#* hope

[reasonsforhope]

Pictured: Luis Cassiano is the founder of Teto Verde Favela, a nonprofit that teaches favela residents in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, how to build their own green roofs as a way to beat the heat. He's photographed at his house, which has a green roof.

Article

"Cassiano is the founder of Teto Verde Favela, a nonprofit that teaches favela residents how to build their own green roofs as a way to beat the heat without overloading electrical grids or spending money on fans and air conditioners. He came across the concept over a decade ago while researching how to make his own home bearable during a particularly scorching summer in Rio.

A method that's been around for thousands of years and that was perfected in Germany in the 1960s and 1970s, green roofs weren't uncommon in more affluent neighborhoods when Cassiano first heard about them. But in Rio's more than 1,000 low-income favelas, their high cost and heavy weight meant they weren't even considered a possibility.

That is, until Cassiano decided to team up with a civil engineer who was looking at green roofs as part of his doctoral thesis to figure out a way to make them both safe and affordable for favela residents. Over the next 10 years, his nonprofit was born and green roofs started popping up around the Parque Arará community, on everything from homes and day care centers, to bus stops and food trucks.

When Gomes da Silva heard the story of Teto Verde Favela, he decided then and there that he wanted his home to be the group's next project, not just to cool his own home, but to spread the word to his neighbors about how green roofs could benefit their community and others like it.

Pictured: Jessica Tapre repairs a green roof in a bus stop in Benfica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Relief for a heat island

Like many low-income urban communities, Parque Arará is considered a heat island, an area without greenery that is more likely to suffer from extreme heat. A 2015 study from the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro showed a 36-degree difference in land surface temperatures between the city's warmest neighborhoods and nearby vegetated areas. It also found that land surface temperatures in Rio's heat islands had increased by 3 degrees over the previous decade.

That kind of extreme heat can weigh heavily on human health, causing increased rates of dehydration and heat stroke; exacerbating chronic health conditions, like respiratory disorders; impacting brain function; and, ultimately, leading to death.

But with green roofs, less heat is absorbed than with other low-cost roofing materials common in favelas, such as asbestos tiles and corrugated steel sheets, which conduct extreme heat. The sustainable infrastructure also allows for evapotranspiration, a process in which plant roots absorb water and release it as vapor through their leaves, cooling the air in a similar way as sweating does for humans.

The plant-covered roofs can also dampen noise pollution, improve building energy efficiency, prevent flooding by reducing storm water runoff and ease anxiety.

"Just being able to see the greenery is good for mental health," says Marcelo Kozmhinsky, an agronomic engineer in Recife who specializes in sustainable landscaping. "Green roofs have so many positive effects on overall well-being and can be built to so many different specifications. There really are endless possibilities.""

Pictured: Summer heat has been known to melt water tanks during the summer in Rio, which runs from December to March. Pictured is the water tank at Luis Cassiano's house. He covered the tank with bidim, a lightweight material conducive for plantings that will keep things cool.

A lightweight solution

But the several layers required for traditional green roofs — each with its own purpose, like insulation or drainage — can make them quite heavy.

For favelas like Parque Arará, that can be a problem.

"When the elite build, they plan," says Cassiano. "They already consider putting green roofs on new buildings, and old buildings are built to code. But not in the favela. Everything here is low-cost and goes up any way it can."

Without the oversight of engineers or architects, and made with everything from wood scraps and daub, to bricks and cinder blocks, construction in favelas can't necessarily bear the weight of all the layers of a conventional green roof.

That's where the bidim comes in. Lightweight and conducive to plant growth — the roofs are hydroponic, so no soil is needed — it was the perfect material to make green roofs possible in Parque Arará. (Cassiano reiterates that safety comes first with any green roof he helps build. An engineer or architect is always consulted before Teto Verde Favela starts a project.)

And it was cheap. Because of the bidim and the vinyl sheets used as waterproof screening (as opposed to the traditional asphalt blanket), Cassiano's green roofs cost just 5 Brazilian reais, or $1, per square foot. A conventional green roof can cost as much as 53 Brazilian reais, or $11, for the same amount of space.

