Trees - The Natural Air Conditionersby | 15-01-2016 01:00 |
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.jpg) All over the globe trees are planted to help control the temperatures and reduce the effects of global warming since trees are called the the 'Nature's Air Conditioners'. But in real life we often don't accept this. It has always been difficult demonstrating their cooling propertis of the trees. We might measure the cooling effect of trees by comparing the temperatures in parks with that nearby streets , but that doesn't help us explain the idea accurately , because even in large, leafy parks, the daytime air temperature is usually less than 1? cooler than in the stuffy streets – and at night the temperature in parks can actually be higher. To explain this contradiction, we need to think more clearly about the physics of heat flows in our cities, and the scale of the measurements we are taking. Theoretically, trees can help provide cooling in two ways: by providing shade, and through a process known as evapotranspiration. Locally, trees provide most of their cooling effect by shading. How warm we feel actually depends less on local air temperature, and more on how much electromagnetic radiation we emit to, and absorb from, our surroundings. A tree?s canopy acts like a parasol, blocking out up to 90 per cent of the sun?s radiation, and increasing the amount of heat that we lose to our surroundings by cooling the ground beneath us. All up, the shade provided by trees can reduce our physiologically equivalent temperature (that is, how warm we feel our surroundings to be) by between seven and 15?, depending on our latitude. So it?s no surprise that, in the height of summer, people throng to the delicious coolness of the shade provided by the parks and greenlands. Trees can also cool down buildings – especially when planted to the east or west – as their shade prevents solar radiation from penetrating windows, or heating up external walls. Experimental investigations and modelling studies in the USA have shown that shade from trees can reduce the air conditioning costs of detached houses by 20 to 30 per cent. So it is very much clear that trees do provide the cooling effects in the environment . Clearly there is much need to reduce the deforestation and increase the afforsetation. We can start this individually by planting a sapling in our own house at first , then go further planting in our locality and so on .Concepts like birthday plantation must be promoted.It is now a scientifically proved fact that trees actually do purify air.So what are we waiting for? Let us go ahead on a tree plantation spree!
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