The Millenium Development Goals, agreed to by every member country of the United Nations in 2000, call for the worldwide eradication of poverty and hunger, universal education, gender equality and huge improvements in health by 2015: two years ago!!
Can we do this without making the planet warmer?
Let's think big and imagine how we can confront the climate crisis in a way that is realistic about the other major problems that we face as a planet and as a species on it.
Clean Development >
Wood as the "Next Big Thing" in Constructing Skyscrapers?
According to a recent article published by the New Scientist, wood-derived materials such as cross-laminated timber could be the materials holding up our future buildings. In relation to "Clean Development", wood produces little waste, is renewable if harvested the right way, and would produce only around 25-40% of the carbon emissions produced by buildings made of materials such as concrete.
The thing about wood, however, is that even though it is considered renewable, it is rapidly being used up. Forests are being cut down to help build houses, make paper, or make room for development. We need these forests to produce oxygen so we can breathe. Not only that, but having more trees would eventually help slow down, stop, and reverse global warming as plants convert carbon dioxide to oxygen. If these wood derived materials begin to rot or catch fire, the carbon dioxide stored within the wood would be released. Therefore, I'm worried that using these materials may be counterproductive to global warming.
http://www.fao.org/forestry/energy/en/
While the idea of using wood as a modern building material that will lower carbon dioxide emissions sounds good there are lots of downsides to this. Wood is flammable meaning that during building fires the building's structure will burn down much quicker than with a steel structure. Lastly wood becomes very brittle at a certain bending point and can snap in natural disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes which brings safety down greatly. Builders have strayed away from wood as a main building material throughout history for some of these reasons and bringing them back may have many negative effects.
Not to mention that wood is only an unlimited if harvested correctly and in moderation which large companies usually have trouble monitoring these things without government officials over seeing them. Also the treatment of the wood such as illuminating it would add pollution and CO2 into the air which goes against the original idea of a cleaner buildin g material. Using wood in the production of new buildings may lower pollution in the short run, but long term could have many negative effects.