HURRICANE KATRINA BRINGS BUILDINGS' CONTRIBUTION TO GLOBAL WEATHER EVENTS INTO SHARPER FOCUS

No one has accused the real estate/construction industry or the home/building automation industry for brewing up the kind of catastrophic disasters we saw this week with Hurricane Katrina, but there is more culpability there than most insiders understand or will admit to. Scientific evidence mounts that the toxic gases EPA and ASHRAE's protocols have us pumping into the atmosphere to ventilate buildings exacerbates global warming, which in turn increases the available energy hurricanes and tropical storms have at their disposal to destroy what we build. Ironic isn't it?

GEOPHYSICAL FLUID DYNAMICS LAB STUDY CONCLUDES HURRICANE DESTRUCTION WILL INCREASE WITH GLOBAL WARMING

So says our National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. In a report dated August 2005, the agency states, "The strongest hurricanes in the present climate may be upstaged by even more intense hurricanes over the next century as the earth's climate is warmed by increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere". (Global Warming and Hurricanes; NOAA/OAR/GFDL; Princeton Univ., Princeton, NJ; August 19, 2005). While recent U.S. administrations have ignored this and other warnings, our international neighbors have not. The Kyoto Accords attempt to reverse these trends. Federal responsibility was called to task this past weekend as Hurricane Katrina delivered one of our worst natural disasters on record. At some point the real estate/construction industries will be similarly blamed as the magnitude of the problem becomes understood.

BUILDING EFFLUENTS CONTRIBUTE TO GLOBAL EVENTS

Indoor air pollution is a problem without end. Every person inhabiting a house or office building emits carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from their bodies. The EPA tells us there is an increasing number of other pollutant sources as well. A soup of hundreds of toxins permeates the air around us. For occupant health we get rid of these toxins by evacuating them, essentially sweeping them under the carpet to do harm elsewhere. As global populations explode, so does the population and elevation of buildings around the world to support them, each a pollutant source pumping toxic gases into the atmosphere. That paradigm has limited sustain ability and changes are needed. Many believe that air cleaning strategies in buildings make the most sense.

BUILDING AUTOMATION CAN HELP. APM SYSTEMS SUPPORT SPACE-AGE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES

A large part of the need is to replace the earth's critical greenery that absorbs and metabolizes pollutants from air and water, now largely missing due to poor management of our planet. In the 1980s NASA research into the ecology of enclosed environments focused on using nature's biotechnology as remediation methods in buildings. They found when used properly, common tropical plants of the decorative types that grace our homes and offices, are effective air cleaners, capable of reducing indoor air pollution, taking some of the burden carried by HVAC systems which have very limited practicality for comprehensive air cleaning, particularly in residential settings. Green plants have cleaned and purified air and water on earth since the beginning of time. Used in buildings, they provide other health and business benefits as well. Automated technologies are available to help. Boca Automation provides effective support for interior plantscapes with automated, precision micro-irrigation (APM) systems that increase the practicality of biological air cleaning techniques, as well as conventional decorative plant installations. Built into structures and hidden, they automatically provide critical moisture and greatly reduce plant maintenance costs.

Additional information can be obtained by contacting, Boca Automation/S. D. Snyder & Assoc., 2900 SW 22nd Circle- #22A2, Delray Beach, FL 33445 or e-mailing bocasite@earthlink.net.