Building a new concrete revolution to net zero
No wonder the United Nations is worried. Making one ton of cement emits nearly one ton of carbon dioxide. With an area the size of Paris being built on every week globally, construction contributes heavily to climate change. In Australia, CO2 from building is tipped to double by 2050.
In Southeast Asia, climate change spells danger to government aspirations and peoples’ lives. United Nations maps show the very large areas of heavily populated coastal lowlands from China to the Indonesian archipelago exposed to drought, typhoons, floods and sea level rise.
The Thai and Indonesian capitals Bangkok and Jakarta expect to be increasingly flooded, and both governments have grand plans to protect the cities. Bangkok’s concept is to build a 100 km sea wall linking a string of artificial off-shore islands.
Jakarta is sinking by 25 cms per year into heavily saturated soil, worsened by communities having to draw water from wells because their numerous rivers are contaminated. Some of Jakarta’s 11 million people already live on land below sea level. There are two sea wall plans – one of 100 kms, the other 650 kms.
The proposed huge concrete sea walls indicate a far greater threat. South and Southeast Asian populations face the greatest danger world-wide from sea level rise.
Australia shares these problems. Our “typhoons” and Atmospheric Rivers from the same warm seas are also intensifying.
If this is all too much to contemplate, let’s just look at Australia’s urban growth and what we can do about cement and concrete. A good place to start is Ancient........
© Pearls and Irritations
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