Author Topic: Decolonized Housing  (Read 2012 times)

90sRetroFan

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Re: Decolonized Housing
« Reply #15 on: December 21, 2021, 10:47:08 pm »
Here is a private conversation I had with Zea_mays (italicized) about the inferiority of Western engineering:

Interestingly, a lot of times in rural areas, people will inherit an old (Western architectural style) house, but put up a mobile home/trailer on the property to live in instead, since they can't afford the upkeep on the house, further demonstrating the inferiority of Western design.

Definitely. Don't even get me started about the engineering stupidity of radiators, for example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiator_(heating)

Quote
The heating radiator was invented by Franz San Galli in 1855, a Kingdom of Prussia-born Russian businessman living in St. Petersburg.[2][3]









You need metal pipes installed into every room in the house (going through floors/ceilings and walls), so that you can't heat one room without also to an extent heating all the rooms along the path of the pipe to the room you actually want to heat, and you are forced to heat the entire room instead of just where you are sitting, and when you're not using it for a while you have to drain the entire system, and even when you don't need heating you still need to fill and drain the system periodically to keep it functional, and there are a host of things that can go wrong such as air bubbles trapped between two bodies of water that you can't get rid of, etc.. But instead of realizing the whole thing is a bad idea, Westerners react by adding even more **** to the system:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiator_reflector

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleed_screw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydronic_balancing

when a simple hot water bottle avoids all these issues in the first place, wastes minimal energy/water/production materials, and LOOKS FRIENDLIER too!



Yet in Western eyes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towel_warmer

Quote
Advantages
The first advantage of this radiator is the aesthetic value that can help to enrich rooms with a touch of style.

[/img]





No, the only advantage of radiators is that they can be used to BANG WESTERNERS' HEADS AGAINST.

Meanwhile, what do Westerners do with hot water bottles?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_water_bottle_blowing

Quote
Hot water bottle blowing is the deliberate inflation of a hot-water bottle by blowing. Air is breathed into the bottle until it stretches beyond its capacity and consequently explodes. It is a challenging feat of strength which is included in the Guinness World Records.



**** barbarians.....)

---

And when there is a single centrally-controlled radiator boiler for an entire apartment complex or school building, it often gets so hot people have to OPEN THE WINDOWS IN THE WINTER just to achieve a tolerable temperature...

But rightists will still be like: "Why aren't you thanking us every day for gifting you with modernity?"

Quote
Radiator lowers indoor humidity, which may contribute to hair loss, however, a humidifier can be used to increase the humidity.[6]

So again, just keep adding **** to compensate for the problems caused by the earlier ****.....

Also, on a related subject, chimneys need to be in the interior of the house, or else so much heat is wasted. Look at the image below, heat on three sides of the fireplace is being wasted by radiating to the outside, rather than inside!



Another absurdity is that by the fireplace generating a convection current upwards, the hot air fleeing through the chimney inevitably draws in cold air from outside. So a fireplace actually makes most of the house colder.  And the Western response, once again, is to add even more **** to compensate:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draught_excluder

90sRetroFan

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Re: Decolonized Housing
« Reply #16 on: December 28, 2021, 10:24:31 pm »
Another Western domestic heating inferiority:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_blanket

Quote
An electric blanket is a blanket that contains integrated electrical heating wires.
...
Old or damaged blankets are a concern of fire safety officials, due to the combination of heat, electricity, the abundance of flammable bedding material, and a sleeping occupant. In the United Kingdom, it is estimated that 5,000 fires per year are caused by faulty electric blankets,[5] of which 99% are believed to have been caused by blankets 10 years or older.[6]

Electric blankets also present a burn risk to those who cannot feel pain, such as those with diabetic peripheral neuropathy, or who are unable to react to it, such as small children, quadriplegics, and the elderly.[7]
...
Some scientists have speculated that SLF-EMFs could cause cancer through other mechanisms, such as by reducing levels of the hormone melatonin[citation needed]. There is some evidence that melatonin may suppress the development of certain tumors.[8]

See also:

