respond to essay attacht what do you think of his essay do you agree ? explain why with 100 word paragraph--- for kim wood

According to the Journal of Sustainable Forestry, there are more than 400 billion cubic yards of wood and is considered to be virtually inexhaustible and is the only material of the three that is considered a renewable resource. It has long been known that the majority of plant/timber species consume carbon dioxide through their growth processes and are kept there throughout its entire life cycle. On the contrary concrete is made by combining cement, aggregates and water and although it has some great building properties it is one of the largest contributors of greenhouse gasses in the world especially carbon dioxide. In 2012 there was an estimated 4,000 tons of cement alone consumed and in 2009 there was approximately 1,150 metric tons of steel consumed and both have been steadily growing every year. Since neither steel nor concrete is readily available above ground (excluding recycled material) laborious processes are required to excavate and process them. These excavation sites leave enormous “ecological footprints” that take decades if not centuries to return to their original undisturbed state if ever at all unless great efforts are made to do so (which are very seldom the case).

Embodied energy is defined as the amount of energy required to harvest, process, transport, and install a given building element and can be used as a measure of material efficiency and ecological friendliness. Studies have shown that approximately 16% of the Earth’s fossil fuels is used every year solely to obtain and process steel and concrete materials. As shown here in the tables below timber has a drastically lower embodied energy than steel or concrete.

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In addition to new timber materials such as glulams, trees which would have ordinarily been discarded from routine forest thinning are now being incorporated into amazing and beautiful construction members. For example Whole Trees, a timber company from Madison, WI has teamed up with the United Stated Department of Agriculture Forestry Service to begin turning actual whole trees into building members just like beams, joists and trusses. This new method has been shown to require less than 2% of the energy required to harvest and process steel and concrete.

Lastly timber outperforms steel and concrete in thermal efficiency with lower heat transfer ratios which means that buildings using timber will stay cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. This helps reduce the amount of energy needed to heat and cool the building/home which always means immediate savings. This, along with the previously mentioned reasons is why timber is the building material of choice.

References Anejo, J. (2014). Impact of Concrete, Steel and Timber on the Environment: A Review. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY ENHANCEMENTS AND EMERGING ENGINEERING RESEARCH, VOLUME 2, ISSUE 7. Hanley, S. (2015, May 3rd). GREEN BUILDING ELEMENTS. Retrieved from http://greenbuildingelements.com/2015/05/03/wood-building-materials-are-sustainable-and-renewable/