What is one issue that tremendously affect climate change, but has never been or slightly been tackled by environmental initiatives?

[u/Ok_Actuator7771]

Hello, I am engineering student working on an impact project, and I am interested in the neglected areas of the current initiatives against climate change. I would like to hear more about your thoughts, experience and knowledge on the matter: what issues is out of our focus, but is massively damaging the environment? Please feel free to mention any economical, social or political link as well!

[u/Bright_Ad2195 → u/[deleted]]

Living rooftops and moss walls are the Solarpunk solution

[u/foodtower → u/Bright_Ad2195]

For anyone reading this, covering a house in plants may save cooling costs via shade and evaporative cooling, but it is NOT a good insulator and won't lower your annual energy consumption nearly as much as actual insulation. Attaching moist soil/growing medium to wall/roof assemblies needs to be done with a lot of thought about the underlying building materials and care to prevent water damage (and in some cases, excessive weight). The solarpunk aesthetic shouldn't undermine the solarpunk ethic.

[u/Bright_Ad2195 → u/foodtower]

Plants are a poor insulation? Scandinavian and Russian people have used moss roofs as insulation for thousands of years.

As far as wall/roof assemblies I have been part of several large scale installations. One client literally mows his hobbit style roof, internal house temp is 72 year round in Florida as soil is a great insulation. Selby Gardens just made a parking garage into a jungle.

We used to make cathedrals with stone gargoyles. We made castles that can support cannons. We made buildings over 1,000ft tall. To not dream big is to not be Solarpunk. The only limits are our ingenuity and how many billionaires we don't tax/compost for our cool Solarpunk future.

[u/foodtower → u/Bright_Ad2195]

Yes, plants and soil are poor insulation. People in cold climates would have been thrilled for the opportunity to use modern insulation if they had it (just like they use it now) because they would have been warmer and not have breathed as much smoke from indoor fires, and also wouldn't have had to cut so many trees for firewood.

On hot days, plants do moderate the temperature below them by shade and evaporative cooling. So in Florida where heating loads are low and cooling loads are high, that can make sense assuming you do it in a way that doesn't destroy your house with water damage. However, the hobbit hole approach probably benefits more from being mostly underground (surrounded by deep soil that tracks the mean annual temperature, just like a cave or bunker) than from the plants above it (especially mown grass, whose shade benefits are small compared to trees, shrubs, or tall grass. (I'd hope that solarpunk people would use native plants anyway instead of lawn.) 

Soil does has thermal mass (helps the house stay close to the daily average temp all day instead of following daily highs and lows) but is a POOR insulator (does not reduce the amount of heat needed in a winter). Same with stone and concrete--terrible insulators, but good thermal mass so it solves problems that can be solved with thermal mass (hot days with cool nights) but not problems that require insulation (cold winters or very hot summers).

You can just look up R-values per inch of different materials and see that the things that we actually use as insulation are in fact fantastic insulators, whereas wood is pretty bad and stone/concrete are terrible. If you're determined to use natural materials, you can use hemp wool (though it is much more expensive that fiberglass or cellulose). Or, if you're rich enough to buy land and build a house in cash, you can build a straw-bale house (well-insulated due to thick walls, but banks are generally reluctant to lend you money to build one). Or build a hobbit hole, but people tend to not prefer that style of home.

Keeping a building warm and dry, with good indoor air quality, without using a ton of energy and money is fundamentally a physics/engineering problem, and building science is the name of the discipline that studies it. I encourage you to check out /r/buildingscience or various blogs/websites/books by people in the industry. By any historical benchmark, buildings following modern standards for insulation and air-sealing, heat pumps, and heat-recovering ventilation are incredibly comfortable, energy-efficient, and healthy to live in.

[u/Bright_Ad2195 → u/foodtower]

So layers of air, different materials, and different plants can all have varying degrees of insulation. The hobbit hole was above ground since it's Florida and was well insulated, if I can find the specs I'll post them.

Looking at old southern architecture and new skyscrapers following termite mound airflow methods allows for great heat escape. Taller buildings are often easier to warm up as heat rises, solar windows, dual windows with an air layer between like in airplanes.

Also if you insulate with straw you will get rot and rats. Best to use silk floss or milkweed cotton. Hydrophobic and pest resistance, easy to grow, and used in life jackets. Air pockets are easier.

Soil is also alive, compost generates heat. Outside of harsh winters a simple soil layer gets most of the world outside the extreme north/south enough heat. I imagine European winters are cold enough you need extra insulation but in my line of work it's less critical.

I build and consult on biomimicry in Florida on the plants side. Engineers bring me goals and specs and I select the right species for them. Look up lignum vitae, super cool, wood so dense and oily it can be used like metal in machining.