Architect

1) A person who, by shaping people’s tastes for certain types of buildings, establishes a demand for ecologically-friendly houses.

2) A person whose expertise allows them to design buildings compatible with the planet’s ecosystems (both minimizing destruction of habitats and minimizing fuel and resource use).

3) A person capable of designing houses and buildings that do not require energy to heat or cool them, and understands how to reduce the typical inputs (heating fuel, electricity and water) and outputs (waste) of a building.

A significant portion of annual CO2 emissions (as much as 40%) are from the heating of homes. However, it is now possible to build homes and buildings which do not require any type of heating appliance (even in cold climates). The cost of constructing these homes and buildings are approximately equivalent to buildings which use oil, propane, natural gas, electricity or wood burning to heat them.

 

Action-Potential Discrepancy

1) The discrepancy between a person’s ability to take positive action for the planet’s ecosystems (such as reduce use of home heating oil or cease purchasing fossil-fuel intensive food products) and the positive action this person actually takes.

2) Being able to defend and protect the planet’s ecosystems and not doing it.

We can all ask ourselves, How great is the distance between what we can do and what we really do? Those who wish to reduce this distance might start by making a list of possible behavioral changes and things to do, such as lowering the thermostat in the winter or building a passive house or refusing to purchase any food grown with the use of pesticides.