this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world. About 1C of total warming. Second chart: about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability. Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases. About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:

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Architect here. How can I be the most helpful? (lemdro.id)
submitted 1 year ago by Artaca@lemdro.id to c/climate
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I am a registered architect. As an active contributor to one of the most damaging industries to our climate (construction & building systems), I often daydream about pivoting careers into something more productive for the planet. I'm not talking about stuff like green washing or ~LEED accreditation~. Even sustainably-focused jobs are hard to come by and usually pretty regionally specific. Architects have a broad set of skills, and it's not always clear where I can take those skills and put them to better use.

Any thoughts/insight would be appreciated as I hop into my mid-life crisis before 30.

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[โ€“] Artaca@lemdro.id 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not naive at all! That is a genuinely good question with a rather dissatisfying answer: it depends. 'Most' is the tricky word there. It feels a bit like recycling, where you make it a habit but it isn't always easy to see the benefits of the effort, if that makes sense. The work is bound by the client and the code, and the client is usually mostly concerned with the budget. I always make an effort to push better materials and practices, while also going above and beyond on building envelope and HVAC systems to make the houses I design as efficient as possible, then pricing comes in and a lot of that is the first to go. I'm probably doing the most I can at my current job. I could probably do more at a more climate positive firm (not always easy depending on location). I might be able to do a lot more abandoning the mainstream practice of architecture altogether and finding a job that utilizes at least some of my existing skillset, but what that means isn't always clear. Hope that answered your question! Apologies for rambling

[โ€“] poVoq 4 points 1 year ago

Maybe there is some aspect of architecture that can combine making things cheaper and more sustainable? Like designing low cost and energy efficient pre-fab houses for example?