Tree culling is the new fashion - but not one we should follow!

​Have you woken up recently to go for a walk around the neighbourhood park just to find all (or at least most) of the trees cut down? 
Well, it turns out you are not alone!

Over the last year, waking up to find some trees gone has been more and more frequent. An everyday thing, just like your morning coffee! After thinking it was just a local thing here in Venice city, I then discovered it was something that extended to all of  the Veneto region, and even beyond (a friend facebook post  dedicating a painting to the maritime pines in Rome ‘just in case they disappear’ made me feel extremely sad, as they are more than just trees) - from the north to the south (yeap, even in Sicily..) . And just a quick google search made me discover that is not even a phenomenon limited to my native peninsula but it extends well beyond. In England it was already happening back in 2018 (read about it here and here,   and I haven’t dared to search much more…
 
The next question coming to mind is.. Why are they doing this? The finger is quickly pointed at the 5G    tec, but also at the maintenance costs and dangers if they fell. Councils will say the trees are ill, but often there are no signs of illness. In some cities, residents are paying out of their own pocket ‘tree specialists’ for independent examinations, which usually result in finding that they are as sane as they could possibly be. 
I don’t have enough information to say why it is happening, and frankly I am not that interested in finding out – whether for a reason or the other, I am angry and worried, and you should be too. Why?
 

1.  They do it at night. So you cannot do anything about it. Unless you somehow find out by accident and can quickly get the citizens together to stop the workers at 5 am.. (thankful for such a network of active citizens). It just shows that politics as it currently is working leaves truly little room for trust!   
   
2. There is no ‘good reason’. Yes, I did say that the ‘why’ did not matter. But let’s say it was something to save us all – then maybe you could think about forgiving this madness. But if the reason is some new ‘technology’ (do we really need to open our Instagram stories faster?) or laziness – then, sorry, I don’t see the point. 
3. There is so much greenwashing in politics. They claim to act and design policies to protect against climate change. Many local electoral ‘programmes’ might involve park and trees developement. But new small little trees will take so many years to catch up with the functioning of the older trees if we that are being pointlessly chopped down (and definitely won’t provide as much shade to help us cool down in the warmest summer temperatures if we want to be selfish!)  - do you also see the controversy? 

 
 
But what can we do as citizens? Plenty! Firslty, demand better natural management, starting petitions and vote better in the next election. Think about voting for the green party. In years to come (if not yet) nature should be at the forefront of all politics because how we deal with it. There is also possibility of getting actively involved with citizen groups, finding out about culling events and stopping them by presence. Some pacifistic protests are sometimes what is needed. We should stand our ground. 
If you are reading me from Italy, Legambiente is actively involved (at least my local circle in venice is)… 
 
Also for full disclosure, I am beginning to be involved in some citizen-driven politics, and I invite my Italian readers to read the manifesto of ‘Un’Altra Città Possibile’ – where the green is not just a little splash of colour but forms the core of the program that we want to present at the next elections. I hope it can be successful and it can be an example for other cities, to shift the way politics work and make it a participative process where citizens can take an active role…