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Discussions Climate Interactive Forums Multisolving

Call rooftops "man-made land"

Idle, serious thought: what if we all word-smithed urban/suburban rooftops as "man-made land"? A few cities worldwide - NYC, Barcelona, Toronto, Denver, Paris, etc. - have laws encouraging use of green roofs. What if more communities did that? What if everyone said - all new construction 4 or more stories had to devote >75% of rooftops to some combination of renewable energy (e.g. solar panels where appropriate) and landscaping? What would happen to urban heat sinks?

2 CommentsSorted by Oldest First

Hi Cherie,  I'm new to this so I just came across your comment.  It is very interesting and, interestingly, follows a practice known as Appreciative Inquiry (out of the University of Chicago). One of its founding principles is constructionist theory. 

The Constructionist Principle, derived from 'Social Constructionist' theory, states that the language we use shapes our social reality. Meaning is made in conversation, and what emerges as knowledge is a broad social agreement created among people through communication.

Basically it is an approach to social/organizational change by focusing on the positive rather than solving problems.  If interested, we can talk more about it, and see if there is a possible connection to climate change.

Jack

I sent that idea to Green Roofs, Living Architecture Monitor, and posted it on Facebook - no response. Yet, that same wordsmithing happened, apparently successfully, with "climate change".  That went from the 1970s "Silent Spring" (Rachel Carson), "pollution", "save the earth" through "Inconvenient Truth" (Al Gore), global warming/global cooling and now the ubiquitous "climate change". It's pretty easy to accept the idea of short-term, medium-term, and long-term trends in every area of our lives; why not in our environment? For those who want to argue with the phrase "climate change", I suggest "be kind to Earth" because - why not?

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