"It's about making something that has such important health and social benefits possible for everyone," says Ananda Stroke, an environmental engineering student at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro who volunteers with Teto Verde Favela. "Everyone deserves to have access to green roofs, especially people who live in heat islands. They're the ones who need them the most." ...

It hasn't been long since Cassiano and the volunteers helped put the green roof on his house, but he can already feel the difference. It's similar, says Gomes da Silva, to the green roof-covered moto-taxi stand where he sometimes waits for a ride.

"It used to be unbearable when it was really hot out," he says. "But now it's cool enough that I can relax. Now I can breathe again."

-via NPR, January 25, 2025

[hope-for-the-planet]

Good News for Sustainable Rice Cultivation

As you might imagine, rice is a very water-hungry crop and currently uses about a third of global freshwater--the cultivation of rice also produces 12% of global methane emissions.

New breakthroughs from researchers in Chile, Chine, and Sweden have developed one variety of rice that uses 50% less water and another that can reduce methane emissions by 70%.

For a staple crop that is produced in such massive numbers, this is a really huge deal both for preserving resources and for food security.

Source--Fix the News

[sarahcute]

This is so wonderful and from Tumblr...

reblog if your name isn't Amanda.

2,121,566 people are not Amanda and counting!

We’ll find you Amanda.

[reasonsforhope]

By the way, if you're coming up on graduating soon, whether from middle school or high school or college, there's a very good chance you're stressed and, if you're anything like me, potentially pretty scared about how it's going to go once you're out of the world you know.

So let me offer some words of reassurance:

Growing up is great. I know it's scary and sometimes it sucks, but big picture, I genuinely think growing up is great.

(I say this as someone who had a p Not Fun Time when I was younger, so btw, that's both my bias and also proof that you do NOT have to have had a good childhood/adolescence to enjoy growing up.)

Leaving middle school? Fantastic. One of the greatest blessings of life is no longer being in middle school. At least 95% of adults will agree with me on this. (translation: ages 11-14 in the US)

Leaving high school? A bigger jump, and adulthood has a lot of stuff to figure out, but honestly really nice! The vast majority of adults would also agree with me that "No longer being in high school" is one of the great blessings of life! You just get so much more autonomy, potentially in not having to go to school/do homework and/or just as a newly legal adult. Also, most jobs are both easier and more bullshit than high school, and college is at least way less strict/gives you so much more autonomy/treats you like an adult (translation: ages 14-18 in the US)

(And because I know some of you are like me and definitely wondering: No, you do not have to ask to go to the bathroom or to leave the class in college, and yes, it is glorious.)

Leaving college? A good thing! Next stage in your journey! Yeah, if your college experience didn't suck, you probably have some things you're really gonna be sad to lose, but that's not inherently a bad thing! And if your college experience did suck, then the prize is no longer being in college! And whatever the case, just like for high school, I promise that the vast majority of jobs are both less easier and more bs than being in school (translation: tertiary education, ages = adult, yes this explicitly includes community college and trade school)

Seriously. It might be hard, but there's a very, very good chance things will be easier than you fear. You've got this.

[reasonsforhope]

"China’s additions of wind and solar capacity once again exceeded forecasts and prior records in 2024, new data releases show.

Another 277GW of solar was installed through the year, 28% more than was added in 2023, according to the National Energy Administration. That brings the country’s total operational solar capacity to 887GW. Wind installations also hit a fresh record of 79GW — a 5% increase from the previous year — taking total capacity to 521GW.

That means China now has 1,408GW of wind and solar capacity — well ahead of the government’s prior target of having 1,200GW in place by 2030....

“The combination of accelerating clean energy growth and moderating power demand growth promises to bend China’s emissions down further from the current plateau,” Myllyvirta said in a post.

That’s despite coal- and gas-fired power capacity additions of 54GW in 2024, a slight decline from the prior year.

Myllyvirta said energy capacity additions tend to accelerate towards the end of each year, which means last year’s new installations will only fully show up in generation statistics from 2025.

“So the record additions in the end of 2024 are highly relevant for the 2025 emission trend,” Myllyvirta said.

Close to half of the experts surveyed by CREA last year said China’s carbon dioxide emissions had probably already peaked, or would do so in 2025, thanks in large part to its unprecedented wind and solar boom.

