Editor’s Letter

It would be an understatement to say that the bushfires that continue to rage around the country have not had an impact on the collective psyche of the design industry.

Far from it in fact. If one ‘good’ thing – and I am trying to be both careful and optimistic here – has come out of these fires, it is that they have managed to galvanise everyone behind the notion that something needs to be done, and needs to be done as of yesterday.

The other fact, now patently obvious to all, is that the design industry cannot, and for that matter, should not rely on governments for any form of direct climate action.

The ‘ABCDEF sector’ – Architecture, Building, Construction, Development, Engineering and Facilitieshas the most to lose and also the most to give when it comes to helping mitigate the repercussions of our ‘out of whack’ environment.

Let me be crystal clear on two things - I am not only talking about macro anthropogenic climate change here. I also include other climatic effects like El Nino and La Nina, the Indian Ocean Dipole along with micro climate issues like excess wet ground, for example, that promotes evaporation and increases atmospheric humidity.

All of these have in one way or another contributed to the horrific bushfires of the past five months and all of these - including global climate change, are things that can be influenced in a positive and constructive way by the ABCDEF sector.

The second thing is that while economics has a crucial role to play here, myths involving widespread wealth redistribution, enforced collectivisation or what has been labelled as ‘Care Bear Economics’ are not the answer.

Anyone doubting this should visit any former socialist country, many of which continue to suffer some of the highest pollution-induced health problems on the planet. A visit to the uber-polluted Lake Baikal in Siberia should also be on the to-do list for those that want to understand how socialism was never the environment’s best friend.

In order to fix this problem, the architecture and design sector has to step up and work together, and the time to start is right now. Waiting is no longer an option.