While a great many high tech ideas are bounced around from time to time in terms of dealing with climate change, some simpler – and old – low tech ideas help reduce fire and urban heat, while providing other benefits to communities as well. 

I was reminded of this by two stories I read this past week.

YES Magazine had a story about how rooftop gardens can help keep cities cooler – even in one of the world’s hottest cities, Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. A study there showed that indoor air temperatures in buildings with rooftop gardens were as much as 12 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than those without gardens, even during the warmest hours of the day.

And because plants can remove ozone and pollutants from the air, air quality may be healthier there, too. Outdoor air pollution kills 4.2 million people every year, most in low- and middle-income countries, and researchers say that in Cairo, an estimated 19% of non-accidental deaths in people over the age of 30 – 20,000 a year – result from long-term exposure to two common air pollutants.