Professional Practice
Climate Change Mitigation and Landscape Architecture
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Global climate change is the defining environmental issue of our time. From devastating wildfires to historic storms and rising seas, the effects are already being felt and will continue to get worse. According to NASA, . Additional impacts include increased spread of diseases; extensive species extinction; mass human, animal, and plant migrations; and resource wars over dwindling food and water supplies. Furthermore, these impacts will the world¡¯s poorest and most vulnerable communities.
Sustained, meaningful commitments and actions to substantially reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from all sectors of our economy can help avoid the worst of these negative impacts. The benefits of these actions will be measured in lives saved and communities spared.
In 2015, the international community gathered in Paris, France, and agreed to a for limiting global temperature rise to ¡°well below¡± 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. In order to meet this goal, GHG emissions will need to . This is an immense goal, but also achievable.
Landscape architects are helping to shift us to a carbon neutral future. They plan and design dense, walkable communities that reduce emissions from transportation and sprawl. They make the built environment more energy and carbon efficient with strategies like green roofs, water-efficient design, and use of sustainable materials and construction practices. They defend and expand carbon-sequestering landscapes such as forests, wetlands, and grasslands, helping to drawdown atmospheric carbon dioxide. All of these efforts also enable communities to better adapt to climate change and improve their resilience.
The threats posed by climate change are immense, and there is no single strategy that will solve the climate crisis on its own. Instead, mitigation requires an ¡°all hands on deck¡± approach as we seek to reduce GHG emissions wherever possible. Achieving a carbon neutral future will only come about through the cumulative effect of countless individual actions. Every one of those individual actions counts.
U.S. Organizations
International Organizations
United Nations Environment Programme
Resources
, The Dirt blog, March 15, 2018
, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
, UN Environment
, IPCC
, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
, The Landscape Institute
(2015)
Smart Policies for a Changing Climate, American Society of Landscape Architects
, The Guardian
(2016)
Research
, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association
, U.S. Global Change Research Program
, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Carbon Registries and Markets
, The Environmental Defense Fund
This guide was written by Andrew Wright.
This guide is a living resource so we invite you to submit research
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