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If we're talking about the PNW, it doesn't take a genius to look around and see nature alone manages to build towering long-lasting structures in that environme

If we're talking about the PNW, it doesn't take a genius to look around and see nature alone manages to build towering long-lasting structures in that environment. Some of those redwood trees are older than the oldest buildings in the entire nation. The desert's evolved long-lasting structures are shrub-sized and endure by retreating underground. Otherwise there's rocks.

hattmall 5y ago
Big difference in the tree living vs being dead.. The desert is very harsh for life, but much more gentle on structures. Even when it does rain the arid environment evaporates it away quickly. It's not even a close comparison, you find structures from the 1960s in the southeast that are far more deteriorated than ones from the 1860s in the southwest.
- emodendroket 5y ago
  In fact the presence of life is negatively correlated with the survival of structures. One more thing to mess them up.
emodendroket 5y ago
Plants need water to live. Man-made structures, however, are not plants.
toss1 5y ago
>>nature alone manages to build towering long-lasting structures in that environment. Some of those redwood trees are older than the oldest buildings in the entire nation. Yes, and they are continuously maintained by the living tree's processes, building everything from new roots, bark, branches and leaves. The question you need to ask is how long a dead redwood stays standing in the Pacific Northwest? What is the proportion of standing live to standing dead trees? How long does a fallen redwood trunk last, even starting out 20 feet thick? >>The desert's evolved long-lasting structures are shrub-sized and endure by retreating underground Yup, due to the same processes - the high heat and low humidity make very large transpiration loads, evaporating water very rapidly from the leaves, so tall structures with huge capillary capacity are unsustainable. It isn't because they wear out fast from the wind. You seem to be mistaking attributes of biological growth processes for attributes of mechanical wear processes.
- emodendroket 5y ago
  We can see the difference weather makes in the case of Cleopatra’s Needle, which in its short stay in New York has seen some weathering it avoided for thousands of years in Egypt.

hattmall 5y ago

Big difference in the tree living vs being dead.. The desert is very harsh for life, but much more gentle on structures. Even when it does rain the arid environment evaporates it away quickly. It's not even a close comparison, you find structures from the 1960s in the southeast that are far more deteriorated than ones from the 1860s in the southwest.

emodendroket 5y ago
In fact the presence of life is negatively correlated with the survival of structures. One more thing to mess them up.

emodendroket 5y ago

Plants need water to live. Man-made structures, however, are not plants.

toss1 5y ago

>>nature alone manages to build towering long-lasting structures in that environment. Some of those redwood trees are older than the oldest buildings in the entire nation. Yes, and they are continuously maintained by the living tree's processes, building everything from new roots, bark, branches and leaves. The question you need to ask is how long a dead redwood stays standing in the Pacific Northwest? What is the proportion of standing live to standing dead trees? How long does a fallen redwood trunk last, even starting out 20 feet thick? >>The desert's evolved long-lasting structures are shrub-sized and endure by retreating underground Yup, due to the same processes - the high heat and low humidity make very large transpiration loads, evaporating water very rapidly from the leaves, so tall structures with huge capillary capacity are unsustainable. It isn't because they wear out fast from the wind. You seem to be mistaking attributes of biological growth processes for attributes of mechanical wear processes.

emodendroket 5y ago
We can see the difference weather makes in the case of Cleopatra’s Needle, which in its short stay in New York has seen some weathering it avoided for thousands of years in Egypt.