This is a very perplexing reversal in policy. I seem to recall a rather heavy emphasis on earth sciences in the curricula way back in the 1970's. Has the profession's environmental bias gone the way of energy efficient design? This was also a large piece of my education at that time which seemed to have evaporated with green house gasses until very recently.
These are the realities of faddism. Topics come and go in education and professionalism like wardrobes. There is a larger problem at stake here. One that deals with the fundamental question of what it means to be an Architect. Remember the "Holistic Strategist"?
Perhaps we should consider our collective house, the earth, as a serious enough subject to be included in HSW requirements. That might help us get our collective head around "Welfare" and what it means in this context.
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John Dugger AIA
Principal Architect
J S Dugger, AIA & Associates
Gloucester, MA
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