https://www.orano.group/en/unpacking-nuclear/all-about-the-ipcc-report-on-climate-change.
We developed in the Rift Valley in Africa, a landscape that was rapidly changing, in relative terms, creating new and diverse habitats.To survive and exploit this, we needed to be able to travel, develop technologies (fire and tools), problem solve, and adapt.
Homo erectus, our earlier cousin, could do all these things and spread out globally surviving and developing for a million years.Interestingly, Homo sapiens, us, developing later and in parallel were a bit smaller.The current view is that the advantage was size and reduced testosterone leading to less aggression and the ability to create and work in large social groups.. Mammals, themselves really came into their own after the last mass-extinction event some 65 million years ago.
They were overall much smaller than the dominant animals - the dinosaurs - and their size and adaptability is seen as a key feature for their survival and thriving.. Moving away from the natural world into the world designed by Homo sapiens, there is a very different approach to scale.Things are scaled up and down from the size of a human.
Houses and buildings are sized to wrap around humans and floor heights set to allow humans to walk upright.
The first factories were simply extensions on houses and the machines and equipment were generally sized to fit into slightly large rooms.This is delivered through a keen focus on a fabric first approach that seeks to reduce space heating demand which can be met either through useful solar gains, internal gains or via modern, high efficiency and low carbon heating systems..
The facade performance in a Passivhaus building goes well beyond current UK Building Regulations, though a combination of highly insulated walls, high-performing windows and by ensuring “thermal bridging” around windows, doors and junctions is reduced to as close to zero as possible.This contrasts with traditional building construction, where these elements account for upwards of 10% of the building’s heat loss..
The design must achieve the following targets to gain Passivhaus certification:.A heating energy demand of < 15 kWh/m²/yr or a maximum required heating power of 10 W/m2.
(Editor: Durable Shoes)