Sustainable Architecture Can Help Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Quantitative estimates vary, but scientists generally agree that global warming is a reality, asserting that even a one-degree Celsius increase in average global temperature would make the earth warmer than it has been in the past million years. More alarming, a rise of two to three degrees Celsius is conceivable, and perhaps unavoidable, by the end of the 21st century.

· Consequences of climate change: Mazria described the likely catastrophic effects of progressive global warming if temperature forecasts prove accurate. Melting polar ice would raise sea levels, inundating tens of thousands of miles of coastland and displacing tens of millions of people around the globe. Much of Florida, the Gulf Coast and Maryland's Eastern Shore would disappear.

Hurricanes and storms would be more frequent, more severe and longer-lasting. Water for farming, industry and cities would diminish, as lakes and rivers become warmer and more evaporation occurs.

Agricultural productivity would decrease, forest fires would increase and both wildlife and vegetation would vanish or relocate.

As humans, animals and plants migrate in response to rapidly changing conditions, disease will move with them. Thus, public health could be as worrisome as flooding.

After stating the scientific case and voicing the 2030 challenge, Mazria added an appropriate epilogue about the need to make sustainability an integral part of architectural education. In many architecture schools, he pointed out, sustainability is still viewed by both faculty and students as optional.

But I would extend Mazria's exhortation. Sustainability concerns everyone, not just architects. All students everywhere, from elementary school onward, must learn what is happening to the earth and what must be done about it. Without informed citizens and clients, architects will never meet the 2030 challenge, no matter how many green buildings they design.

Roger K. Lewis is a practicing architect and a professor of architecture at the University of Maryland.