To the Trees: manifesto-proposal for a forested Lisbon

Opinion by Pedro Miguel Santos.

I present to you the campaign/movement/initiative/whatever you want to call it "Trees on every street in Lisbon". It is very simple. It means spreading the idea and pressuring the public powers so that all the streets of Lisbon have trees. All of them, really all of them.

The illuminated sign at the pharmacy on my street reads 4:38 pm. It also tells me it's 39 degrees. In the shade. I'm not in the sun because it moves during the day and the buildings do me the favor of letting its silhouette drag. In the approximately 380 meters of this artery in Arroios, right in the center of the capital, there are two trees and a bush. It is one of the Lisbon parishes with the fewest.

It is July 13 of the year of grace 2022. The Republic is in a Situation of Contingency. The country is burning. As it was already known it would burn. And it suffocates. As it was already known it would suffocate. Yesterday, the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere released a temperature forecast model for this afternoon. There was white patches marked on the map, which meant that the predicted maximum temperature exceeded the chart's own scale. The scale ended at 46º.

We are burning, cooking on a live fire, living in an oven. Everything is going to be worse. More frequent. More intense. We're going to have to learn to live like this. We need to adapt, to transform the places where we live. To find ways to deal with the heat. We need trees.

Anyone who has been in Lisbon for half a dozen days quickly realizes two things: there are too many cars and too few trees. When the heatwave hits, it becomes all too obvious: there is no shade, no coolness, it is almost impossible to walk. The limestone sidewalks are heat sinks, and they give the heat back to the atmosphere as fast as they suck it up. Add to that the stop-and-go of thousands of cars, and the lack of breeze, and what we have on our streets between hills is a sauna. Of hot, polluted air. There are hundreds of streets without a single tree, without shelter from the sun, without birdsong, without flowers, without bees, without diversity of life.

We need to lower the temperature of our cities or we won't be able to live in them. At least the poor people, who walk, take public transportation, who don't have a car. Those who live in poorly insulated houses, without air conditioning. Those who don't leave home in the morning, don't take an elevator down to the garage, don't get in a vehicle to work, park in another garage, take another elevator up to a comfortable chair. All of this is air-conditioned.

If you live in this city, work here, or simply love it, I tell you: we need to roll up our sleeves.

Idea

Trees in all the streets of Lisbon. When I say all, I mean all. Be it in Restelo, in a municipal district in Santa Clara or in some forgotten alley in Marvila. Every street in Lisbon should have trees planted.

Action

Lisbon has too much public space reserved for cars. If it's hard enough to have sidewalks where people can circulate comfortably and safely, imagine taking away space to plant trees. I propose something more radical, which goes to the root of the problem. For every three existing parking spaces one is removed and will give way to the planting of a tree. It is simple: 2 cars / 1 tree. This space that was previously occupied by a vehicle is now reserved in its entirety for planting plant species, shrubs, and installing street furniture such as small tables or benches.

It sounds simple, I am sure it won't be. It will require several studies, not only to know which species will be more appropriate to each street (either due to solar orientation or rainfall regimes) but also, because in some cases it can be counterproductive to plant trees, they can prevent a good dispersion of pollutants and aeration of the area. Not for this reason: make pergolas, trellises, entire corridors of mixed vines of fruitful and ornamental species. As long as there is shading and green life, let's discuss solutions.

If this doesn't get approved at the Town Council meeting, let's try via the Parish Councils. If this doesn't work, let's go to the Participative Budgets. If this still doesn't work, let's try local associations, schools, churches, neighborhood committees, unions, whoever comes handy.

If it still goes wrong, look, I'm all over it. If the authorities don't do it, the people will: pick, shovel, hoe, dirt, trees, water. Plant in the fall, which is when tree roots develop best, which increases their survival rate. Or take inspiration from these stories:

What I am going to do

Honestly, all I know is that it will be tough. I know that the idea of taking away parking spaces is anything but popular; that both the municipal executive and the Arroios Parish Council, where I live, will not look kindly on the idea. But that's what least matters to me. We live in a Democracy, and ideas are very powerful weapons. I want to live in a city where everyone has the right to walk in the street, come rain or shine. I have the right to enjoy a Lisbon with trees, to walk in a shady Lisbon, to listen to the chirping of the birds. If we have reached the time when you think this is utopian, then utopias are dead.

For now, I'm going to hit on this:

Begin dissemination on and from social networks of the base ideas: Trees on every street in Lisbon = 2 cars / 1 tree;
Submit an application to the Lisbon Participatory Budget 2022 for the parish of Arroios;
Bringing people and wills together around this idea;
Meet with policy makers and public and private institutions to present the idea.

How can you help?

It will take many hands to make this idea go from theory to practice.

Promote the social network pages [Twitter, Instagram e FacebookYou can do this by sharing the information as it comes out and by inviting people from your family and friendships.

You can also send me an email, explaining how you could help to arvorestodasruaslisboa@gmail.com.

Who I am

My name is Pedro Miguel Santos. I like to say that I am a country boy. I grew up and lived most of my life in a village in the municipality of Porto de Mós, but I've been living in or around Lisbon for 14 years now.

I am a journalist, working in Smoke. I started in VISION. In between, I took a break from information, and helped bring to life the Free Rivers Projectof the environmental association GEOTA.

I'm not one to linger when I think things need to be changed.
For the times to come I have adopted the following motto: Sous les pavés, les arbes.

To Trees.

Lisbon, July 13/14, 2022
Pedro Miguel Santos