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/true-left-vs-right/western-civilization-is-a-health-hazard/

90sRetroFan

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Re: Decolonized Housing
« Reply #17 on: January 01, 2022, 03:20:55 am »
And then there is this Western inferiority which has totally baffled me since childhood:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_dryer

Quote
Hand dryers have been popular with industries for their apparent economies. According to manufacturers, hand dryers can cut costs by as much as 99.5% (for example a company may spend $2340.00 per year on paper towels, where as the hand dryer expenditure would be as low as $14.00 per year - this will vary according to the cost of paper towels and electricity). They require very little maintenance compared to paper towels, which must be replaced. An added benefit is the removal of the paper waste. Hand dryers represent a larger initial investment, so those responsible for facility management must do a careful cost analysis to determine whether they are cost effective in their building. Costs are always relative to the kWh cost that the facility is charged by its provider. In the UK, this will typically be around 10-12p, the only way to compare costs accurately is to work out the rated energy consumption and divide it by the number of drys the hand dryer is capable of performing back to back in 1 hour, this will give the energy consumption per dry. The world's lowest energy hand dryer uses just 1 watt-hour per dry and is rated at 0.24 kW.
...
Another study shows that whereas the majority of the environmental impact of a hand dryer occurs during its use, the environmental impact of paper towels is predominantly in the material production and manufacturing stages.[5] It is estimated that hand dryers use 5% less energy than paper towels in the first year, and 20% less over five years.[6]

I always dry my hands on my clothes, just like people did in ancient times when neither hand dryers nor paper towels existed. (Adults kept telling me not to.)

Ganbaru

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Re: Decolonized Housing
« Reply #18 on: January 01, 2022, 05:50:49 pm »
I'm not sure if this was covered in the older forum, but I'll post it anyways:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squat_toilet

Quote
A squat toilet also known as Indian toilet (or squatting toilet) is a toilet used by squatting, rather than sitting.
...
 Squat toilets are used all over the world, but are particularly common in some Asian and African nations, as well as in some Muslim countries.

Appropriate for the current health crisis:

Quote
Sitting toilets are on the one hand associated with development and modernization, and on the other hand with reduced hygiene and possible transmission of diseases.

Inferiority warning from Japan...

Quote
Although in Japan it is believed that the squat toilet is traditional, the trend in Japan is to move away from squat toilets: According to Toto, one of Japan's major toilet manufacturers, the production of Western-style toilets increased rapidly since 1976.[23] In 2015, only 1% of all toilets produced by this company were squat toilets.[23]

As usual, non-Western hardware is superior to its Western counterparts:

Quote
Some studies claim that squat toilets are healthier than sitting toilets due to more natural position of the body and they can potentially reduce the risk of rectal diseases such as hemorrhoids and constipation.

Quote
Squat toilets are usually easier to clean than sitting toilets (pedestals), except that one has to bend down further if the squatting pan needs manual scrubbing. They can be cleaned by using a mop and hose, together with the rest of the floor space in the toilet room or cubicle.

https://www.history.com/news/who-invented-the-flush-toilet

Quote
The first modern flushable toilet was described in 1596 by Sir John Harington, an English courtier and the godson of Queen Elizabeth I.

"Hand dryer"

These are also especially terrible during winter as they can cause the skin to dry up, and of course Westerners will quickly suggest using their moisturizers to compensate (another environmental and health hazard).

guest55

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Re: Decolonized Housing
« Reply #19 on: January 07, 2022, 09:49:37 pm »
I had always been under the impression that a radiator was at least a little more efficient than centralized air systems? I actually am a certified air conditioning technician who never really worked in the field, but I was trained for it. I am also trained in solar thermal heating, which replaces the boiler of a radiation system with solar thermal heating methods. In this respect, would a radiation system not be ten times more efficient than both a centralized air system and and old style radiator heating system?

Lest we also forget that asbestos was often used to seal the ducting for centralized air systems back in the day, which when it degraded could actually get into the ducts and blow directly into the living spaces of the house, another health hazard!




