Urban Trees: History and Ideology

An ancient Babylonian text, Hammurabi’s Code of Laws, forbids the cutting down of street trees without permission. Nearly 4000 years later, threats to our urban trees still arouse the strongest passions. Coventry residents organised a record-breaking mass tree hug in November to save 26 trees marked for the chainsaws and the battle to save thousands of Sheffield's street trees from the council's contractors inspired folk songs and expensive legal battles.

As so many of us bring a tree home for Christmas, Tom Heap and Helen Czerski consider our feelings about street trees, the sweet hit of nature that provides year round shade and wildlife habitat in the least promising of city circumstances.

They're joined by Jon Stokes of the Tree Council, landscape historian Sonia Dümpelmann and Paul Powlesland, barrister and founder of Lawyers for Nature.

Producer: Alasdair Cross

Assistant Producers: Ellie Richold and Toby Field

Rare Earth is produced in association with the Open University