FEATURES
YET ANOTHER CALL FOR SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION By Ernest Nyakundi The date is September 20th 2019. It begins like all other Fridays do. Unlike other Fridays, however, on this one history is about to be made. In an almost seamless fashion, an approximate 4 million people line up the streets of the world. The reason for this – climate change. This becomes the largest climate protest in history to date. One detail that is not to be missed is the person at the centre of the protests. It is a girl; a teenage Swedish girl to be precise. Greta Thunberg is her name. A few weeks before this date, she received an invitation to speak at The UN Climate Action Summit in New York City; for her efforts as a climate activist. In order to make it to the summit, she has sailed across The Atlantic on a zeroemissions yacht accompanied by her father and supporting crew. Earlier in the year, a trend Greta would be proud of unfolded in Europe’s political scene. The ‘Greens’ surged as their constituent parties made their strongest ever showing in Europe. The ‘Greens’ refers to a group of political parties with an ideology that aims to foster an ecologically sustainable society rooted in environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice and grassroots democracy. The main selling point for the Greens in 2019 was combating climate change and an increased number of Europe’s citizens rallied behind them.
Issue 03 | March 2021
Conventional wisdom dictates that fighting change is absurd. In fact, it advises that we embrace the change and in some cases push for it. If we were to follow conventional wisdom to the letter, we would be fighting for climate change not against it. We would not be fighting to maintain similar climatic conditions. Conventional wisdom might have prevailed early on. As the climate got warmer on the heels of the industrial revolution, scientists in the 1890s were pleased and in fact welcomed climate change claiming it would usher in equable and better climatic conditions especially with regards to the colder regions of the earth.
The built environment is a major contributor to the adverse climate changes we are witnessing. It is only later on that they began to realize that changes in climatic conditions had adverse effects on the ecosystem. Even presently, in the face of all scientific findings, we still have climate change deniers in our midst. A notable one is former US President Donald Trump. The climate change deniers refute claims that the change is adverse. They counter claims that there is something humanity can do about it. They even go ahead to contradict findings that the global climate is indeed warming.
Contrary to what climate change deniers claim, the global climate is indeed changing and the changes we are witnessing are adverse. Here is a simple breakdown. The earth is warming since more heat is getting trapped in our atmosphere. The heat is getting trapped in our atmosphere due to the effect of greenhouse gases. The largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions is human activities. The built environment is a direct contributor of more than 30 percent of all the greenhouse gas emissions. That’s right. The built environment is a major contributor to the adverse climate changes we are witnessing.
BuildPress Magazine | 30
