poop

Today, sustainability has come to the foreground of building construction, no longer being a side thought but what truly drives our actions in architecture. It isn’t just about saving animal habitats or trying to preserve natural spaces it has come to the point where we need to do this for ourselves, for our own survival. We have come to a point where we are putting a huge strain on this earth because of our consumption habits and it will not be able to continue this type of treatment which could potentially result in the destruction of mankind. It goes farther than making buildings that are more efficient but the entire process that goes into their creation from the building sites and materials and the technologies they use to maintaining the building to where the materials came from and how they got there. More and more details are being taken into consideration than ever before because this has turned into something concerning our survival as a whole.

This is why I really wanted to choose this topic. The other choices are very serious issues, yes, but to me building for sustainability is looking to help ourselves survive. The topic of AIDS and HIV are very serious issues that should be addressed but more and more people are beginning to realize we are very much quite possibly pushing our earth past its limits to which it can support us and something needs to be done. World hunger for example affects and enormous number of people but the topic I have chosen affects all humans.

http://www.nps.gov/dsc/dsgncnstr/gpsd/toc.html

This site advocates the importance of sustainable design for human survival. We need to bring people more in touch with the natural environment so we can all see first had why this is such an important issue. In one of the chapters on this site it talks about park services trying to think of ways to further incorporate people into the natural world which it protects. They want to use these parks as a teaching tool that people can walk away from with a new viewpoint on how we treat the environment and how we really should be. People will not change something they know nothing about.

Many people see and hear about not just buildings but products as well being produced in such a way as to reduce their environmental impact but those with no true knowledge as to why this is being done see that these designers are doing something nice for the environment which they know is good but really don’t understand the real reason for doing so. People need to be taught as to why exactly it is good past the obvious reasons such as clean air and water. Clean water means healthy organisms that live in the water which means all the different life forms in that habitat can survive and thrive which in turn means the entire system as a whole can thrive and continue to produce the goods we take from it. The mass depletion of even one species of marine organism can disrupt the entire system as a whole and potentially cause the depletion of multiple species. This chain reaction can easily come back to hurt us and this goes for any natural habitat anywhere in the world looking at both plants and animals and any resources we as humans utilize. Still even, it goes even farther than that. Global warming is causing glaciers and other ice formations to melt which it is predicted that in the future our sea levels will rise and begin to cover up a lot of land currently inhabited by humans.

The impact humans are having on this earth is tremendous and not in a positive way. We all need to change how we think but in order to do that we must learn about it. This is why I chose this topic, so I can learn about these things and be able to teach people around me about them too.

Yes it can be hard to keep a positive attitude when dealing with this issue. Looking at all the negative impacts humans are having on the earth and what that implies for our future can be very disheartening and cause for a great loss of hope but we mustn’t look at what will happen if we don’t change but what can happen if we do. We must look at how sustainable design will benefit us and use those as our goals for which to strive for. That is the reason for some of the songs I have chosen. It is only a small compilation of what describes me and my attitude toward my topic but they all look toward the brighter side of a dark situation.

Joy to the World- Three Dog Night
Spirit in the Sky- Norman Greenbaum
Listen to the Music- The Doobie Brothers
Centerfold- J Geils Band
That song from the mupets “Mahna Mahna