The Most Existential Design Challenge Lies Directly and Immediately Ahead of Us - Save the Planet

November 22, 2021
Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation 15

Ross Bar­ney Archi­tects stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with our AIA col­leagues Peter Exley, FAIA (AIA Pres­i­dent), Julie Hiro­mo­to, FAIA (COTE 2020 Advi­so­ry Group Chair); Mike Davis, FAIA ( AIA Gov­ern­ment Advo­ca­cy Com­mit­tee Chair), and Dr. Mark Breeze, AIA (AIA/ UK Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Chair) who recent­ly attend­ed the 2021 UN Cli­mate Change Con­fer­ence, COP 26, and advo­cat­ed for seri­ous change to reduce green­house gas emis­sions and reverse cli­mate change.

The design com­mu­ni­ty is com­mit­ted to address­ing cli­mate change, but we know that we can’t do it alone,” said Peter Exley, FAIA, AIA President

ALL peo­ple, includ­ing Archi­tects, our clients and user groups, play a crit­i­cal role to reverse cli­mate change. The time is now, our plan­et can’t wait.

For this gen­er­a­tion of archi­tects, sav­ing the Earth has become our sin­gu­lar design challenge.

The solu­tion is a bet­ter design for a bet­ter envi­ron­ment. And Like many good designs, it is beau­ti­ful­ly sim­ple. Stop burn­ing fos­sil fuels. Use less ener­gy. Use only clean renewables.

But atten­tion by archi­tects is not enough.

For the last few weeks, it’s been ago­niz­ing to watch our lead­ers in Wash­ing­ton mud­dled over how much cli­mate action” we can afford. This is astound­ing. There is no amount that is too much, no time that is too ear­ly and no inter­est group that is not served by pre­serv­ing the liv­abil­i­ty of our plan­et. The irony is that no mat­ter what hap­pens, Earth will be here in some state, just not one that sup­ports humans.” Said Car­ol Ross Bar­ney, FAIA when recent­ly accept­ing the Order of Lin­coln, Illi­nois’ High­est Honor.

Read more on the UN Cli­mate Change Con­fer­ence, COP 26, at arch​pa​per​.com.

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