Would planting simple crops/plants atop buildings help reduce the progression of global warming?
by: CharlaIf every building in the US were required to maintain plants on their rootops, perhaps CO2 emissions could be reduced. To get buy in from building owners, the plants would have to be easy and inexpensive to maintain. They should be as self-sufficient as possible–requiring little/no extra water and local climate, full-sun, and wind hardy.
Here’s a link to a photo of sweet potatoes being grown on rooftops in Japan to cut down on urban heat: http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstPhotos/index.php?photoid=16097.
Questions: Would it work? What plants would work best? How would the plan be implemented? How would it be enforced? Could new buildings be required and old ones be retro fitted? What happens when the plants die? Will that release even more CO2? Why not try it? How could it be tested? What would be the impacts, positive and negative? What other considerations are there?
Would planting simple crops/plants atop buildings help reduce the progression of global warming?
2009-12-26 15:37:53
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Tags: Emissions, Kyodo, Plants, Rooftops, Sweet Potatoes
Mariah
It would help and it’s a start but it’s not enough. It would help a lot more if the buildings themselves were retrofitted to be more energy efficient.
Re-Ren
I’ve heard of this before. Sounds like a really good idea. I doubt it will fix global warming, but it would sure keep the building cooler. Those black tar roofs are miserable!!
Every little bit helps.
Adams
The only thing I could see going awry is someone would set up a shoddy drainage system and give the building roof rot, compromising structural integrity. I think plain old grass would work the best because you don’t have to water it much to keep it alive. It also is the easiest stuff to grow, and would discourge bug infestation (other than worms and grubs).
Reinaldy
Quite honestly, I don’t think there’s enough available building roof area to put plants on to make that much of a dent in carbon dioxide levels. It would help, but not that much. And besides, the amount of money required to do it would probably have more of an effect if it was put into research on new energy sources (fusion, zero point energy, etc).
Aan
Global warming is not caused by anything man has done in the last 200 years and cannot be controlled by man. The earth naturally goes through periods of warm years and then periods of cold years. the earth is in a warming period since the early 1800 and should be for about 200 more years. then it will begin to cool off naturally again. The Earth and the climate is too large for anyone to have any more than a very minimal effect on the environment despite what modern media has told you.
Mangab
It would reduce C02 but the scale required would be enormous. You would need gardens of a size like the rain forrests which have been destroyed.
Vchan
It would definitely help. Heres something you can do right now in you own neigborhood get Ivy plants that grow up on to Brick and Rod Iron fences. It helps to beautify the city and reduce CO2 in the air by recycling it into oxygen. This Idea also works on Wood Fences.
Catherine
It sounds like you’re an intelligent person, so do yourself a favor and don’t listen to people like brettwarwick, who are so idealogically blinded that they can’t see plain facts.
Paris
Chicago does it on top of their city hall. Do a search for info on that. It sounds like a great idea (in places with flat roofs) !