Would it rain more in our city if there were more trees? Technically, yes, but with nuances.
In Juárez, it’s not just water that’s scarce: clouds are scarce too. While cities like Monterrey and Mexico City deal with storms that flood avenues, here every drop of rain is practically an event. Look, we are citizens who, when it rains, open doors or windows to watch the rain fall, something that doesn’t even occur in cities with a lot of rainfall.
Prayers for water are common, but decisions to make rain are conspicuously absent. Have you heard the popular Mexican philosophy that says: pray to God, but keep swinging? Because let me tell you…
What if the problem isn’t in the sky, but on the ground? What if it doesn’t rain because we don’t let trees grow? Trees generate rain; this isn’t romantic, it’s physics.
Science says it bluntly: trees help make rain. It’s not poetry or environmental activism. It’s pure atmospheric physics. A single adult tree can release up to a thousand liters of water a year through evapotranspiration, moisture that feeds clouds and activates rain cycles. And yet, Juárez has barely 0.5 square meters of green area per inhabitant, when the World Health Organization recommends nine. In other words, we live in a desert… which we ourselves continue to pave.
The more asphalt we lay, the more heat we reflect upwards. So-called urban heat islands are created, which not only raise temperatures by up to 5°C extra in the summer, but also push clouds away. The result is a perfect vicious cycle: without trees, there is no humidity; without humidity, there is no rain; without rain, there are no trees. We turn it into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It’s not a geographical condemnation. Cities like Phoenix, with a desert climate, have achieved 10% tree cover. Juárez? It barely reaches 3%. We’re not even trying.
And when it rains, the little that falls is useless: the ground is so dry and compacted that the water isn’t absorbed, it runs down the streets, collapses roads, and gets lost between cracks in the concrete. What we don’t evaporate, we waste.
But the most serious thing is what we can’t see: the dust in the air, the suspended particles we breathe, the increase in respiratory illnesses, chronic fatigue from heat exhaustion, the heat anxiety of not having even a shadow to soothe our skin. It’s not just an ecological issue. It’s also a public health issue.
What can be done? Here’s a proposal for minimums, not maximums:
That all public works designate 20% of their space for trees. Not planters. Trees that provide shade. Trees that live.
That every shopping mall and industrial warehouse be required to plant at least 500 trees per hectare of concrete built.
There should be real tax incentives, such as property tax discounts, for those who plant native trees (mesquite, palo verde, huizache, Afghan pine, among others) in their yard, sidewalk, or land.
There should be a culture of “adopting a tree” promoted in schools, neighborhoods, and businesses, with follow-up, not just photos.
Let me tell you, a study by the UACJ estimated that if our beloved city increased its green cover by just 5%, rainfall would increase by 15% in a decade. It’s not magic. It’s an investment in the future.
The invitation goes beyond praying for rain; it is to integrate the government, private sector, and citizens into a green revolution, one that is not partisan, but with a vision for a better city. Our seniors say: It used to rain more, of course it did. There used to be orchards by the Technological Institute, cotton fields, many pine trees, well-maintained parks. Today, we indulge in the shameless and criminalized luxury of uprooting trees by the National Army as if nothing were happening.
Reforesting Ciudad Juárez won’t bring torrential rains, but it is an intelligent measure to mitigate the effects of local climate change, make the city more livable, and perhaps, in the long term, contribute to small improvements in the microclimate.
The next time you see a tree being cut down to expand a parking lot or open a passageway, consider that this is how a city dries out. Because the real miracle isn’t that it rains. The miracle will be that, finally, we do something to deserve the rain.
Source: diario
