Expert: Biggest Challenge is Global Warming

Biggest Challenge is Dealing With Global Warming - World Expert

Biggest challenge is dealing with global warming’s threat to economies, people and cities – says world expert

Global warming has been accepted as a world wide threat to the environment, to people, to future economies and to cities, a visiting world landscape expert said today.

The biggest challenge for the planet is how to deal with the problem, Mexican landscape architect Mario Schjetnan said.

``What commitments, which countries have more responsibilities, how to apply and certify measures, are the key to a civilized global agreement. Weird sentence

``This is one of the great challenges for a global agenda in the first quarter of the 21st century. Landscape architects have many things to say and propose in this respect, so it is an opportunity for our profession to directly participate, to be involved.

``In Mexico City we experienced a major strike during the great September 1985 earthquakes, we lost many lives and thousands of buildings collapsed or were ruined. Many scars have not healed but many wonderful things also happened then.

``There was an incredible human solidarity and heroism of people helping people; it was a chance to rebuild public housing in the inner core of the city and our company reconstructed the National Medical Centre, Mexico's prime hospital complex in a seven year project.’’

His comments have been endorsed by the world landscape architectural leader New Zealand’s Diane Menzies. She says global sustainability is at risk unless massive changes are made swiftly.

``Our planet now, as never before, faces global environmental issues. We have moved beyond doubt and denial to recognise the inconvenient truth of climate change.

``As our world's population continues to expand the stress placed on scarce resources, particularly clean water, will become even more critical. Global sustainability is at risk,'' Menzies said.

Menzies is president of the International Federation of Landscape Architects which has its world congress in Kuala Lumpur this week.

Schjetnan arrives in New Zealand tomorrow (Eds: Sat – Sept 1) this week for a three week study, research and speaking tour. He is the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects’ third Education Foundation scholar. He will speak in five New Zealand cities and towns, will meet top landscape architects and talk to government and local authority officials

A few years ago Schjetnan was invited to Beirut to help in a devastated area at the centre of the city. The site was surrounded by mosques and Christian churches of various denominations and the bombing and destruction had unearthed all the layers of history and interventions by various cultures.

Suddenly, the site became a text book of city building by Romans, medieval Arabs, and 19th century French, he said.

His proposal illustrated how landscape design could bring together history, various cultures and spiritual views together to coexist and relate.

More recently, Schjetnan designed a garden in California which was a tribute to migrant workers. It was a commentary on immigration in the USA from Mexico and Central America. The garden exposes some of the data and realities of immigration, and the people, he said.

Schjetnan is currently commissioned to renovate Chapultepec Park, the largest park in Mexico City and one of the largest parks in the world.

His work has been recognised by American Society of Landscape Architects and it has been published in various countries around the world.

ENDS

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