For the better part of a decade, ed mazria was a lonely prophet. Not long after turning 60 in 2001, the garrulous, six-foot-six-inch architect, who lives in a solar-powered house of his own design just outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, came to a dismaying conclusion about his profession: It was more responsible than any other field for global warming and the planetary woes that go with it. Cobbling together statistics from scientific, government, and industry sources, Mazria calculated that U.S. buildings produce roughly half of global greenhouse-gas emissions every year and account for about the same proportion of total energy consumption. All our cars, trucks, trains, and planes, by contrast, have a smaller impact on global warming. By 2003, Mazria had turned his data on the relationship between architecture and climate change into a slide show. He made the case that while environmental activists demonized coal-fired power plants and gas-guzzling SUVs, it was really architects and builders who deserved to wear a scarlet letter.
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