Plant-covered roofs could help chill Brazil's heat-stricken favelas

How one group in Rio de Janeiro teamed up with researchers to adapt green roof technology for their community.

BY JILL LANGLOIS/UNDARK | PUBLISHED MAY 26, 2023 6:00 PM EDT



Favela do Alemao in Rio de Janeiro. Low-income urban communities like these tend to lack greenery and are more likely to face extreme heat than their wealthier or more rural counterparts. Ratao Diniz/Brazil Photos/LightRocket via Getty Images

Sweat was dripping down Luis Cassiano’s face. It was 2012, and Rio de Janeiro’s hottest day to date: At nearly 110 degrees Fahrenheit, the seaside city had just barely beaten its previous record set in 1984.

Cassiano and his mother, then 82, had lived in the same narrow four-story house since they moved to Parque Arará, a favela in northern Rio, some 20 years earlier. Like many other homes in the working-class community — one of more than 1,000 favelas in the Brazilian city of over 6.77 million — its roof is made of asbestos tiles. But homes in his community are now often roofed with corrugated steel sheets, a material frequently used for its low cost. It’s also a conductor of extreme heat.

While the temperatures outside made his roof hot enough to cook an egg — Cassiano said he once tried and succeeded — inside felt worse. “I only came home to sleep,” said Cassiano. “I had to escape.”

Parque Arará mirrors many other low-income urban communities, which tend to lack greenery and are more likely to face extreme heat than their wealthier or more rural counterparts. Such areas are often termed “heat islands” since they present pockets of high temperatures — sometimes as much as 20 degrees hotter than surrounding areas.

That weather takes a toll on human health. Heat waves are associated with increased rates of dehydration, heat stroke, and death; they can exacerbate chronic health conditions, including respiratory disorders; and they impact brain function. Such health problems will likely increase as heat waves become more frequent and severe with climate change. According to a 2021 study published in Nature Climate Change, more than a third of the world’s heat-related deaths between 1991 and 2018 could be attributed to a warming planet.

More:
https://www.popsci.com/environment/brazil-favela-green-roof-heat/

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Just posted an article on verticle forests large, wealthy cities have been building. There are undoubtedly all kinds of experts who would offer their advisors to help city planners get busy bringing some life-saving change to the favelas through cheap, knowledgeable moves to set this in motion, easing the suffering of those who really need help the most.

Here's a look at these amazinging looks at future green building, some already up and going:

https://democraticunderground.com/1127162220#op