However, it’s still too soon to call the top. China’s fossil fuel power plants generated 1.5% more electricity in 2024 than the previous year, per the National Bureau of Statistics. This indicates that electricity consumption continued to grow faster than clean energy output.

Meanwhile, 11 million electric vehicles were sold in China in 2024, a 40% increase, according to a tally by research group Rho Motion. One in two new cars sold in the country now has a plug, meaning China is expected to see a steady decline in gasoline demand in the years ahead. The country’s crude oil imports fell 1.9% in 2024, the first annual decline in two decades, barring the Covid-induced slump.

China’s rapid progress in electrifying transport, heavy industry, and heating will help turn the tide on emissions. The eastern province of Zhejiang has reached a world-leading electrification rate of 51%, according to an analysis by US-based research group RMI."

-via The Progress Playbook, January 21, 2025

[xiaq]

I know it’s really hard to be hopeful right now, and I’ve shared a couple big-picture articles about “hey, people are doing things, people are fighting back, but legal and political shit takes time.” But if you want some small hope, some personal experiences of things changing, I can tell you about my FB timeline right now as someone who comes from a conservative Christian, southern background (and who typically avoids FB at all costs unless I’m looking to buy something on Marketplace).

People are angry. Trump voters are angry. About government layoffs that impacted people who they KNOW were performing their jobs with distinction, about the removal of support for their disabled kids in their schools, about the halt of cancer research, about food prices and recalls and the spread of disease, concerns about national parks’ longevity for future generations, about the suspension of aid.

People are angry. The same people that voted for Trump, or stayed silent about their political leanings until this point, are posting videos of Trump and Elon and calling them liars. They’re posting videos of impacted workers talking about the important, widely overlooked, jobs they do that contribute to the underlying foundation of American’s health and safety. I’ve seen reposts of Methodist, Baptist, and Catholic church statements condemning Trump’s actions and reminding him of the “moral imperative to assist those in need” that all humans should have regardless of faith.

People are angry and they’re saying “this isn’t what I voted for,” or, if they were of the quieter minority in these deeply republican communities, they’re saying, “Hey, look what you voted for. Look what you’ve done.”

This is a big deal. People are angry. And while I wish that this recognition could have come sooner, it reassuring to see that people are, at least, admitting that shit is on fire. Recognition is the first step.

[sarahcute]

This is so wonderful and from Tumblr...

“you should be at the club” Brother I should literally be sent to the seaside for my health

[fathialhaj]

Today is my birthday

It is also the 500th day of our displacement, living amidst the destruction in Gaza Yet, I still have hope that I will evacuate soon with my family, so we can rebuild our lives once again.

The goal in the link below is all that we have now, and we have achieved 22% of it.

Thanks to those who have helped make life a little better for my family amid the rubble. Thank you to everyone who contributed to alleviating our suffering and hardship 🫂🫂🫂🤍👨‍👩‍👧‍👧🇵🇸

Please read my story in the link and share it with your families and friends. Help spread my voice 🤍

✅️✅️ Vetted By:

@gazavetters No. 169 & @bilal-salah0

[goodnightmari]

I did not know they were stackable ?????????

[sarahcute]

This is so glorious and from Tumblr...

stop playing it cool, just be passionate and intense and insane and whoever sticks around is meant for you

[tree-whispering]

[hug-your-face]

via @swatercolour [insta]

[hayanahed]

Emergency: Help Evacuate My Family From GAZA WAR

Dear Humanity,

I'm Haya from Gaza , from a family of 8 people: my parents, two sons, and four daughters (two of them suffer from allergies).

I've witnessed the evidence of the tragedy that has struck our lives in Gaza, where my family and I have survived amidst numerous previous wars. But today, we face the most dangerous and fierce battle in the current war. The urgent need intensifies for us, as we have nothing left and are unable to secure our basic needs such as food, water, and safe shelter.

Here is our story - On October 7th, our lives changed forever, my family and I evacuated from northern Gaza to southern Gaza, hoping to return soon, but it wasn't meant to be. Our home was surrounded, burned, and then completely destroyed, Our home, once a fortress of hope, now lay in ruins, a stark reminder of our shattered dreams.

