• bell-cot 4 hours ago |
    tl;dr; -

    "Some Cities" is the most-arid quarter of cities - where greenery absorbs more solar energy than light surfaces, and water-conserving plant species do less evaporative cooling.

    However trees - which both provide both shade and use their deeper root to keep up the evaporative cooling - were a net negative in only 2% of cities.

    (Yeah, there are other reasons to avoid growing grass in hot, arid cities. Starting with the water supply.)