Life-cycle cost of education community settings are informed by climate change assumptions. The architectural character of a campus — i.e. the design and operation its buildings — has changed over the past half-century with cyclical assumptions about global cooling and global warming having changed accordingly. In the late 1960’s academic researchers found evidence of global cooling. Fifty years on academic researchers assume the earth is warming. We just roll with it as we do with all the other policy “givens” we accommodate.
According to a report by the Congressional Research Service, federal funding for climate research and related activities totaled approximately $13.8 billion in fiscal year 2020. This funding was distributed across various agencies and programs, including the National Science Foundation’s Climate and Large-Scale Dynamics program, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s climate Program Office, and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
Not included in this figure is the opportunity cost and loss of brand identity of not conforming to the climate change agenda.
