Green Building and Real Estate Blog

The Indian government has unveiled a national action plan to confront the threat posed by climate change. Read the article.

My take: While some questions remain unanswered, this seems to be a right step forward. Area in river deltas in India would easily be overwhelmed with rising sea levels, sending millions to other already overcrowded areas. For India, and for the rest of the World, the issue of extreme weather becomes not only an issue for evening news discussions, but a national and regional security issue. 200 million desperate, hungry and homeless people will not only threaten a civil order in a nuclear country. These people will destabilize a very fragile order that exists in extremely overpopulated area of the World. Just like almost no country escaped being part of World War II, there will be no exclusions in this war for survival. Who will be left after fires burn, deserts expand, sea level rises, rivers dry and animals disappear?

Not an exact quote, but a Native American tribe chief in the documentary 11th Hour said something along these lines: "The Earth will recover. The rivers will flow, the air will be clean again, animals will roam the lands. The planet will heal and all of that will be there again. The question is whether we are going to be there to see that." Will we?

Taller than the Empire State Building, the so-called Dynamic Tower will be built in Dubai, with a second version featuring a retractable helicopter pad, later planned for Moscow.

View the video.

P.S. Please not the innovative use of wind power. Dynamic design of any living and working space is the future in architecture. A building should be able to be a "living creature", constantly adjusting to the environment around it and people inside.

Read about these cities, which have taken a pro-active approach to greening their environments.

It seems that cities, which move aggressively on greening their environment, buildings and transportation, not only become a better place to live. These cities also attract businesses, which are eager to present themselves as environmentally sensitive. These companies also have to deal with demands of new work force. Younger employees, and even baby boomers, look for quality of life. And in recent years, clean environment became a significant part of it.