Earth Day, Climate Action, & Tree Preservation

The theme of Earty Day 2020 is Climate Action, but ironically, it is inaction rather than action that has drastically reduced air pollution this spring.

After weeks of lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, a NASA analysis showed the lowest level of nitrogen dioxide emissions over the past 15 years of record keeping in the northeast of the United States.

In our home state, the California Air Resources Board recently reported a 40 percent decrease in oxides of nitrogen, a 20 percent decrease in fine particulate matter, and about a 25 percent decrease in carbon dioxide.

It is good news that the earth can recover so quickly, but cities cannot remain in lockdown forever. What should we do to keep the air clean after the coronavirus crisis?

Let's envison the post-lockdown Bay Area, where traffic congestion may return and high density housing plans are most likely to be carried out. Even if local companies start allowing more employees to work from home and traffic therefore gets better than it was before lockdown, high density housing may still invade green spaces as long as high tech companies keep hiring in Silicon Valley, and we certainly hope they do.

To shed some light on this issue, I would like to share a personal story.

When I see more and more apartment complexes in my neighborhood, it somehow brings back memories of my childhood, even though these buildings are not nearly as tall as those skyscrapers I was familiar with when I lived in an apartment with my family as a child in Taipei.

Back then, I always looked foward to visiting my grandparents on weekends. Their garden in the surburbs was my favorite place on earth. Every time my mother took me there, on our way, as soon as I saw the garden gate with bougainvillea vines thriving on top of it from a distance, my heart was filled with joy!

One of my most cherished childhood photos was captured during bougainvillea season. My mother was holding me, a toddler then, standing in front of the garden gate that was covered with pinkish purple bougainvillea flower clusters.

My maternal grandfather was a semi-retired lawyer with surprisingly strong expertise in gardening. He made sure there were flowers blooming in his home garden all year round.

The earliest bloomer of the year was the camellia tree near the front wall (as shown in the map attached to this article). In January and February, it was always laden with coral pink flowers. I clearly remember how sad I felt every March in my childhood when seeing fallen camellia flowers with withered petals, but March was when azalea shrubs on the handle-shaped portion of the ladle-shaped lawn came into bloom.

Following Taipei's one-month azalea season were April blooms of my beloved roses in velvet red, pastel pink, and butter yellow. They were still at their peak when orange-colored pomegranate flowers joined them in May or June.

Summer was when the white champaca tree near the back door emitted stunningly sweet fragrance, which would not completely fade until the osmanthus tree in front of the dining room and upstairs balcony began to perfume the garden in September. The osmanthus season would last through November, right before December's potted poinsettia plants showcased their red flowers.

In the sub-tropical climate of Taipei without apparent seasonal changes, my grandparents' garden taught me how to distinguish the four seasons. They bought their single-family home long before I was born. Their gorgeous garden was pre-existing to me and thus appeared to be eternal to me. I naively thought it would always be there.

However, in 1994, my grandparents reluctantly sold that single-family home after getting their greencards through their son (my uncle) and deciding to permanently reside in California, where I arrived as a dependent of my mother, who had obtained her greencard through her brother (the same uncle of mine). The land developer who bought my grandparents' property bulldozed it in 1995 to build an apartment complex. That was standard practice in Taiwan in the 1990s, but when I heard about it in California, my heart ached...

I was at least as emotionally attached to all the flourishing plants in the garden as pet owners to their pets. Those who have lost a dear pet may be able to relate to how I felt and still feel about the unfair demise of those lovely plants...

Two and a half decades have passed. I still often think of the former garden and wish it could have been saved. The land developer should have kept the towering trees and flowering plants while demolishing the two-story house to build a highrise. In that case, the apartment building would have a beautiful yard for the residents to enjoy.

The land developer didn't think that way, probably because housing space was terribly tight in Taipei (though it must have been doable to build taller instead of cutting trees). At that time, no one knew Taiwan's birth rate would drop sharply in the early 21st century. Currently, the population growth rate for Taiwan is only 0.18%. There is no longer any need to replace gardens with apartments in Taiwan, but the garden that enriched my childhood is long gone, impossible to restore...

I wonder if the Bay Area's current housing shortage will be as transient as Taiwan's was, not because the high tech industry will stop expanding, but because transportation will go through a revolution in the next decade.

Quantum Air, a Spanish airline company, has announced to unleash a fleet of 26 flying electric taxis that will ferry people in-between the Los Angeles region’s various airports in 2021, assuming the coronavirus crisis will end by then. That will be the world’s first electric urban air mobility network. There are more companies that are working on air taxis, which can go 180 miles per hour. Once air taxis get popularized, those who work in Silicon Valley will not necessarily have to live in or around the area.

So, if land developers cut down trees while converting single family homes into apartment complexes in Silicon Valley, they are probably repeating the same mistake that destroyed my childhood paradise in Taiwan.

If I could make a wish on Earth Day, it would be tree preservation in high density housing projects. It is wonderful that Cupertino's municipal code (Chapter 14.18 CMC) restricts the removal of certain species of trees, but why not add more species of trees to the list?

While saving the planet may sound a little too grandiose, we can all save one plant at a time!