It’s January and you deserve stories of how good actions can lead to grand outcomes in the long term. I’ve got just the one based on this one tree in London’s Hampstead Heath.
The kinds of mosses, lichen, algae and other epiphytes growing on trees in London is directly the result of the Clean Air Act of 1956 and 1968. That’s because those acts put restrictions on sulfur pollution, which was killing epiphytes. London had become a “lichen desert” says Jeff Duckett, emeritus professor of botany at Queen Mary University of London. In the decades since, lichens have made a come back. (As a side: some lichens can live for more than 8,000 years.)
Then later, further growth of epiphytes — essentially any plant-like thing growing on a plant — that is commonly seen on tree barks around London resulted from low-emissions zone introduced in 2008. That regulation led to reduction in nitrogen (NOx) emissions, which had continued to hold back epiphyte growth.
This is a beautiful tree, but nothing out of the ordinary. You may walk past without a second thought. But those things growing on it are actually a huge success story.
Akshat Rathi 