>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
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