Damato of the Day Is ... "Time for a Little Irony"
For the two of you (hi Mom!) who are regular readers of this Blog, I will begin this one by apologizing for the long absence. For some reason I was hit with a world-class case of spring fever this year. Was it me or was that the longest and coldest winter in recent memory?
For the two of you (hi Mom!) who are regular readers of this Blog, I will begin this one by apologizing for the long absence. For some reason I was hit with a world-class case of spring fever this year. Was it me or was that the longest and coldest winter in recent memory? For Kay and I it was certainly the worst since we moved from North Florida to North Georgia. Anyway, I have been doing more than my share of goofing off. No apology for taking the 32nd anniversary trip with my lovely bride and for the chance we had to spend some quality time with some dear ones.
For some reason this gets me thinking about global warming and the word “sustainability.” Being a big fan of the long view, I think the housing crash is going to yield some good things (eventually). Constructing more realistic and more sustainable structures is bound to be one outcome. Builders will no longer throw up “whatever” because financiers will insist that what they put their money into must be able to last longer than the length of their loan. Owners will look at it much the same way. You might not think these concepts would be so unusual, but no-money-down loans on properties lenders knew less about than they should have was the way we did business for a very long time. That’s out, and I think it makes good sense.
Sustainable buildings must not only be able to last longer but must be able to do their job better than ever. The first job of any building is to provide shelter from the elements. That includes wind, rain, cold, heat, critters, bad guys, and anything else we figure belongs inside rather than out. To be sustainable a structure must be well designed and then well built.
Getting to the point, I promise. A huge driver of sustainability in construction is the green movement, which I interpret as doing less damage to the environment and taking less from the earth as we build our structures. Good work since you end up with a lower-life-cycle-cost structure that costs less to inhabit.
Here comes the irony part. One of the big drivers of the green movement is the idea that manmade global warming is destroying the planet and must be stopped at all costs. Problem is, the idea of global warming is not “sustainable.” Yeah, that’s right. We have such short attention spans and the global warming “crisis” is going to take over a hundred years to prove itself, I wonder how much longer it is going to be around. It simply will not last. A few more winters like the one we just had and it may be dead even sooner.
But I do think the green movement has legs and will be sustainable because many of the ideas just make good sense. Recycle instead of landfill: duh! Lower electric bills … sign me up. A car that gets 100 MPG or runs on hydrogen or something … let’s get it done! All of these things will take time, which is nice since the emerging generations need something to do.
As for the argument about global warming, I am not concerned with anything beyond the public’s perception of it, since that is what drives markets. Sorry, but the current version “global warming” movement may be huge and well financed and all, but it simply will not last a fourth of the time it will take to prove itself (that’s at least another hundred years in my opinion). And my grandchildren will be as dead as I will be by then and I am confident that their grandchildren will look back on us and be amused as they enjoy the fruits of the solutions they are bound to come up with between now and then.
For the two of you (hi Mom!) who are regular readers of this Blog, I will begin this one by apologizing for the long absence. For some reason I was hit with a world-class case of spring fever this year. Was it me or was that the longest and coldest winter in recent memory? For Kay and I it was certainly the worst since we moved from North Florida to North Georgia. Anyway, I have been doing more than my share of goofing off. No apology for taking the 32nd anniversary trip with my lovely bride and for the chance we had to spend some quality time with some dear ones.
For some reason this gets me thinking about global warming and the word “sustainability.” Being a big fan of the long view, I think the housing crash is going to yield some good things (eventually). Constructing more realistic and more sustainable structures is bound to be one outcome. Builders will no longer throw up “whatever” because financiers will insist that what they put their money into must be able to last longer than the length of their loan. Owners will look at it much the same way. You might not think these concepts would be so unusual, but no-money-down loans on properties lenders knew less about than they should have was the way we did business for a very long time. That’s out, and I think it makes good sense.
Sustainable buildings must not only be able to last longer but must be able to do their job better than ever. The first job of any building is to provide shelter from the elements. That includes wind, rain, cold, heat, critters, bad guys, and anything else we figure belongs inside rather than out. To be sustainable a structure must be well designed and then well built.
Getting to the point, I promise. A huge driver of sustainability in construction is the green movement, which I interpret as doing less damage to the environment and taking less from the earth as we build our structures. Good work since you end up with a lower-life-cycle-cost structure that costs less to inhabit.
Here comes the irony part. One of the big drivers of the green movement is the idea that manmade global warming is destroying the planet and must be stopped at all costs. Problem is, the idea of global warming is not “sustainable.” Yeah, that’s right. We have such short attention spans and the global warming “crisis” is going to take over a hundred years to prove itself, I wonder how much longer it is going to be around. It simply will not last. A few more winters like the one we just had and it may be dead even sooner.
But I do think the green movement has legs and will be sustainable because many of the ideas just make good sense. Recycle instead of landfill: duh! Lower electric bills … sign me up. A car that gets 100 MPG or runs on hydrogen or something … let’s get it done! All of these things will take time, which is nice since the emerging generations need something to do.
As for the argument about global warming, I am not concerned with anything beyond the public’s perception of it, since that is what drives markets. Sorry, but the current version “global warming” movement may be huge and well financed and all, but it simply will not last a fourth of the time it will take to prove itself (that’s at least another hundred years in my opinion). And my grandchildren will be as dead as I will be by then and I am confident that their grandchildren will look back on us and be amused as they enjoy the fruits of the solutions they are bound to come up with between now and then.
