City skyline
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In Kenya, we still live under trees😀
Random thoughts
Random musings about everything.
City skyline
City in the sun
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Random thoughts 
Nice to see greenery.
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but it is fast disappearing giving way to tall buildings and roads
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Doncha’ know? People first … Nature second.
One of these days in the not-too-distant future, “humans” just might learn that Nature is what’s actually keeping them from going extinct.
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Well by that time, hopefully, we shall be extinct
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Unfortunately cities seem to think chopping everything out is the answer. I live within forestry, lakes, & rivers, so this is what I’m used to…..not concrete everywhere.
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It’s very unfortunate
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Is it really? The biggest threat to the environment and especially wildlife habitat is the demand to live in very low density pseudo-rural settings. Such settings require active use of private automobiles, one of the largest contributors to climate change. In addition, such low density cities are much more expensive to service. One study I saw calculated that the per capita miles of water and sewer pipe QUADRUPLED in one Southern American city in Louisiana. All of those cul-de-sacs and roads and pipes are expensive to maintain and ultimately may be unaffordable. In addition, living amid the trees in low density sprawl exposes populations to wildfire risk. Which, you might say, is their choice, but such wildland-urban interface fires expose other people (fire fighters, police, social service agencies) to demands on their services that can often be deadly. Low density exurbs also tend to be rigorously conservative and fixated on property values. This often has a racial as well as class bias. Donald Trump’s strongest support came not from the mythical “white working class voter” but from affluent gated suburbs amidst the trees.
That does not mean cities cannot integrate trees and nature into the cityscape. But the mythical suburban homestead on the two acre lot of lawn and ornamental vegetation, while still considered the most desirable framework, especially in the Anglo-influenced world, has some serious impacts that we need to be cognizant of!
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A friend of mine some time ago made the argument that it would be better for the environment if we parked people in cities ensuring shorter distances for sewers, roads and such like and use the countryside for agriculture, forestry and all. What I forgot to ask was where the farm labour was to stay.
I have seen conversion of fertile agricultural land to housing as the returns on real estate over time outstrip agricultural returns and at the same time, with people buying cars, they can afford to live outside the city where they say the air is fresh and all.
Nairobi National park that is a natural boundary to the city is under threat from private developers and greedy people within the state machinery who are trying to excise it for different reasons.
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The shot borer beetle is causing havoc to trees down here and I can’t begin to imagine how many trees will be lost because of this disease – for which there is currently no known cure.
Another marvelous import from the far east.
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For the moment we don’t have such a problem. Our main threat is construction sites or rather developers cutting down trees and planting very few as replacement
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There are similar situations down here.
One such, Kensington Golf Course, was sold off to developers and several townhouse complexes were built.
Maintenance costs and the decline in ardent golfers apparently.
Scientologists purchased a part of the property as well.
Replacing/replanting trees is the key.
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There are friends of mine who think we should do away with golf courses and use convert them to affordable housing. So maybe they would support this if it includes housing and green areas
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Old golf courses, when sold off invariably go to the highest bidder. I have never heard of one being utilised for affordable housing.
Besides, golf courses offer a form of green belt that might otherwise not exist, so while they may seem elitist at least they are maintained and the land is not overly ”raped” and allowed to go to ruin, or used as a ”squat’.
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My friends’ take issue with the fact that golf courses use a lot of water for one and also are elitist among other reasons
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Ah … we maybe straying into politics and similar areas. Hmmm … not really my bag, Mak.
However … very few, if any, politicians deliver on the ideas and promises they expound prior to election.
Low-cost housing does little in the long run for the overall upliftment of the community, and tends to stay low cost and all the negative connotations this term encompass
There are a great many things that could be considered to be elitist.
Bill Gates, for example, and his vast wealth might be considered a member of such a fraternity.
As for the water issue….
I’ll reserve judgment on that until I see stats.
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Low cost housing would do a lot for the low income earners it was combined with employment opportunities. This is ever hardly the case.
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Ever heard of the Atlantica Forest? No? It doesn’t exist anymore, but it *was* larger than the Amazon… ‘Till it got Portuguesed.
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This is at least promising, and there are other good signs.
From Wiki …
The Pact for Atlantic Forest Restoration has assembled over 100 businesses, nongovernmental and governmental organizations around the goal of having 15 million hectares of the original ecosystem restored by 2050.
… and there are other good signs
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We can only hope. This is pretty much what it looks like today:
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A lot of work will have to be done. I had not heard of that forest ecosystem until you mentioned it. Thank you
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The felling was madness. I understand clearing land for agriculture, but these idiots clear-felled hills, which has led to terrible erosion.
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What was it for? Charcoal or for building?
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Everything. Construction, lumber, grazing.
Here’s a really brief overview
https://www.ecolodge-itororo.com/atlantic-rainforest/
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It looks like what has happened to the Mau ecosystem in Kenya. Successive governments have allowed encroachment into the water tower and now it is a carcass
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Just did a google search and it says it was smaller than the Amazon. I heard it was [once] bigger, but I’ll take wiki to know better.
