Re: GBlist: re: can we build without cutting trees

["Yaya Balinci" <yaya@telus.net>]

.<snip>
  Pozzolanic cements can indeed be produced that will far outlast Portland
cement. The Roman cements were made with naturally occurring pozzolan's and
lime. For anyone interested in pozzolans I would recommend the book
Pozzolanic and Cementitious materials by V. M. Malhotra and P. Kumar Mehta.
<unsnip>

I have read that the Roman aquifers were made with hemp "stone" or cement.
It may follow that other cement structures in Roman times were also built
with hemp due to its high silica content.

To use fly ash is noble if you are trying to reduce reuse and recycle. It is
like making your house with bottles or car tires. To use steel seems to me
to be unnecessary as a building material especially in the green sense of
things. I'm not sure maybe it is considered an appropriate technology.
However, when i look at what people are doing with adobe homes, cobb homes,
straw-bale homes all using limited wood and ever abundant clay and straw,
there seems to me little reason to support hugely intensive industries such
as coal and steel. Unless of course you like the asthetic and you feel you
are doing the best for the planet.

Regards
Yaya Balinci, coastal British Columbia

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