Green Roof Resource

Databases on air quality provides links to information by the European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Change. Another source outside the US.

Urban and regional air pollution fact sheet by CSIRO Australia provides a good summary of the criteria air pollutants and some data for the Melbourne area.

Getting a better sense of the situation. Here are a couple of links. Rising energy use: Health effects of air pollution
CDC

Good summary article in Wired News on phytoremediation capabilities of genetically modified hyperaccumulators (plants that tolerate and sequester or volatilize high concentrations of metals in soils). “Attack of the Metal-Eating Plants,” by Stephen Leahy summarizes new advancements in the field and focuses on selenium and mercury uptake. It also references the online version of the journal Environmental Science and Technology for the related article by Norman Terry, a professor of plant and microbial biology at UC Berkeley. His research is on selenium uptake as selenium impacts irrigated soils in the Central Valley. Applied Phytogenetics is conducting work on mercury.

In the March 2005 issue of Dwell , William Lamb writes about an intensive roof project on a 3300 square-foot residence in Lakeville, Connecticut. The project features evergreen shrubs and spreading junipers on top of the roof. In addition to the green roof, the house, home to Architect G. Mackenzie Gordon, incorporates additional sustainable components including a water cistern for cooling and sunlight for natural lighting and heating. Breathe Architects based out of Toronto installed the green roof system for this concrete house.