bamboo

[Ron Nossaman]

>Ron, I love you like a brother, but I don't want you to speculate in this
>case..not that I think you're wrong in your thinking..I am looking to find
>out why. I have a problem with your theory of 'profit'..perhaps using bamboo
>hasn't been thought of until recently?

Hi Phil,
You're right, of course, there's more to it than that. What do you think of
this line of reasoning.

In areas that have little or no forest land, buildings are made of stone.
So are fences. They burn dung or peat. Convincing these people to plant
trees for harvest 100 years later to produce materials with which to build
housing with a life expectancy of a tenth or less that of a stone building
is likely to be a tough sell unless overpopulation crowds them into it.
They have used stone for many centuries, they're used to it, and so far,
there are plenty of rocks to be had locally, and the peat burns just fine.
If there are no rocks either, they will live in earth homes, patching and
rebuilding as necessary. They use what is at hand. People who live in
forested areas use wood for their homes, fences, and fuel. Those with rocks
and forests of both trees and bamboo, have a wider choice of materials from
which to choose, and will tend to pick the material to fit the job. If
bamboo had always grown in this country in large amounts, it would have
been included in the life and death experimentation for survival
enhancement that has been done in every part of the world where people
live, thousands of years ago, and would today still be part of our culture.
Today, there is no immediately perceived survival imperative to use
anything but wood from our forests, so bamboo is still considered to be
suitable for childrens' cane fishing poles, and to wind our minnow seine
around, or the dunnage core of an imported roll of carpet. As high priced
Yuppie bait in the form of exotic laminates, it may finally be recognized
as a useful material in this country. If so, and enough of the stuff is
planted here to eventually become cheaply available locally, it will start
showing up everywhere as it is discovered to be pretty up-town and
versatile stuff. At least I hope so for the sake of the remaining forests
as well as in hopes of being further spoiled as a consumer. What other
building material can you eat? So yes, it is a profit thing now, but long
prior to that it was using what was available to survive. The times between
then and now are social momentum, just like everything else that is
preventing our species from growing up.


>Call me naive, but I feel there's alot of good intention in the instruments
>that we service..there's some questionable quality control (right Tom?), but
>it's the same in any field.
>
>Phil

Yes, there is probably a lot of good intention, but there's a lot of
momentum too. How hard is it for us to stop and honestly question our
assumptions? Who is ready to listen to new ideas? That's hard on most of us
because what we've done so far, and the way we've done it, has gotten us
this far still alive and dangerous.

But that's just an opinion.
Ron N