In order to create a more sustainable city, I believe that leaving more space for plants and trees is the answer. One of my strategies would be to create more community gardens throughout the city. Near my neighborhood, I have see vegetable gardens where all the neighbors gather to work on it together. Not only does this garden increase the amount of oxygen in the air but also brings the community together. These gardens would also help create awareness about going green and working to save the earth. Once the community works together, larger steps can be taken to create a more sustainable city. Another idea I have is to have a set amount of trees a city must have within the borders or create a program to increase the amount of trees. An estimated 18 million acres of trees, are lost each year, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. That's a lot of trees! We are deforesting many areas in order to continue urbanization, while we should be working to preserve the trees we have. In the recent decades, deforestation for the creation of cities and  farmland has been linked to the pace of climate change. Trees aide the water cycle by returning water vapor back into the atmosphere and without them changes in climate will occur. Furthermore, trees play an important role in absorbing some of the green house gases that perpetuate global warming. With less forests, the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will increasing leading to an increase in the speed of global warming. Forests hold large amounts of carbon that is released when they are cut down, which contributes to the greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, we should take action to promote the conservation of nature and trees within our cities.

Marie-Claire, I think your idea for creating more areas designated for gardens and plants is great and I completely agree with how it would positively affect our environment and communities. Many schools, including ours, are creating gardens that students and classes can collaborate and work together to maintain and grow. Not only does this bring more oxygen into the air and contribute to the environment in other ways, but it also brings people together to have a stronger sense of community while at the same time educating people on nature, our environment, and having a healthy lifestyle.
Similarly, I too have also seen community gardens in my neighborhood where members of the community work together to grow vegetables or simply grow plants such as flowers and trees. I think this is a great way to bring people together in a community so that neighbors can get to know one another and hopefully create a positive social environment. Like the school gardens, these community gardens also contribute to educating people and learning how we can contribute to our community and cr eate positive change. Another great aspect of these types of projects is that they look so beautiful! By bringing more nature and plants into our neighborhoods, especially more urban areas, it would bring more natural beauty and remind us of the natural world that we live in, however have urbanized.
Lastly, I read a study about the connection between happiness and ecological sustainability and learned that despite a growth in technology in our world, people often connect more to nature and are happier in natural environments. I found this interesting because it adds proof that if more nature is brought into neighborhoods and urbanized places, people will most likely be happier, have a stronger sense of well-being, and contribute to having a more positive mental health.

I think this is a great idea to help our environment. Deforestation is a massive problem that has a huge effect on the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. The reason this idea may not ever end up taking effect until it is crucial is because of the growing population and cities. Our population is only growing and people are moving all over. The only way for cities to house that many people and grow larger is for them to use all of the available space that there is. I doubt that the city thinks very much about what will benefit the planet before they cut down trees to make space. But you should check out this website: http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/v … -facts.php. It has very interesting facts about what deforestation does to the Earth that I think everyone should be aware of.

Marie-Claire, I couldn't agree more that deforestation is a serious problem. The repercussions that this has on our environment and entire biosphere are profound yet understated. Unfortunately, it seems that people are having a difficult time identifying solutions. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, planting trees in the home landscape can reduce a households' heating and cooling energy consumption by as much as 25%. This could serve as an incentive to everyone to plant trees around their home. These economic reasons could serve as motivation for people across the country, however, the true benefits would come to the surrounding ecosystems. A growing tree can absorb as much as 26 pounds of CO2 per year. This is a terrific contribution to our ultimate goal of stifling global warming. Deforestation is a very real issue and planting trees may turn out to be the most effective opponent of increased CO2 concentrations in the air.

I completely agree, having inner city sources of plant life is always good for the environment

In my opinion, I think we have to save the trees because there is a lot of natural life (including plants and animals) that live in ecosystems where the trees are essential, and if we cut down the trees the ecosystem will be destroyed and the life will be over in that place.
But of course, I agree with you that we need the trees because they produce oxygen and they reduce the pollution, but I wanted to add another reason.

I live in a village and the forest is near my house. In front of my house is aslo a 500-year-old linden tree. In the town near the village are two small parks, a botanical park and a forest, so there are quite some trees. But some of them have been cut down. I felt really sad when I saw it. I think that green zones are the heart of every town or city. I hope that they will plant new trees there soon.

I really like your idea about green areas in cities. maybe the cities  could have more parks too.