Heathrow: about as grey as it gets. Photo: CC from Sharkbait@Flickr
"There's too much grey in Britain, and not enough green." After a long, wet winter, that statement might not seem that surprising. But according to landscape watchdogs Natural England and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, it's not just a general assessment of the nation's weather, it's an official judgement of what the government spends our money on.
According to Natural England and CABE, the government spends far too much on the 'grey' - tarmac and concrete stuff like more roads and airports - and ignores the 'green' - things like trees, parks or even green roofs for houses.
It turns out that with the money allocated for building roads over the next five years, we could instead fund 1,000 new parks. The money the government would like to be spent on building a new runway at Heathrow could be used to plant an astonishing 22 million trees.
Airplot: Getting progressively greener as the grass grows.
Of course, the grey stuff is mostly bad for the natural environment, our health and the climate, while the green stuff is mostly good. The work shows the terrifyingly short-term thinking that drives how we spend public money. There's some fascinating detail in the report as well - did you know, for example, that as well as absorbing carbon, more trees in cities also reduce asthma rates and help reduce the harmful effects of heatwaves by cooling the surrounding areas?
Of course, we totally dig the 'green better than grey' argument. The Airplot is a little bit of green at Sipson, site of the proposed Heathrow third runway - which would be about as grey as it gets. If you haven't yet, you can sign up to be part of Airplot here. Join us in fighting for more green, and less grey.
