Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Straw Building Material

[Nitsan Vardi (emi_nv]

Wood production can also be done in a sustainable manner - it is 
practiced in Scandinavia.

Nitsan Vardi 

On Thu, 12 Oct 1995, Shava Nerad wrote:

> But another argument for straw bale construction is that it could be a step
> in eliminating our dependencies on big timber.  We don't *need* to build 
> with wood, we just *do* because it's a cultural tradition, comforting,
> stylish, subsidized by the goverment, and a status symbol.  Whereas wood
> *is* a good building material, our dependency on it as a major resource
> is destroying the last great forests in the world, including the old
> growth forests and great rainforest of the pacific northwest.
> 
> Personally, I'd take something like gypsum board, made from straw, if it
> reduced the use of wood.  So it isn't optimal, but it might be a good
> intermediate step.  And if *someone* is making money off of it, it'll 
> probably gain acceptance sooner, because someone will spend money to 
> promote it...
> 
> Shava Nerad
> shava [at] ns.uoregon.edu
> /* tree hugger...;) */
>