...to Global Warming.
Good stuff to think about...no matter who or where you are. :think:
* * * * *
Global Warming Is an Immediate CrisisBy Al Gore
New York University School of Law
9/18/06
<snip>
Buildings - both commercial and residential - represent a larger source of global warming pollution than cars and trucks. But new architecture and design techniques are creating dramatic new opportunities for huge savings in energy use and global warming pollution. As an example of their potential, the American Institute of Architecture and the National Conference of Mayors have endorsed the "2030 Challenge," asking the global architecture and building community to immediately transform building design to require that all new buildings and developments be designed to use one half the fossil fuel energy they would typically consume for each building type, and that all new buildings be carbon neutral by 2030, using zero fossil fuels to operate. A newly constructed building at Oberlin College is producing 30 percent energy than it consumes. Some other countries have actually required a standard calling for zero carbon based energy inputs for new buildings.
The rapid urbanization of the world's population is leading to the prospective development of more new urban buildings in the next 35 years than have been constructed in all previous human history. This startling trend represents a tremendous opportunity for sharp reductions in global warming pollution through the use of intelligent architecture and design and stringent standards.
Here in the US the extra cost of efficiency improvements such as thicker insulation and more efficient window coatings have traditionally been shunned by builders and homebuyers alike because they add to the initial purchase price - even though these investments typically pay for themselves by reducing heating and cooling costs and then produce additional savings each month for the lifetime of the building.... <snip>
Individual Americans of all ages are becoming a part of a movement, asking what they can do as individuals and what they can do as consumers and as citizens and voters. Many individuals and businesses have decided to take an approach known as "Zero Carbon." They are reducing their CO2 as much as possible and then offsetting the rest with reductions elsewhere including by the planting of trees. At least one entire community - Ballard, a city of 18,000 people in Washington State - is embarking on a goal of making the entire community zero carbon.
This is not a political issue. This is a moral issue. It affects the survival of human civilization. It is not a question of left vs. right; it is a question of right vs. wrong. Put simply, it is wrong to destroy the habitability of our planet and ruin the prospects of every generation that follows ours.Full text here:
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/64/22597Learn about Go Carbon Zero here:
http://www.gocarbonzero.com/* * * * *
Have a FUN and peaceful weekend!
:hi: :woohoo:
RiverStone~
on edit: added cool Go Carbon Zero link
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