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I can believe that wooden construction techniques have improved over the past however so thousands of years. But I can't bring myself to believe that it is envi

I can believe that wooden construction techniques have improved over the past however so thousands of years. But I can't bring myself to believe that it is environmentally sustainable.

PhasmaFelis 8y ago
Wood for construction (and paper) is harvested from fast-growing industrial pine plantations. Building with old growth wood is inefficient even if it wasn't socially unacceptable. The demand for that stuff is all in high-end furniture and other decorative items.
jsf01 8y ago
In countries like Norway, the timber companies replant trees. In addition, the growing trees suck up more carbon in comparison to the older trees. You think that mining is preferable to this practically infinite renewable resource?
- magduf 8y ago
  It is renewable, but trees take time to grow, and there's only so much space available that's useful for growing those trees. I'm not saying you shouldn't build things out of wood, but the question is how much supply is really reasonably available?
benj111 8y ago
Why? Compared to concrete, wood is massively lower carbon. I suppose we could get into the weeds of 'sustainability', in that case, unless you're proposing to stop all construction of any decent height, this is probably the best we can reasonably expect.
rypskar 8y ago
Creating building from wood act as a carbon sink, the CO2 is kept in the wood and not released to the air. So using fast growing wood produce negative Co2 output. Also because of among other things, longer growth season from climate change Norway is getting more forest, not less
- a_imho 8y ago
  How much co2 is captured in a 18 story building?
  - rypskar 8y ago
    Don't know. But building from wood store co2, building from concrete produce co2. Are probably several papers on this online, and would have been nice to know where to easily check things like this
cmpxchg8b 8y ago
It’s a pretty good carbon sink if you replant the trees.
peter303 8y ago
Various sources say that lime production for concrete creates around 1/12th of the anthroprogenic atmospheric carbon. On the other hand, wood is a temporary carbon sink until ot burns or decays.

I can believe that wooden construction techniques have improved over the past however so thousands of years. But I can't bring myself to believe that it is environmentally sustainable.

PhasmaFelis 8y ago

Wood for construction (and paper) is harvested from fast-growing industrial pine plantations. Building with old growth wood is inefficient even if it wasn't socially unacceptable. The demand for that stuff is all in high-end furniture and other decorative items.

jsf01 8y ago

In countries like Norway, the timber companies replant trees. In addition, the growing trees suck up more carbon in comparison to the older trees. You think that mining is preferable to this practically infinite renewable resource?

magduf 8y ago
It is renewable, but trees take time to grow, and there's only so much space available that's useful for growing those trees. I'm not saying you shouldn't build things out of wood, but the question is how much supply is really reasonably available?

benj111 8y ago

Why? Compared to concrete, wood is massively lower carbon. I suppose we could get into the weeds of 'sustainability', in that case, unless you're proposing to stop all construction of any decent height, this is probably the best we can reasonably expect.

rypskar 8y ago

Creating building from wood act as a carbon sink, the CO2 is kept in the wood and not released to the air. So using fast growing wood produce negative Co2 output. Also because of among other things, longer growth season from climate change Norway is getting more forest, not less

a_imho 8y ago
How much co2 is captured in a 18 story building?
- rypskar 8y ago
  Don't know. But building from wood store co2, building from concrete produce co2. Are probably several papers on this online, and would have been nice to know where to easily check things like this

cmpxchg8b 8y ago

It’s a pretty good carbon sink if you replant the trees.

peter303 8y ago

Various sources say that lime production for concrete creates around 1/12th of the anthroprogenic atmospheric carbon. On the other hand, wood is a temporary carbon sink until ot burns or decays.