Economic initiatives are a step towards sustainability, but the reality is that for as long as civilization has existed catastrophically bad environmental practices have been good business. Taxing carbon heavy lifestyles would be a great start towards making bad environmental policy unprofitable, but it has to go much deeper. We need a values overhaul. I’m reminded of Jared Diamond’s question from his book Collapse where he wonders what the person on Easter Island must have been thinking when they cut down the very last palm tree, the final blow in a program of deforestation that eventually destroyed their entire civilization thanks to erosion, crop failure and ultimately starvation. We are in the throws of a global program of deforestation and total environmental collapse, but we haven’t yet reached the precipice of ecological apocalypse. If business continues as usual, utilizing the same old logic of resource extraction and exploitation, we will reach that precipice, and quickly.
The “green movement” as represented by Al Gore, William Mcdonough and their copatriots is primarily concerned with reform within the current framework. Pushing forward such initiatives as consumer choice politics, carbon trading and other band-aid solution will only prolong the coming collapse. The green movement is far too focused on metrics as arcane as global carbon emissions, which are far more subjective than the increasingly mounting evidence of desertification, deforestation, agricultural land salinization, fishery collapse and aquifer loss. Anyone interested in a thorough exploration of these should pick up Derrik Jensen’s Endgame, clear a few weeks of their schedule, but a few bottles of wine and bunker down in their comfiest chair and prepare for a long depressing and scary ride.
It is true that Architecture is by definition an expenditure of resources, but it’s important to look at what architecture can be in contrast to what it is now. Architecture, and architects historically and currently work to serve the interests of the first world elite; those heavy carbon users you suggested taxing. Vernacular architecture, or what I like to think of as the Architecture of Survival, is markedly different, as it is by definition local, small-scale and designed to serve immediate utilitarian needs. It can also be incredibly beautiful, meaningful and powerful in ways that neither cathedrals nor skyscrapers are capable of. It can also be locally resource exploitative and lead to environmental degredation, depending on economic circumstance and what materials are available, however I think it’s important to note that there is a moral difference between a Haitian family contributing to national deforestation to build a shack to live in and fuel a cooking stove versus a Frank Gehry museum that uses incredibly resource intensive industrial machinery to produce a sheet metal sculpture to be enjoyed by only the very rich.
In the example of Easter Island, deforestation was the price of competition between rival tribal chiefs racing to outdo each other with ever larger Maoi stones, massive ancestral totems that required a huge allocation of labor and resources (timber and food) to complete. The Easter Islanders killed themselves in good ol’ artistic competition.
Architecture is channeling that instinct, building ever larger maoi stones and ignoring the quickly diminishing resource base while we pat ourselves on the back for figuring out how to put wind turbines in the middle of a skyscraper. Architecture needs a massive change of priorities and it starts with us all. It starts with learning and accountability. We need to start pointing fingers at the most disgusting and wasteful practices and create a culture that counts it’s tree’s and understands what is necessary for everyone’s mutual survival. It starts with mutual aid, community building and resistance; now, before it’s too late and we’re wondering what the we we’re thinking when we pumped the last gallon of oil out of the tar sands, blew the top off the last mountain looking for coal, or leveled the last rainforest in service of sweet, sweet luxury.
