Changing human behavior to save our planet

I study architecture,and since I've began studying, I used to hear about ecological building techniques and energy sufficient strategies to save our dying planet.I don't think that is enough, as building eco-houses and buildings won't mainly solve the problem. It's human behavior and ignorance which would quickly kill our planet... any of these strategies and techniques would have slow effect in healing the planet. therefore, its the human behavior that must be changed .
Thats why I've been thinking for a while about the realtion between psychology (human behavior) and architecture (in other words the surrounding environment). If only architecture can help changing human behavior towards nature and give him a real chance to bind with it instead of living in concrete cages with fancy elevators and stained glass.

I had been in a mountain hike from several weeks, and met nomads who actually live in the mountains and rely on tourism as a their main economic source of living. what if a safe environment was built for these kind of communities..teaching them how to hold on to their traditions and preserving their surrounding nature.In fact, many of those people are actually pushed to seek other sources of living and to ignore their environment while we can help them to be it's guardian!!

What do you think of that? and what is your opinion about it? and please any comments will be appreciated.

 

You can't actually waste water, you know. It travels in a cycle, as any eighth-grader knows. The only reason to attempt to conserve water is if you live in a very dry area.

EDIT: I just noticed your username. Nice.

 

But it does take limited resources (time, money, energy) to purify the something like 1% usable water.

 

Depending where your water comes from.

 

BeWaterWise Rep said:"The definition of safe environment differs from people to people. In my opinion, ‘water’ is the first thing that comes to mind."

Ofcourse water is considered the most valuable resource on earth but it actually about how humans use it..that's what i meant by human behavior towards environment. that what if changed would solve water, energy and other crisis.

 

Human behaviour seems hard to change, it goes real slow and takes time. I think if architecture can help changing it it will only be in a small subtile way. But the longer I think of it the more I think it can add to it indeed, since what we see day in day out does indeed have an influence on us.

 

imagine if high glass towers are substituted by little one story houses ...maybe more gardens and landscape can be added....or maybe outlooking some mountains or whatever...people would actuallty feel more bound to nature as it would be a thing they deal with everyday, I think that can make a difference through one or two generations only!!..

 

And what would happen to everything that resides in the glass towers? Or is that not important?

 

do u mean people living in those towers??..why have we to live vertically?..we can build horizontally..while offices and work places could be in towers.

 

Why are we building vertically already. We have to watch out for overpopulation in the future already, otherwise horizontal building isn't an option everywhere anyway.

 

but have we go that high!!..i not talking about 4-5 stories...I'm talking about high towers!!!All I want to say is that people shouldn't live all their life packed over eachother in concrete cages!! thats why they loose their bond with nature, they are simply soo high above it!

 

Yeah well, there have grown cities all over the earth for a reason. Now that you have concrete jungles like Mexico city etc. etc. filled with people there is no way everyone can get out of there to 'rediscover their bond with nature'. Sad but true, we are with too much for that. And I suppose lots of city folk don't even want to.

 

Actually, you do waste water cause more water is being used before it is being recycled.

 

i dislike how ignorant people are. especially those who are 'ecofriendly', except.. they really don't care.
those who jump on the bandwagon, without actually caring. doing it for the image.

irritating, how ironic it is too. because those are the type of people who always say that the world must be changed, blahblahblah, but rarely actually do anything to help it.
human behavior at its worst.

 

It's very logical though, it's always easier to say as to do things. Yes, very human perhaps. I don't really hold it against them, everyone does it in some way, you probably too.

 

Yea, jay i completely agree with you aboutt he ignorant people and not really caring... If they don't really care than they shouldn't bother.

 

Which is why I said that it can be an issue if you live in a dry area, where draughts are a possibility. If you live in a fairly wet climate, the water will not be used up faster than it can be recycled.

 

that's true..

 

I really think we should focus on our species as opposed to our planet. Earth's existence is on a finite timeline, at the most we have about 5 billion years until the sun balloons outwards and burns it to a crisp. That's exponentially more time than we need to colonize many many other planets, and keep this whole intelligent life thing rolling for as long as possible.

The fact is we're in a cosmic shooting gallery, constantly on the brink of a natural disaster that could either eliminate Homo sapiens entirely, or send us into another dark age. The most moral thing you can be doing with your time is scientific research, aimed toward our survival in the upcoming millennia. Not recycling water of which our planet's surface on the whole has an over-abundance of or saving energy, which we are rapidly finding easier and easier ways of harnessing.

Ferngully has filled your heads with a personified, idealized version of nature on Earth. Nature is brutal as fuck, watch animal planet sometime. Chimps eating other baby chimps after raiding their neighbors, lions eating baby elephants alive ... humans are the best things going, and we're not permanantly attached to this blue-green ball anymore.

 

Your opinion and still wishful thinking.