Environmental Sustainability Through Architecture ...

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH ARCHITECTURE Introduction: Climate change is an important topic as it affects all of society as well as the globes ecosystems. Many professions have the ability to combat climate change and its effects. This essay will look at the roles and responsibilities of an Architect and the influence they can have on the mitigation and adaption of climate climate change through the profession. The following discussion will focus on defining and explaining climate change, defining an architect and outlining their roles and responsibilities and finally addressing how the profession of architect can influence mitigation and adaption strategies. An architect does play a significant role in the influence and†¦show more content†¦In the last century the climate of the earth has morphed and changed as a result of global warming. The rise in temperature has contributed to the decreasing size of glaciers and ice sheets as well as contributing the the rise of sea levels due to warmer oceans. The current evidence points t o human activity as a contributing factor. With the evidence currently available if can be predicted that with continuing greenhouse gas emissions, the earth s air temperature will warm by 4 °C by the year 2100. Furthermore there are likely to be many flow-on effects from this temperature change (Australian Academy of Science 2015) With the change in climate the impacts of this process has altered the frequency and strength of daily temperatures in terms of more hot days and warmer days as well as a drop in the quantity of cooler days. Furthermore as a result the amount of more extreme weather events such as cyclones and heavy rain patterns has increased as a result of warmer climates as well as warmer water temperatures (Australian Academy of Science 2015). Over the last century sea level rise has occurred as a result of expansion of the ocean due to warmer temperatures as well as the decreasing size of ice packs and glaciers. This has caused a global sea level change of 10-25cm (IPCC 1995). Climate change influences the