Agriculture Reference
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to short-term and regional variations. Overall, however, a majority of scientific
evidence appears to indicate that the temperature of Earth is increasing. There
have been wide fluctuations in mean global temperatures, such as the ice ages,
but on balance the mean temperature has remained constant, prompting some
scientists to speculate some whimsical causes for such consistency. One person
who has helped to lend scientific credibility to the debate is Charles Keeling,
an atmospheric scientist who measured CO
2
concentrations in the atmosphere
using an infrared gas analyzer. Since 1958, these data have provided the single
most important piece of information on global warming and are now referred
to as the Keeling curve in honor of the scientist. The curve shows that there has
been more than a 15% increase in CO
2
concentration in the troposphere, which
is a substantial rise given the short time that measurements have been taken.
If we extrapolate backward, it is likely that our present CO
2
levels are double
what they were in pre-industrial revolution times, providing ample evidence that
global warming is indeed occurring.
2
Sidebar: Applying the Synthovation/Regenerative
Model: Land
Humans have been engaged in land development for thousands of years, but the
twentieth century saw an acceleration of an alteration to natural landforms.
This rapid change has been accompanied by a weakening of the sense of
stewardship toward the environment held by the earliest settlers. The patterns
of early settlement suggest an intimate understanding of a building site in a
way that most modern, technologically sophisticated buildings seem to ignore.
Studies by the late professor Gordon Willey of Harvard University suggest
that people living in prehistoric Mayan settlements in the Belize valley had an
understanding of the carrying capacity of the land and settlement density.
Evidence suggests that the manner in which land was shaped was derived
based on the climate and human adaptation to the specifics of the environment.
Although they may not have thought about it in terms of science, people in
early civilizations considered the “science of site” by understanding the hy-
drology, geology, vegetation, and wildlife and other microclimate factors in
considering how the land was to be shaped. Geographers refer to this as en-
vironmental determinism. Development and construction through analysis of
the local ecology, concepts of open space, protection of productive agricultural
land, and management of stormwater and water quality are a part of sustainable
design dialogue today that was well understood in early civilizations. Architects
and engineers today have a wealth of information available on microclimate
which must be leveraged in considering how land is to be shaped and buildings
are to respond to (and shall we add, respect?) their environment. The NOAA
Web site, www.weather.gov/climate provides access to information specific to
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