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15m ha is yuuge!
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Larger than the Amazon? That must have been a huge ass forest
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I never heard of before, either, before coming here. Seems i’m in the carcass of that beast right now.
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Golf courses are the bane of the environment, though. They are pretty, but all that water hungry grass in a semi-arid climate like Jo’burg?
I read about one Utah city, Saint George, that receives 6 inches of rain per year. They have planted something like 18 golf courses amid the red rock!
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How much water does a housing estate consume?
Many golf courses utilize boreholes.
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the difference would be that the water in housing is utilised for food and all while in golf courses, it is just to keep grass green.
Boreholes deplete underground water aquifers and lead to rivers drying and all.
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Arkenaten: At least a housing estate directly houses and supports people. A golf course just supports a trivial game for what is often the elite.
Could not reply below your comment. The nesting is sometimes starnge here!
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Hahaha. Trivial game you call it.
I am in the meantime starting a gofundme page to raise money to join a golf club
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Do they do water harvesting? I know some golf courses have ponds/ dams to catch all surface runoff
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I hear that. Every damn species that causes problems has been imported (or hitchhiked here) from the Far East. Ash borers, japanese beetles, ladybugs (really. they replaced our homegrown ones by killing them), plant funguses, oh and my all time favorite, Japanese Knotweed, generally referred to as “that goddammned bamboo”.
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I think we have them all down here in SA
These days I try my best to avoid any Chinese imports.
Difficult to do, as Chinese imports cover almost everything, but worth making the effort for though.
I read a while back that much of the garlic i nthe USA comes from China these days!
I have begun to grow my own.
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Here, it is almost impossible to avid Chinese imports. Everything seems to come from China and I am afraid, soon even our politicians will come from China
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I wonder if they would be more or less corrupt?
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More. As it is, the Chinese have learnt the language of corruption, that is, if they didn’t know it already.
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Except for the most pernicious weed species of all time: European colonists. My ancestors cannot be blamed on Asia! LOL
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You know, I agree with you on this one
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Some invasive species of tree was introduced here that ended up eliminating some indigenous trees.
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We have the pine beetle killing our trees, which only adds to the wildfire fuel.
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I am interested to find out if a country such as Australia, which has very strict rules regarding any and all alien species of flora and fauna has similar issues?
Any idea?
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Can’t say, we don’t know much abut Australia other than the odd documentary on tv, or the touristy things.
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Keep them. Re-zone green areas so that they can never be developed. Once gone, they’re gone for ever.
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Man, these country has vultures at the helm. They are the ones who grab forests and green areas to put up hotels and condominiums
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Do you live in a log cabin built by yourself out of lumber felled sustainably from your own self-sufficent estate property, Maka? I would guess not. 🙂
Hate to tell you this, but “evil vile developers” built your house, your neighborhood, your city.
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That came across as a little…sarcastic. Mea culpa. 😦
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That didn’t read like friendly fire 😦
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Since I work with developers, I wouldn’t call them evil vile people. But it is fair to point out that due to laxity in protections of public land including forests- many developers, here at least- have excised forest land, built on riparian reserves and so on.
Building in Kenya is cheaper with stone than good lumber.
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NIMBY arguments are a pet peeve to me professionally speaking. We hear people in an aging tract home subdivision argue that all developers are evil (even though a developer built their stucco and fibreboard “prestigious” neighborhood) and that a half empty strip mall needs to be “preserved” even in a vacant, decrepit state. Especially because apartments and townhouses bring “those people” into their neighborhoods!
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And don’t listen to foresters who tell you a healthy forest is one with only two species of trees in it. It’s also healthier, apparently, if you allow loggers to yank out the ‘bad trees’ and make new rutted paths. yes indeed.
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Well, nature always intended neatness 😉
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And yet, Mother Nature invented Australians. Go figure!
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Hahahaha.
Not fair, Ark, not fair
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And yet, very likely true.
Let’s be honest, look at the man with the hat?
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Hahaha
I don’t want the man with the hat to stop talking with me, so I will not say anything
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loggers who don’t care to replant trees. We are an interesting species indeed. sometimes we destroy more than we build
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I have read that in “progressive” Canada they are drowning their forest lands with Glyphosphates so they can more easily grow monocultures of trees for export. Just wow.
Our own Mango Menace, of course, is spending his time gutting any regulations that might slow down the rapacious extractive business sectors. Including extracting 1000% interest rates from the poor.
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Your mango menace has decided that regulations are bad for business
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I’m missing your Kenyan trees, Mak. Especially the fever trees and their spicy scent.
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I like eucalyptus for their mint/ menthol scent but they are greedy trees
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and fire prone! 🙂 🙂
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oh. i didn’t know
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Welcome back
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I agree. Apande ndege arudi huku
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Kabisa
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Better under the trees than under the ground. 🙂 Great photos, my Kenyan brother! 😉 Naked hugs!
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six feet under could be warmer but not comfortable, there could be insufficient air
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Nice pics, my friend.
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Thanks Jeff
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