90sRetroFan

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Re: Decolonized Housing
« Reply #20 on: January 08, 2022, 10:35:58 pm »
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/01/02/cats-house-fires-south-korea/

Quote
South Korean officials have a message for pet owners in Seoul: Beware, your cat might burn your house down.

The warning comes as the capital’s Metropolitan Fire & Disaster Headquarters estimated that more than 100 fires over the past three years were started by cats, many of which managed to turn on electric stoves with their furry paws.

Clearly the real culprits are the electric stoves (and hence Western civilization), not the cats. Did cats start fires back when we still used pre-colonial stoves? No. But South Korean Eurocentrists:

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/questions-debates/south-korea-white-korea/

are incapable of thinking of Western civilization negatively, therefore they blame cats instead.

Quote
According to the agency, 107 fires sparked by felines were recorded between January 2019 and November 2021. Nearly half of those were started when the owners were out of the house, officials said.

In the recorded incidents, four people were injured. But often the pets themselves do not survive.

Hence:

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/true-left-vs-right/western-civilization-is-a-health-hazard/

Back to article:

Quote
On Christmas Day 2019, a 45-year-old tortoise in Essex, England, knocked a heat lamp onto its bedding and started a fire while its owners were out of the house.
...
That same month, and also in the county of Essex, a dog that had been left home alone started a house fire by turning on the microwave, which happened to have some bread stored inside.

See?

90sRetroFan

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Re: Decolonized Housing
« Reply #21 on: April 04, 2022, 09:43:40 pm »
Continuing from:

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/russia-the-last-colonial-empire/msg12481/#msg12481

Quote
In the mid-1990s the mayor of Dalian, Bo Xilai, conceived the idea of renovating the remaining Russian-era structures on the street, adding new ones built in a Russian style, and renaming the street Russian Street. Work on the project began in 1999 and brought in Russian architects and other experts. Eight Russian era buildings were renovated, including the former Russian Dalniy City Hall, six new buildings were built, and six other existing structures were given "Russian façades" to match the street's theme. The newly renovated street was inaugurated on 1 October 2000.[14]

it gets worse:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/china/dalian-china-offers-gondola-rides-its-answer-venice-italy-n452921

Quote
A $1.26-billion project bearing an uncanny resemblance to one the most iconic examples of Italian architecture has started offering rides in a Chinese port city.

The so-called "East Montage" in Dalian is not an exact replica of Venice, but its developer used the classical European city as its blueprint.




Quote
"This is an opportunity for people who could not go abroad to enjoy the same scenery as that in foreign countries, and expand their visions to know more about foreign customs and practices," Dalian resident Zhang Juan said. "This is really good."

You want foreign? So why not build some replica Ashanti architecture? We all know why not.

See also:

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/issues/decolonized-housing-(america-edition)/msg2003/#msg2003

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/russia-the-last-colonial-empire/msg8620/#msg8620

90sRetroFan

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Re: Decolonized Housing
« Reply #22 on: May 17, 2022, 12:17:20 am »
What have I been saying the whole time?

https://us.yahoo.com/news/western-architecture-making-indias-heatwaves-161426818.html

Quote
Western Architecture is Making India's Heatwaves Worse

Benny Kuriakose remembers when his father built the first house in his village in the southern Indian state of Kerala with a concrete roof. It was 1968, and the family was proud to use the material, he says, which was becoming a “status symbol” among villagers: the new home resembled the modern buildings cropping up in Indian cities, which in turn resembled those in images of Western cities.

But inside, the house was sweltering. The solid concrete absorbed heat throughout the day and radiated it inside at night. Meanwhile, neighboring thatch-roofed houses stayed cool: the air trapped between gaps in the thatch was a poor conductor of heat.

Western civilization is inferior, period.

Quote
“In most cities, people have blindly followed the Western model,” says Kuriakose, an architect now based in Chennai. “There was no attempt to look at the local climate. There was no attempt to look at the materials which are available.”

There was only an attempt to be Eurocentrist.

Quote
Environmentalists are calling for a fundamental rethink of how India builds its cities. There are some positive signs. A growing number of sustainability-minded architects are reviving vernacular approaches.

Why did they ever abandon the ancient wisdom in the first place?

Quote
“Where a home [built in the vernacular style] needs around 20 to 40 kilowatt hours per meter squared of energy for cooling, today some commercial places need 15 times that,” says Yatin Pandya, an architect based in Ahmedabad. When AC units are turned on to help people sleep at night, they release heat into the streets, which can increase the local temperature by around 2°F according to U.S.-based studies.

Repeat after me: Western civilization is the most inferior civilization ever to have existed in world history.

Quote
A climate comeback for vernacular architecture

A movement to revive more regionally-specific styles of architecture—and combine them with modern technologies—is well underway in India. Over the last decade, thousands of architects, particularly in the experimental township Auroville on the east coast of Tamil Nadu state, have promoted the use of earth walls and roofs; earth absorbs heat and humidity, and it can now be used to build larger and more complex structures thanks to the development of more stable compressed blocks. In the dry hot northern city of Ahmedabad, which has suffered some of the country’s deadliest heatwaves in recent decades, Pandya’s firm Footprints E.A.R.T.H., uses careful orientation and overhanging roofs and walls to shade its buildings from heat, and central courtyards for ventilation.

“We are course-correcting now,” says Bangalore-based architect Chitra Vishwanath, who built her own home and hundreds of other buildings using earth. Larger universities are teaching students to build in a climate-specific way, she says, while nonprofits and artisanal construction firms are running workshops teaching this approach to architects and small-scale builders. “Younger architects who are graduating today are extremely sensitive to climate,” Vishwanath adds. “I would say in another 5, 10 years westernized style buildings won’t be built so much.”

Let's hope so. But we still need to destroy all Western architecture in all the former Western colonial powers.

Quote
some traditional features, like sloping roofs and detailed window shades are too expensive for many people to consider when building their homes. Perhaps most importantly: in cities, the high cost of land makes it extremely difficult to find space for verandas and courtyards.

Land would cost less if there were more of it available per person. The return to pre-colonial Indian architecture must be combined with mass emigration to bring the population remaining in India back down to roughly what it was prior to the colonial era. Meanwhile, the emigrant population can get on with destroying Western architecture in the former Western colonial powers that they immigrate to.

Quote
Pandya, the Ahmedabad architect, puts it another way. “Sustainability is not a formula—what works in Europe might not work here,” he says. “Like a doctor, you have to understand the patient, the symptoms, the conditions—before you arrive at the cure.“

The cure is to kill Western civilization completely, everywhere, permanently.

90sRetroFan

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Re: Decolonized Housing
« Reply #23 on: May 19, 2022, 08:24:56 pm »
This is what happens when a Eurocentrist government of a former colony preserves instead of demolishes its colonial-era architecture:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/historic-black-white-bungalows-most-070702094.html

Quote
A British family moved into a 100-year-old Singapore house that had been sitting empty for 2 years and slowly turned it into their dream home. Check it out.

    There are only 500 black-and-white colonial houses left in Singapore.

    The historic homes are protected and managed by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA).

    Interior designer Elizabeth Hay showed Insider what it's like to live in one of these coveted bungalows.

Elizabeth Hay moved to Singapore from the UK in 2013 with her then-fiancé, Tim. The two of them — now married with three children — have been living in a black-and-white colonial bungalow since 2015.
...
"While the government does the basics, everything else we had to put in ourselves. Things like air-conditioning, water heaters, it's all your responsibility," Hay said.
...
"All of the soft furnishings, the painting, and the wallpaper, all that really evolved over time because I was having a baby," she said. "I just wanted to get in first and then I did everything else when I had more time."

Hay estimates they spent S$40,000 to S$50,000 ($28,800 to $36,000) renovating the house and installing an air-conditioning system.
...
A big part of the reason why Hay loves the black-and-white bungalow is because of its rich history.

"We've had older people and older couples show up at the gate. Some were children here 60 years ago or something. They want to come and see the house and how much it's all changed," Hay said.


