Posts Tagged ‘Climate crisis’
Submission to Draft Advice of Climate Change Commission on 2nd Emissions Reduction Plan
The advice document subscribes to the economic growth paradigm in assuring the economy “would continue to grow under the recommended emissions budgets”. On the other hand, it has been established, that economic growth brings with it emissions’ growth, because an absolute decoupling of the two has not been achieved yet. It is therefore timely to start a discussion of “degrowth” to make a real and required impact on gross emissions. Degrowth of the economy means a planned reduction of the material throughput through the economy and the associated emissions, while focusing on a just transition and wellbeing indicators. Worldwide there is an increasing amount of literature generated and some of our members are contributing to the domestic discussion.
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What it takes to be a climate prepared city
Adapting to the many and various challenges of global warming, from an urban development perspective, requires an understanding of the hydrological landscape that underlies the city so that a master plan can emerge that increases green space and public space, encourages biodiversity, and reduces flooding and the possibility of flood-water contamination.
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Green steel
Steel is one of those materials that we cannot imagine a future without. Although there are some applications where wood based materials can replace it, its just such a useful material and it can be fully recycled, so surely there’s a way of producing it which doesn’t cost us the earth.
Read MoreClimate Change – New Zealand Needs To Do Better
Peter Whitmore, ESR member, discusses the state of New Zealand’s readiness for climate change, with particular reference to the continuing use of large quantities of coal at the Huntly power station. Alternatives are readily available for electricity generation.
Read MoreHigh Expectations For The Climate Commission – Will Government’s Action Push Us Fast Enough?
Save the buildings and save the climate Save the climate and save the planet. The built environment is the main cause of climate change and offers the easiest opportunities for necessary change. The only truly sustainable building is the one you do not build. The next most sustainable building is the one you do not demolish. There is no point in recycling plastic bags and milk bottles if we are going to send our living buildings off to landfill.
Read MoreTamaki Campus
The built environment is the main cause of climate change. How we build determines not only how we use, or waste, resources. It also determines how we live, work, and need to travel. Even more importantly how we build determines our ability to make moral decisions. A disempowering built environment, in which everyone lives in someone else’s architecture, becomes a prison. The door is open, but the mortgage needs to be paid. An empowering built environment would allow owner‐builders to make moral choices about their own lives. The Auckland Unitary Plan is little more than a commitment to dramatically increasing climate change in the next thirty years. A consumer society consuming diminishing resources.
Read MoreSubmission on the Auckland Plan
Chapter 6 of the Draft Auckland Plan states the Auckland Council intends to develop energy and greenhouse gas emissions reduction strategies and action plans for adoption in 2012.
Read MoreSubmission to Auckland Council on the draft Auckland Long Term Plan 2012-2022
Engineers for Social Responsibility Incorporated supports the general direction being taken by the Auckland Council in the Draft Long Term Plan 2012-2022.
Read MoreClimate Change and Kyoto
We are very concerned at the Government’s decision to pull out of the Kyoto protocol and instead to enter into “talks about talks.”
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