OPINION

KAREN MARTIN: Weathering it together

Admit it; you didn't know this: "Anthropocene" is a period when human activities affect evolutionary and geological conditions and the future of the earth's ecologies.

It's OK; we can't all be the Renaissance man. I had to look it up (on Designing for the Anthropocene's Facebook page). At least we have Google; the Renaissance guy had a harder time becoming enlightened.

Like many of us, I want to protect our environment, but find most discussions on how to do it to be pompous, uncompromising and incremental. Now, after showing up at a fascinating and motivating talk titled "Weathering It Together: Designing for the Anthropocene" at the Architecture and Design Network's June Freeman Lecture Series recently, I know a lot more--still not in the polymath class, but heading in the right direction.

Victoria Herrmann, a native of New Jersey (evident from her speech pattern) who's based in Washington, D.C., is president and managing director of the Arctic Institute. She researches climate change, community adaptation, human development and resource economies. That makes her qualified to pronounce our current geological period as presenting complex challenges to the stability of the biosphere.

Her goal is to help us understand loss and damage in climate change, especially through architecture and design efforts.

In that regard, she's discussing the the Fourth National Climate Assessment--a 1,500-page report that focuses on the science of climate change and its impact on us--that was released in November 2018.

The report warns that quality of life for those of us in the southeastern United States will be compromised as the built environment (human-made surroundings) becomes more vulnerable to increasing temperatures and flooding at the same time that our infrastructure ages and populations are shifting to urban areas.

"The period we're in is the warmest in history," Dr. Herrmann says. Does anybody care? "Audiences," she explains, "are engaged but disinterested." Not good.

Yet there's no denying we are being impacted by inland floods, hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, and other unsettling events that cost billions of dollars in damage and cause irreplaceable culture loss, she says. "Climate change is [causing us to] lose the very things that make us who we are."

Built environments are seen here as victims, she says. But "physical vulnerabilities do not equate to helpless victimhood."

As examples, she points to four coastal communities in Alaska that are relocating because of eroding shorelines and sea level rise. "Thousands of invisible local heroes" are mobilizing to build their towns back with more resilience, she says. "These are the pioneers of American climate solutions."

Grass-roots activism draws attention to such situations. But Dr. Herrmann is intent on getting professionals involved to support the survival of communities during rapid environmental change.

This is a call to action, she says. "Architects, historic preservationists, and landscape architects need to join the movement."

Among the contributions architects can make, according to the American Institute of Architects, are:

  1. Specify use of materials manufactured with renewable energy.
  2. Design deep energy retrofits for existing buildings.
  3. Understand the implications of energy use in building materials' manufacturing and transportation.
  4. Design for durability, using the most efficient materials for your climate.
  5. Source locally to reduce transportation emissions; use low-emissions transportation such as barges and trains.

These steps, like consumer-based efforts such as recycling and using lower-energy CFL and LED lightbulbs, may seem incremental and therefore inconsequential. But not if they're employed by a majority of architects.

Is Arkansas prepared for the year 2100, when Dr. Herrmann says that our current 30-some annual extreme-heat days will expand to 90? "Arkansas is not on the top of the list," she says dryly, noting that our state got a grade of F in this regard. States with grades of A are California, New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.

Using the excuse of "So what? I won't be here then so I don't care" is not the right attitude.

According to the Fourth National Climate Assessment, while some climate change impacts like sea level rise and extreme downpours are being experienced now, others like increasing exposure to high temperatures (often accompanied by high humidity) along with an outbreak in new local diseases are expected to become more significant in coming decades.

Economy is affected too. The report says: "A recent economic study suggests that the Southern and Midwestern populations are likely to suffer the largest losses from projected climate changes in the United States. ... [since] losses are largest in regions that are already poorer on average, climate change tends to increase pre-existing inequality in the United States."

Temperature increases are projected to pose challenges for health in the Southeast. Crop production, much of which relies on periods of lower temperatures for optimum productivity, will suffer as well.

Here's the problem: "Most people believe in climate change, and that it's man-made, but don't believe it will impact them," Dr. Herrmann says.

Guess again. If we can learn the definition of "anthropocene," we can learn to accept what's going on around us. And maybe we will join those pioneers of American climate solutions.

To learn more visit nca2018.globalchange.gov.

Karen Martin is senior editor of Perspective.

kmartin@arkansasonline.com

Editorial on 05/23/2019

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