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In 2020, the then president of Brazil said he would reveal which countries were the consumers of the illegally extracted wood from Amazonia. [0] No further new
by woliveirajr 3y ago
In 2020, the then president of Brazil said he would reveal which countries were the consumers of the illegally extracted wood from Amazonia. [0]
No further news were heard about it. There were even a startup that would use DNA to certify the origin of the wood, allowing traceability.
The "efforts to halt trade in illegal timber such as the EU Timber Regulation and the US Lacey Act" can greatly contribute to reduce this process: harvesting those trees isn't cheap, and without buyers paying large sums to aquire it, it becomes non-profitable.
[0] in Portuguese: https://exame.com/brasil/bolsonaro-diz-que-revelara-paises-que-compram-madeira-ilegal-da-amazonia/ https://exame.com/brasil/bolsonaro-diz-que-revelara-paises-q...
- frozenlettuce 3y agoRecently I was watching Property Brothers and saw two episodes where both houses had Brazilian Hardwood flooring. The funny thing is that I live in Brazil and it is quite rare to find houses with that type of flooring - the bureaucracy and costs associated make it very expensive - but that might not be the case if the customer is Canadian
- bastardoperator 3y agoI would argue there is zero point in using real hardwood on floors these days given vinyl planks are way cheaper, way more durable, and look nearly indistinguishable from real thing.
- harimau777 3y agoPersonally I don't trust vinyl flooring not to outgas toxic chemicals or produce toxic dust as it wears down.
- abakker 3y agoHardwood floors can be re-sanded and refinished many times over, generating no waste. Vinyl floors get scratched and then thrown away. Wood is renewable, vinyl comes from oil wells. I'm not certain this is actually logical.
- trgn 3y agoAnd you feel it, barefoot, touching it, it feels more natural. Hardwood floors cleans better too, more hygienic. Hard to put into words.
- alistairSH 3y agoWe went with a mid-grade LVP in the basement (ease of install, cost, and water-resistance). It's fine in that use case, but it has some drawbacks over wood. The primary one I've noticed is the damage pattern (from moving furniture, etc) isn't good - wood patinas better, where LVP just gets gouges. Maybe there are more expensive LVP options that don't do this.
- doctorhandshake 3y agoI prefer to use patina to refer to acceptable or even desirable wear, and in that sense, LVP doesn't patina at all, but rather gouges, as you say.
- simonsarris 3y ago> look nearly indistinguishable maybe I'm top 1% neurotic about these things but I can tell from Zillow images alone. And definitely by feel of walking on them and the distinct noise they make. There's no comparison. I seriously doubt they are indistinguishable for most people, but I could be very wrong, especially since so many people go for them.
- thunfischbrot 3y agoMost people just don't care or never knew the difference. Like keming, once you notice it, you will likely notice for the rest of your life.
- lovich 3y agoThat was physically painful to read, good example
- lotsofpulp 3y agoYes. There is no way the extra costs of real hardwood are worth the supposed benefits, to me. LVP or LVT or whatever vinyl name is just so much cheaper and easier to work with, and as long as the floor is clean and presentable, the only difference I see is wood flooring being more expensive.
- jeremyjh 3y agoHave you ever lived in a house with real wood floors? The difference you feel barefoot is quite noticeable. It may not be worth the cost to you, but it is definitely different.
- chmod600 3y agoSometimes life is better when you just accept that something is different but not necessarily worse. Natural gas fireplaces aren't real wood-burning, and I can tell, but I just appreciate that they are way cleaner. Now, furniture is a different story. Wood is much better than the engineered crap. Try lifting a modern piece that looks like wood and maybe has a thin layer of wood (very heavy and easy to damage) and then try lifting something made of real wood (light and strong).
- maccard 3y ago> look nearly indistinguishable from real thing. Have to disagree here. Even at a glance they're totally different.
- chmod600 3y agoThe worst are floors with a thin layer of hardwood surface (a few mm) over some "engineered" material below making up the rest of the plank. I'm not sure vinyl is indistinguishable from real hardwood, but I'd take it over a worst-of-both-worlds compromise.
- some-guy 3y agoGood engineered hardwood has enough of a top wear layer that allows the same number of refinishes as solid hardwood (due to hitting the tongue and groove), plus you get better humidity performance.
- bickfordb 3y agoThe engineered flooring is generally superior technology: 1. It requires less hardwood (rare) for the veneer, and uses softwood (plentiful) for the plywood base. 2. It can be milled exactly to one thickness. Generally with solid hardwood floors you need to sand after installing to get everything into one plane due to moisture movement in the hardwood warping and twisting it. 3. It can be applied in wider planks. Wide solid hardwood floors tend to cup and contract and leave gaps after installation. The plywood base in engineered planks is cross laminated so that it is more stable and resist moisture changes
- munk-a 3y agoThere are very reasonable hardwood materials available - it's just better to prefer sourcing them from countries without illegal exploitation issues. Canadian hardwood is pretty affordable and quite durable for flooring - as an alternative.
- dylan604 3y ago> The funny thing is that I live in Brazil and it is quite rare to find houses with that type of flooring Does Brazilian Hardwood flooring actually mean the type of flooring Brazilians have or just simply that the hardwood being used as flooring is from Brazil?
- frozenlettuce 3y agoIt refers to it being from Brazil. Wood is not a popular building material here.
- wlesieutre 3y agoAnother side of this is you really want to put economic value on sustainably harvesting these trees and preserving the forest, because if you say "no harvesting at all" then it's more profitable for someone to burn the forest down and replace it with cattle. Years ago tracking lumber from harvesting through the supply chain was one of the few convincing cases I heard for blockchain applications, where you have a sequence of people who don't trust each other and buyers want verification that the group cutting the trees was really only cutting and selling the amount they were allowed to. Haven't heard any more on that recently. EDIT - took a look for updates and I see the FSC has a "FSC Blockchain Beta pilot program" https://fsc.org/en/blockchain https://fsc.org/en/blockchain
- whyenot 3y agoThe problem is that in many cases tropical hardwoods are so slow growing and so intertwined with other species (both physically and metaphorically) that there isn't a way to harvest them sustainably. As a planet, we need to decide how much of these forests we are going to save, and then actually protect them. That may sound idealistic, but as someone who has spent a significant portion of my adult life working and studying tropical rainforests, I don't see another good option.
- wlesieutre 3y agoCertainly not in the volume for people to be using it for all their decks and flooring. Actual sustainable harvesting would probably price out everything but musical instruments and maybe some expensive outdoor furniture.
- harimau777 3y agoFinding better trees to farm might help. It might be easier to get people to choose something other than cutting down old growth forests if the alternative wasn't white pine.
- Fatnino 3y agoThe formula seems pretty straightforward. Take the area of land we're willing to give over to lumber farming, divide by how long it takes to grow a tree to harvest and that's how much lumber demand can be met. Adjust price to make demand meet that limit.
- OfSanguineFire 3y ago"the then president of Brazil said he would reveal which countries were the consumers of the illegally extracted wood from Amazonia." Could one of those countries be China? In Madagascar a decade ago, the felling of hardwood trees (even in supposedly protected national parks) was said to be largely driven by the Chinese furniture industry, and often when I passed a logging operation while cycling, there were Chinese overseeing the work. Considering Brazil–China trade links, no surprise if the then-president didn’t want to rock that boat.
- ufo 3y agoIt's no surprise that Bolsonaro would not follow up with a plan to conserve the environment.