Pic: Last year in March about 300 young people, mostly school learners, marched from Parliament to the City Hall in Cape Town to hand over a memorandum demanding government take โimmediate action on the climate crisisโ. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks
The Global Climate Strikeย is set to happen on the 20thย of September 2019, just before the UN emergency climate summit, where people will disrupt their work to protest and advocate for actions against climate breakdown.
Architects are joining on the march, through โArchitects Advocateโ, a movement encouraging the professionals of the industry to stand in solidarity with the rally.
Inspired by one single schoolgirl, Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old from Stockholm, who back in August 2018, skipped school and protested in front of the Swedish parliament, for weeks, with a sign reading โSchool Strike for Climateโ.ย The unimaginable power of one girl encouraged countless teenagers from all over the world to support her mission, and advocate on every Friday for a year or so, these pressing issues. On the 20thย of September, people from different backgrounds and different generations will join the campaign, moved by the perseverance and dedication of the youngsters.
Melbourne climate strike. Image ยฉ Takver under the license CC BY-SA 2.0
โAt Architects Advocate, we believe the demands of the striking youth are not only reasonable but that they resonate with our professional interests and commitments. Thatโs why we launched the #StandWithGreta campaign in support of their movement. [โฆ] Architects, please join us in standing up for the next generation by supporting the true leaders of our time.โ — Tom Jacobs, Co-Founder Architects Advocate for Action on Climate ChangeArchitects Advocate are encouraging the mass participation of the industryโs professionals because they believe that architecture has a major role in tackling global climate challenges and that architects โhave a unique role to ensure that better outcomes for both people and planet arise from their designsโ. According to the campaign, they also โshare responsibility for creating healthy and safe communities for all.โ Joining the pledge, are theย U.K. Green Building Councilย and Ben Derbyshire, president of theย Royal Institute of British Architectsย (RIBA), as reported by theย Architectsโ Journal.
This article was first published in Arch Daily and is republished with permission.
Green Building Africa promotes the need for net carbon zero buildings and cities in Africa. We are fiercely independent and encourage outlying thinkers to contribute to the #netcarbonzero movement. Climate change is upon us and now is the time to react in a more diverse and broader approach to sustainability in the built environment. We challenge architects, property developers, urban planners, renewable energy professionals and green building specialists. We also challenge the funding houses and regulators and the role they play in facilitating investment into green projects. Lastly, we explore and investigate new technology and real-time data to speed up the journey in realising a net carbon zero environment for our children.