However, as a new study led by MIT researchers shows, the amount of tree cover varies widely within cities, and is generally connected to wealth levels. After examining a cross-section of cities on four continents at different latitudes, the research finds a consistent link between wealth and neighborhood tree abundance within a city, with better-off residents usually enjoying much more shade on nearby sidewalks. 'Shade is the easiest way to counter warm weather,' says Fabio Duarte, an MIT urban studies scholar and co-author of a new paper detailing the study's results. 'Strictly by looking at which areas are shaded, we can tell where rich people and poor people live.' 'When we compare the most well-shaded city in our study, Stockholm, with the worst-shaded, Belem in northern Brazil, we still see marked inequality,' says Duarte, the associate director of MIT's Senseable City Lab in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP). 'Even though the most-shaded parts of Belem are...
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