ENVIRONMENT

Recorded by Sofie Pelsmakers, images by Essi Nisonen

KEY READINGS

  • Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction, Mark Maslin, Oxford University Press

  • This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate, Naomi Klein, Simon & Schuster

  • Design Studio Volume 1: Everything

  • Needs to Change: Architecture and

  • the Climate Emergency, Sofie Pelsmakers and Nick Newman, RIBA

  • Healthy Placemaking: Wellbeing Through Urban Design,

  • Fred London, RIBA

  • Planning for Climate Change: A Reader in Green Infrastructure and Sustainable Design for Resilient Cities, Hamin Infeld, Elisabeth M., Abunnasr, Yaser and Ryan, Robert L., Routledge

  • The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of the Future, Wallace-Wells David, Penguin

  • IPCC report and summaries, www.ipcc.ch/sr15/

  • UN Sustainable Development Goals, ‘Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

  • The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience, Maathai Wangari, Lantern Books

  • The Environmental Design Pocketbook, by Pelsmakers, S., RIBA

  • Designing for the Climate Emergency, a Guide for Architecture Students by Pelsmakers, S., Donovan, E., Hoggard, A., Kozminska, U., RIBA

INSPIRATIONAL BUILT EXAMPLES

  • Barcelona super blocks, Spain

  • Vauban, Freiburg, Germany

  • Hammarby Sjostad, Stockholm, Sweden

  • Turenscape – Liupanshui Minghu Wetland Park, China

  • The Climate City, Middelfart, Denmark

  • Lendager Group, UN17 Village, Copenhagen, Denmark

CLIMATE CHANGE

Globally, governments agreed to limit global heating to a maximum  of 1.5°C rise but we are on track for 2.8°C global heating by 2100 because of insufficiently ambitious policy commitments (or not meeting them). But each fraction of a degree reduced, matters to reduce the severity of the impacts. The effects of climate change include hotter temperatures, the warming and acidification of the oceans, severe storms, increased drought, and a loss of species. Northern Europe is projected to face stronger winter warming, while Southern Europe will experience more severe summer warming. Urban areas face specific risks, with urban heat islands exacerbating extreme temperatures, impermeable ground surfaces increasing flood risk, and a loss of urban green space contributing to the degradation of land and biodiversity. To minimise the impact of climate change on the environment, actions should prioritise:

•       protecting and enhancing ecosystems and biodiversity.

•       careful land-use decisions that avoid destruction of forests, greenfields and other areas of biodiversity.

•       rewilding cities and increasing green and blue infrastructures.

•       ensuring a just transition.

All our actions should aim for the best climate future. Even if it is (still) legal to do less than that, we have a moral obligation and responsibility to do better.

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Water Sources