premature mortality caused by higher temperatures in cities and the number of deaths that could be prevented by increasing tree cover.”