The couple plans to continue living in Singapore and has no intention of moving at the moment. With their fourth child on the way, the couple is looking for new ways to furnish the house to accommodate their growing family.

They also look like what we would expect:



As for the Singaporean government:



90sRetroFan

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Re: Decolonized Housing
« Reply #24 on: May 23, 2022, 08:18:34 pm »
How architecturally colonized is Japan? See for yourselves:





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akasaka_Palace

Quote
In December 2009, the main building, the main gate and the garden with fountain were designated as a National Treasure of Japan.[1]

« Last Edit: May 23, 2022, 08:22:05 pm by 90sRetroFan »
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SirGalahad

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Re: Decolonized Housing
« Reply #25 on: May 23, 2022, 09:25:35 pm »
Some might try to say "Well it's only natural for it to look like that since it's a guest house constructed by the Japanese for non-Japanese", but could you ever imagine any of the western powers constructing a guest house that looks stereotypically Chinese or Arab for example? In reality, non-westerners go through the effort to construct a western guest house for western visitors, and when non-westerners visit westerners, the non-westerners are still expected to stay in a building with western architecture. And none of what I'm saying is even the most egregious part. The most egregious part is that these Japanese politicians expect all non-Japanese visitors to stay at western-style guest houses, even though many visitors will be non-western
« Last Edit: May 23, 2022, 09:29:38 pm by SirGalahad »
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guest55

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Re: Decolonized Housing
« Reply #26 on: May 24, 2022, 01:13:30 pm »
Air-Conditioning Invented In 3100 BCE? Ancient Tech Windcatcher
Quote
The answer to that is yes, ancient technology could play a huge role in our modern lives if the Researchers, Engineers and Architects figure out a way to make this doable in all locations.
Of course we have to take microclimatic conditions into account and it does rely on local weather, but it could possibly be that Wind Catchers may be the air conditioning of the future.

The ancient Wind catchers of Yazd, a city in Iran with some unique Persian Architecture.
The nickname of the city of Yazd is “the City of Wind Catchers”, but it’s also well known for its underground channels transporting water called Qanats, it’s ice houses known as Yakhchãls and its traditional reservoirs storing water known as ab anbars.
These are features that made the inhabitants of this city survive the hot desert climate, on a yearly basis there are only 23 days of precipitation with a total of 49 millimetres making this the driest major city in the entirety of Iran.
In 2017 UNESCO put the historical city of Yazd on the world heritage site list, and quite a large part of that decision was because of the wind catchers, this city might have the largest number of wind catchers in the world.

The invention of the Wind Catchers may have occurred in Ancient Egypt around 3100 BCE during the Early Dynastic Period, but Yazd is the city with possibly the most wind catchers in the world as they were one of the biggest reasons this part of the Iranian Plateau became inhabitable.

It’s a shame that many of the city’s wind catchers have fallen out of use over time, but the city did draw scholars, engineers and architects to it to possibly aid in our modern dilemma of Air-conditioning use and how that is affecting the climate.
Because wind catchers don’t need electricity to function they could be incredibly important in areas where the electrical grid is unreliable and expensive.
It would make air-conditioning available in places where there isn’t even electricity.
The shape of the tower, the layout of the house, how many openings the tower has, the internal blades and sections, the height and the direction in which the tower is facing are all specifically adjusted to improve the wind catcher’s ability to draw the wind down into the rooms of the building.
Some buildings have a subterranean pool where the air flows over for further cooling, which I personally think is a smart option if you have the room for it.

A wind catcher is never by itself, but always accompanied by at least one other wind tower on the same building.
The Wind catcher catches the wind, which is then funnelled down and will flow throughout the building, the cool air will flow underneath the warm air, and the pressure will push the warm air upwards which then rises and flows throughout another wind tower which in turn releases the warmed up air.

