Architecture and Climate Change: An Interview with Ed Mazria

Last year, Ed Mazria and his New Mexico-based non-profit organization, Architecture 2030, revealed that architecture – or the building sector, more generally – is the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions, worldwide.
To help prevent "catastrophic" climate change, then, the building sector must become carbon neutral. Reaching that state before the year 2030 is what Mazria has dubbed the 2030 Challenge.
In an effort to speed things along, Mazria will be co-hosting an event, on February 20th, called the 2010 Imperative.
This will be a "global emergency teach-in" broadcast live on the web
from New York City. The 2010 Imperative – discussed in more detail,
below – has been specifically organized around the idea that "ecological literacy
[must] become a central tenet of design education," and that "a major
transformation of the academic design community must begin today."
I
recently spoke to Mazria about climate change, sustainable design, and
carbon neutrality; about the present state, and future direction, of
architectural education; about suburban development, Wal-Mart, and
SUVs; and about the 2030 Challenge itself.
What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation