Only Natives on Green Roofs?
In 1999 North America discovered that
modern green roof technology is more than just an exclusive garden for a
few wealthy people on top of a building. Experts understood very
quickly that there are unmatched advantages of bringing back nature into
locations where it was before.
With this enthusiasm, a lot of
environmentalists and environmental organizations started to notice
various opportunities to improve, simplify or promote themselves in many
ways. Some of these ideas might sound glamorous, but the bigger picture of nature, is often disregarded.
In other blog posts we reported
about the ridiculous reductionist research of comparing reflective roofs
with green roofs. Today we want to focus on the hype of native plants
for green roofs:
Many Americans call a living organism
native if these organisms have been on this continent before North
America was discovered by European settlers. In their naivety, they have
completely forgotten how the natives have discovered and have lived on
the land hundreds to thousands of years before.
So called Native people did the same as
any organism; they expanded from their original locations to secure the
species. While migrating and expanding over continents, all living
organisms will change the environment accordingly. From micro organisms to macro organisms (including humans) all life undergoes evolution. The migration of European settlers did that as well and
eventually became "native" and naive at the same time.
For most American people (as mentioned
on English Wikipedia) the opposite of native is "invasive". This is ignorance and discrimination
against natural migrations. It is even a bigger discrimination and
ignorance of God's creation or evolution (whatever you prefer) when
the same people (a lot of them call themselves experts) tell us that
approximately 1,000 hectares of Bamboo scattered across the USA are a
problem and at the same time
1,000,000 hectares (1,000 times more) of genetically modified corn is
not a problem. On top of this blatant discrimination, these
'tunnel-view' educated people (including LEED™) are pointing out that
roofs are an ideal place for what they deem native plants.
Rooftops might be a stepping stone
environment for plants that have been in North America for many
thousands of years. However, when we try and set them up in a new place it is
like a conversation of a narrowed down selection of species and
disregarding the entire picture, climate change, and denying natural changes as a foundation of our existences. It is obvious that history repeats
itself - as European settlers came to the Americas they exploited all resources, removed and relocated native humans, introduced a new human specie as forced laborers, and brought their on living elements to replicated the land they left. The better a specie "served" these settlers the higher the chance to travel with them to new places. For over 100s of Million years, species have learned to look for travel opportunists to spread further.
Green roofs are ground remote and artificial environments in the first place. Most native plants are not used to such a "new" location. Green Roofs also don't allow required natural players (other
living organisms) to thrive there - or "we" don't want them there because of our selective thinking.
For example:
- Jeffersonia diphylla depends on ants to spread and what building owners want to have colonies of ants?
- The big family of Trifolium (stamped as a weed by nurseries) requires the stiff hair of animals to fulfill their natural calling - how many deer of bears do you want on your roof?
- Or how can we control birds (native or introduced) from spreading seeds?
The simple point of this blog is: Any type
of plant is better than an impervious surface like asphalt, concrete or excessive, nicely manicured lawns. Our
environmental issues are caused by the loss of vegetation. It
would be more effective to further protect natural environments instead of creating plant-only reservations on rooftops. Human life fully depends on vegetation, actually we evolved from vegetation. Trying to select good or bad makes our specie disappear faster than we came because the history of plants on Earth is around 2,000 times older than our and they continue their journey of evolution even after us.
