国家地理-2008-06-30 Green Roofs Are Nothing New 草坪屋顶有利环保（在线收听）

Walk through any town or village in the Faroe Islands, located between Iceland and Scotland, and it will be hard not to notice the green grass roofed houses on every street. A local historian says, because of the lack of natural building resources on the islands, the Vikings used grass on their roofs to provide stability and extra insulation.

 "The grass is something that roofs here when the Viking came and started it, or maybe even the monks started it with the grass roof. We don't know."

 He says young people on the islands continue to build their houses with traditional grass roofs, not only to continue the tradition, but also because there are environmental advantages. Grass roofs filter pollutants and CO2 out of the air.

"Here, you have this waterproof membrane, and the first you have to do that, the, actually, grass is against this waterproof membrane. The root is up. To keep to hold this made mechanical ,and then you have to put this fishnet here, and this will be tied around the edges of the house. Afterwards you take the second lay of the grass and put it over."

  Yore says having a grass roof is a way for people on the islands to take responsibility for the environment. He says, if a house has 150 square meters of grass roofing, the grass would produce enough oxygen for one person per day. Jacob Mittyord has incorporated a grass roof into his new house design.

 "There are two reasons. The first is the aesthetic, we want it to look nice. And the second is the tradition. It's an old tradition in the Faroe Islands, so we asked our architect to get some solutions, where we could combine this new art style, that (went) well together with this old fashion."

 Last fall, former U.S. president Bill Clinton visited the Faroe’s capital for a conference, and spoke on the effects of climate change.

"I look at the old-fashioned roofs with the grass on it, and I was thinking how far ahead of us you're now. All over America we're in a mad rush to green all of our roofs , to put vegetation on our roofs, to cut down on the electric cost and the CO2 emissions that come from having inefficient buildings."

 The Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands has a grass roof on his house.

"First of all, I think it's very important that we all, very all, we in the society, politicians, or a school teacher, or a fisherman, that we're putting the climate in focus, that we're thinking about the climate change all the time."