Archinect - News

A UK architect is on trial for protesting against climate change

2019-09-06T16:00:00-04:00

Tom Bennett of Studio Bark was charged with breaching section 14 of the 1986 Public Order Act after his arrest earlier this year for his role in the mass demonstrations highlighting the planet’s growing climate emergency. Arrested during XR’s blockade of Waterloo Bridge on Saturday 20 April, Bennett was among about 60 climate change activists entering their pleas for similar offences at the City of London Magistrates’ Court on (August 30th).

UK Architect Tom Bennett of Studio Bark was arrested during the April 20th Extinction Rebellion-led (XR) climate protests that gripped London and other cities. The protests, part of an "international rebellion" organized against climate inaction, were met with a heavy police presence in London and elsewhere.

In an Architect's Journal essay written after his arrest, Bennett explains, "The ARB and RIBA codes of conduct require that I inform them if I think I may have brought the profession into disrepute. I’ve viewed my participation in XR as a natural extension of my duty towards the public interest," adding, "But I’m also aware that the codes of conduct oblige me to avoid run-ins with the law. I do not feel that I have brought the profession into disrepute, but I also recognise this is a matter for others to decide. To that end, I will be writing to the ARB and RIBA pending the outcome of the ongoing legal process."

Unchecked climate change will make the Gulf uninhabitable, claims new study

2015-10-26T21:03:00-04:00

The Gulf in the Middle East, the heartland of the global oil industry, will suffer heatwaves beyond the limit of human survival if climate change is unchecked, according to a new scientific study. The extreme heatwaves will affect Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha and coastal cities in Iran as well as posing a deadly threat to millions of Hajj pilgrims in Saudi Arabia, when the religious festival falls in the summer.

"The study shows the extreme heatwaves, more intense than anything ever experienced on Earth, would kick in after 2070 and that the hottest days of today would by then be a near-daily occurrence."

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The End of History?

2014-09-08T00:14:00-04:00

One index of human impact is the extinction of species, now estimated to be at about the same rate as it was 65 million years ago when an asteroid hit the Earth. That is the presumed cause for the ending of the age of the dinosaurs, which opened the way for small mammals to proliferate, and ultimately modern humans. Today, it is humans who are the asteroid, condemning much of life to extinction.

Probably one of the most prompt and tell it the way it is style of Noam Chomsky, 'where we are going account' of recent history and our as a matter of factly demise depicted. Enjoy your last milleniums.., humans!