Eight days after a heat wave and a night of protests against logging to be held at the santa Ana squaregreenpeace publishes thermographic images showing the difference in temperatures between places with trees and areas without vegetation in the center of the capital.
Greenpeace cameras have recorded that the ground in some city landmarks can exceed 60 degrees. On July 31, the Callao sidewalk reached 65ºC, and the Plaza Mayor sidewalk reached 63ºC. One of the areas of greatest concern to the environmental organization is Zone Ana, whose pavement exceeded 53ºC in areas without trees. This figure is close to the 54.8ºC recorded at the Puerta del Sol, which was severely affected by the effect of the heat island in Madrid.
Nature as a brake on rising thermometers
The NGO has measured the temperature of certain landscaped areas, such as the Paseo del Prado, to study the effect of vegetation on the climate. The photographs reveal that mature trees can reduce ambient heat by up to 20ºC ( as is the case in Santa Ana). This is also helped by the creation of new Verde zones, which reduce the thermal sensation by up to 12ºC.
Greenpeace warns that renaturalizing cities like Madrid is necessary to curb the shocking rise in thermometers that we endure every summer. The organization recalls that the Daily Mortality Monitoring System (MoMo) reported in 2023 that Spain is the country where mortality rates are increasing the most deaths from excessive heat. According to MoMo, 2022 was a particularly dangerous year: 3.012 people lost their lives in 28 days due to extreme temperatures.