Message-ID: <3433E5CF.6389@avalon.net> Date: Thu, 2 Oct 1997 11:19:59 -0700 From: Al Khattat <mailto:ssi@AVALON.NET> Subject: A sustainable development tool that may save the forests To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
Dear Colleagues:My apologies if a similar message has been cross-posted to you of late. I am re-posting because of the contents' direct relevance to international sustainable development AND environmental sustainability issues. This is a rather late seminar reminder whose contents would be of prime importance to workers in both fields, among others.
Mankind's ill-utilization of forest timber resources is leading to an environmental disaster. Complicated economic, social and commercial realities preclude any drastic changes in present practices.
Now there may be a sustainable and painless solution that redresses the problem at the core. For the sake of lumber-producing mature trees (which constitute only a small fraction of available wood material) whole forests, complete with the natural ecosystems and all OTHER WOOD, are presently being destroyed.
OTHER WOOD is mostly the smaller young trees that are unsuitable for sawmilling. These are statistically much more abundant in nature and take much less time to grow than mature trees, but have little or no commercial use or value.
The sustainable and painless solution goes as follows: Instead of LUMBER (sawn mature timber), use small diameter timber (SDT) poles from these young trees in construction. Use them in the round, without slicing through their tough natural growth ring structure. There is much more SDT than would ever be needed worldwide. It would also be the only environmentally sustainable building material around.
Moreover, SDT's partial removal enhances the forest by making its management profitable for the first time. In the wake, this would create much needed infrastructure building industries. Forest destroyers could be persuaded to become protectors if they can make a living out of SDT!
There is now a simple, flexible technology that enables SDT to be used to construct high-quality buildings, bridges and make many other products, at a fraction of the cost of existing alternatives. Moreover, these structures can be dismantled and re-used easily and are inherently earthquake-, hurricane- and flood-durable.
Sustainable Science International, who have invented this award-winning technology, are conducting a one-day international seminar to tell about it. The seminar will be held on Thursday October 16, 1997 at the Oakdale Research campus of the University of Iowa, Iowa City. Registration for this seminar is still possible if reserved by October 9 (so that lunch can be booked). A Registration Form can be downloaded for faxing from SSI's web page (seminar announcement appears under "NEWS") at:
Knowing what we do about this inevitable technology, we think that it is the only way, that incurs no costs, to spare what is left of the world's forests. In fact a valuable dividend is created instead, in the form of a worldwide-applicable sustainable development tool.
The new technology is also a significant development in timber engineering that is a generation ahead of the state of the art.