Back to the future – or is that onwards to the past?

Queensland is not the only place that has felt the rough hand of Nature in recent times, but is certainly the closest to home, so Aussies feel it more keenly. Horrendous floods in Brazil, freak snowstorms in USA, exceedingly cold but snow-free winter in Europe, and all the while the ice caps and glaciers are melting, melting…

No one likes a smug bastard that says “I told you so”, and it is very important to remember that, as Will Shakespeare said, “One swallow does not a summer make.” But we must look at the signs and ask what they mean.

In 2006, I was trained by Al Gore – the bloke that Jeremy Clarkson and Co love to hate – to present An Inconvenient Truth. Throughout 2007 I presented that hard hitting slideshow over 30 times. Its factual content has never been seriously challenged. But can we test its predictive content against actual experience?

It predicted the ice melt, the slowing of the Gulf Stream, the increased intensity and frequency of cyclones, the wild swings in weather – both hot and cold. I am not going to say “I told you so”, because I am part of the system that is causing this to happen. I am going to say “design your buildings to cope with the changes, and especially design them to reduce the problem!”

You see, we can and do design zero-energy buildings right now. Not just carbon neutral, but zero energy. And they are always a delight to occupy. We need all of us – governments, consumers, designers, and builders, to agree we can do it, we need to do it – we WILL do it, ON THIS PROJECT, right now. Not put it off till the never never. Now is the time, friends.