|
contents | events | |||||||||
| Herbert Girardet delivers the RIBA Trust Annual Lecture 2007  Herbert Girardet, internationally-renowned author, one of the leading thinkers on sustainable urban development, will deliver a challenging and hard-hitting presentation entitled The Compelling Logic of Positive Action for the RIBA Trust's sixth Annual Lecture on Tuesday 1 May 2007. Girardet, Director of Programmes of the World Future Council (WFC), recipient of a UN Global 500 Award for Environmental Achievements, and an Honorary Fellow of the RIBA, will be outlining the complex spectrum of positive measures that are needed in an age of climate change. Drawing on his new book for the World Future Council, Surviving the Century – Facing Climate Chaos and Other Global Challenges which will be launched at the Lecture, Girardet will suggest that, for the first time ever, the future can no longer be taken for granted but has to be deliberately cultivated by positive action. Significant efforts towards environmentally sustainable development can also become a major force for strengthening local economies.In particular, Girardet will outline the real benefits from reconfiguring the metabolism of our cities. He will suggest that in large cities such as London a useful start has been made, but the climate chaos facing us requires a truly dramatic acceleration of new initiatives. Renewable energy technology is maturing fast, but can we wean our large cities off both fossil fuels and nuclear energy? The challenges are vast and time is short, but perhaps our instinct for self-preservation can help assure a fundamental change in direction. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Construction News :: home page |