The night before we left from the north to the south was terrifying. Shelling sounds were everywhere, making a loud noise that felt like it went through our souls. Every explosions shook the ground like earthquakes, sending shockwaves of fear through our trembling bodies. filling us with fear. The air smelled of destruction and blood, making it hard to breathe. When dawn came, we saw the devastation around us, realizing our home was now a symbol of loss and despair.

We ran into the streets and with each step we took into the unknown streets, we felt as if we were plunging deeper into the abyss of our shattered existence, leaving behind everything we own in our home: Clothes, important official documents, the car, and literally it's almost everything - the enormity of our loss weighed heavily upon us.

Our home it was where we found hope, safety, and made precious memories. Losing it felt like losing years of our lives, leaving us adrift amidst the wreckage of our shattered existence.

A brief video depicting the devastation that struck our home and our entire neighborhood in Gaza.

Desperate Plea: Escaping Gaza's Allergy Nightmare

I, Haya, suffer from severe allergy to penicillin-derived medications, and my sister, Amal, also suffers from severe allergies to medications from my family such as Paracetamol and Ibuprofen.

These allergies create a deep sense of fear and anxiety for us, as we live in a constant state of tension and fear of anything that may require a visit to the hospital. We fear being given inappropriate medications due to the unavailability of suitable treatments in Gaza because of war or lack of awareness and not informing the doctor of our allergies, which could lead to serious consequences threatening our lives.

MY Father Income

Our dreams are heading towards oblivion in the labyrinth of an uncertain future

My story, along with my siblings, represents a united team of four individuals, three of whom are skilled programmers and one graphic designer. We work as freelancers in the world of freelancing.

As for my younger sister, she is a student studying at the College of Architecture. She has always carried a big dream in her heart, a dream of being part of changing Gaza, of making it more beautiful and better. She looked forward to the day when she would receive her degree and start building this dream. But the beginning of the war changed everything. The destruction of infrastructure and universities cast shadows of despair over her dreams.

When I think of my brother in Belgium, I can't help but feel deep sadness. He has been suffering from unbearable anxiety and insomnia since the outbreak of the war. Sleep eludes him at night, and his physical and mental health collapses under the weight of these heavy burdens, negatively affecting his performance at work. Problems and challenges pile up in front of him without the slightest opportunity for rest.

We all feel psychological pressure and extreme anxiety. The war hasn't been limited to external attacks but has deeply infiltrated our daily lives. We search among the rubble for a little safety and the basic resources for survival. Every day comes with a new challenge that we must overcome.

As we sway amidst the rubble of shattered dreams, our souls wrestle and our hearts beat strongly challenging the ravages of war.

Our parents earnestly seek a way to rescue us from this hell, feeling the heavy responsibility for every moment we spend under the shadows of fear and destruction. They dream of a safe place where they can build for us a better future, filled with security and hope, for we deserve life in all its meanings of comfort and peace.

Perhaps this fundraising campaign represents a light in the midst of darkness, it is indeed the only hope we cling to firmly.

I appeal to the world as a whole to hear my cry and the mournful cry of my family in Gaza. We need the helping hand that reaches out to wipe our tears and build a bridge to safety.

Your donation is not just a donation; it's an opportunity to rebuild life and brighten a better tomorrow. Be part of our hopeful story, for we need your hand to start anew.

The purpose of the fundraising campaign

The goal of this fundraising campaign is to rescue my family - my parents, my siblings, and me - through the Rafah Crossing to Egypt, which currently requires $5000 per person. This campaign is our only chance to stay alive, and I humbly request your assistance at this critical time. I will provide you with a comprehensive breakdown of the expenses, committing to transparency and clarity.

All of our important links are here https://linktr.ee/hayanahed

Verified by :

⭐️ operation olive branch, number 26 on their spreadsheet. (On Master list)

⭐️ Project watermelon,line 249 on their spreadsheet. Or you could see it as number 212 here is the photo for more clear proof

Thank you for your kindness and support.

.جزاكم الله خيراً

yours sincerely;

Haya Alshawish.

[thotsandpreyers]

“HOPE” spotted in Washington D.C.

[kedreeva]

Following the author of The Last Unicorn on Facebook is the only thing that makes being on that site worthwhile.

(source)