Wednesday, June 28, 2023
The Cement Coffin
Yesterday, the New York Times had a fascinating story about the environmental costs of cement, which creates 8% of the emissions that create global warning-- triple the percentage of the aviation industry. More of our planets mass is locked up in cement than in plants of all kinds.
My least favorite part of Waco was the nearly unbroken ocean of cement it sits on-- parking lot after parking lot (many of them unused or almost unused) next to roads next to more parking lots, all of it radiating heat that shimmered like evil. Along Valley Mills Drive, one would probably assume that the surface of the earth was naturally made of concrete and asphalt.
Much of it is driven, of course, by a car-based culture and a lack of zoning-- or, actually, sometimes too much zoning in that codes required a certain amount of parking for each building.
But... can we go back to another way?
