F E AT U R E By Claire Thirlwall
Resources for tackling climate change LI members will soon be obliged to do five hours of CPD per year on climate change, Claire Thirlwall explores some of the tools and guidance available to help the professional understanding of the topic.
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s landscape architects we are well placed to act to reduce carbon emission and reduce the impacts of climate change. The LI declaration calls for “a minimum 5 hours’ climate, sustainability and resilience-related CPD per year for all members” but with such a pressing and wideranging issue it can be difficult to find sources relevant to our profession. Many of the best sources are online, as they allow for constant
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updating as new data emerges. Blog posts, podcasts and academic studies are useful, although it is worth questioning the credibility of any source and the agenda of the person creating the content – always question the purpose of the article and find the source material where possible. I’ve seen facts cited at landscape events where the original source was a company selling washing powder, demonstrating how important it is to scrutinise the motives as well as the data.1 As a profession, we need
to ensure that the environmental information we present to clients is accurate and relevant. Referring to dubious data undermines rather than strengthens our argument. Using Google Scholar for web searches means that your results will be drawn from peer reviewed scholarly literature, including academic journals, conference papers and technical reports rather than tabloid articles or blog posts. www.scholar.google.co.uk
Dried soils. © Donald Giannatti on Unsplash
1 ‘Free the kids’, in OMO Global, <https:// www.persil.com/ uk/free-the-kids. html> [accessed 18 September 2019].