Trend Watch March 2024
How a Colombian city cooled dramatically in three years Focusing on plants and people, Peter Yeung writes about how Medellín, known as the City of Eternal Spring with its year-round high temperatures, has created a people-led scheme of ‘green corridors’ to keep cool on the website ‘Reasons to be Cheerful.’ The project to plant and maintain hundreds of thousands of trees and plants across the city is carried out by 150 citizen-gardeners, who come from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds, with the support of 15 specialised forest engineers. Yeung said: “The $16.3 million initiative led to the creation of 30 Green Corridors along the city’s roads and waterways, improving or producing more than 70 hectares of green space, which includes 20 kilometres of shaded routes with cycle lanes and pedestrian paths. …