90sRetroFan

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Re: Decolonized Housing
« Reply #27 on: June 14, 2022, 08:45:56 pm »
More non-Western air conditioning:



The Western air conditioner, in contrast, is a microcosm of the entire Western approach to 'solving' problems:

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/true-left-vs-right/western-civilization-sustainable-evil/msg10539/?topicseen#msg10539

namely to make the problem worse than if nothing were done at all, but in such as way as to transfer its effects onto those whom the Western problem-'solver' does not care about:



Western air conditioners increase total heat(!!!), but merely pumps it outside, thus cooling the inside (at least until eventually the heat outside gets back in).

Non-Western air conditioners do not increase total heat, instead cooling by making heat dissipation more efficient.

It should be obvious which is worse.



Termites >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Westerners
« Last Edit: June 15, 2022, 07:50:56 pm by 90sRetroFan »

90sRetroFan

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Re: Decolonized Housing
« Reply #28 on: June 23, 2022, 02:21:33 am »
Let's talk about lawns again. Previously:

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/issues/decolonized-housing-(america-edition)/msg5521/#msg5521

Quote
Lawns may have originated as grassed enclosures within early medieval settlements used for communal grazing of livestock, as distinct from fields reserved for agriculture.
...
Lawns became popular with the aristocracy in northern Europe from the Middle Ages onward. The early lawns were not always distinguishable from pasture fields. The damp climate of maritime Western Europe in the north made lawns possible to grow and manage. They were not a part of gardens in other regions and cultures of the world until contemporary influence.[7]

In short, Western civilization is the most Turanized civilization.

Quote
Eventually even the grasses of the Great Plains were overrun with European species that were more durable to the grazing patterns of imported livestock.[12]
...
According to study based on satellite observations by Cristina Milesi, NASA Earth System Science, its estimates: "More surface area in the United States is devoted to lawns than to individual irrigated crops such as corn or wheat.... area, covering about 128,000 square kilometers in all."[24]

Also:

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/true-left-vs-right/western-civilization-is-a-health-hazard/msg37/#msg37

Quote
Greater amounts of chemical fertilizer and pesticides are used per surface area of lawn than on an equivalent surface of cultivated farmland,[44] and the continued use of these products has been associated with environmental pollution, disturbance in the lawn ecosystem, and increased health risks to the local human and wildlife population.[45] It has also been estimated that more herbicides are applied per surface of lawn than are used by most farmers to grow crops.

Lawn maintenance commonly involves use of inorganic fertilizers and synthetic pesticides. These cause great harm. Many are carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. They may permanently linger in the environment and negatively affect the health of potentially all nearby organisms. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has estimated[when?] nearly 32,000,000 kilograms (71,000,000 lb) of active pesticide ingredients are used on suburban lawns each year in the United States.[47]

In short, Western civilization is the most inferior civilization.

Additionally:

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/true-left-vs-right/western-civilization-is-a-health-hazard/msg41/#msg41

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/news/state-subverters/msg10536/#msg10536

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/news/olympics/msg7795/#msg7795

Just in:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/leaf-blowers-lawn-mowers-and-fertilizer-how-lawns-contribute-to-climate-change-190726545.html

Quote
sequester carbon, support pollinators, support a food web. And the other is to manage the watershed. A lawn is the worst choice in all of those four ecological goals,” Douglas Tallamy, a professor of agriculture and natural resources at the University of Delaware, told Yahoo News.

For climate change, the single biggest problem is not what a lawn does, but what it doesn’t do. Every plant stores carbon dioxide — the most widespread heat-trapping gas that is causing global warming. The more carbon that’s stored, the better it is for the environment. But not all plants store the same amount of carbon. Broadly speaking, the amount of carbon sequestered correlates to the size of a plant and its root system. That’s why logging old-growth trees, which tend to be taller than younger trees, is particularly bad for climate change.

Compared to other plants that could grow in a yard, like bushes and trees, lawn grass has a very shallow root system. Much less of it grows above ground, especially if you cut your grass every week to keep it neat and short. “In terms of carbon sequestration, lawns fail,” said Tallamy, the author of “Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard.”

Then there’s the lawn maintenance and machinery that many Americans use to cut and clean their lawns: gas-powered lawn mowers and leaf blowers. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, gas-powered lawn mowers use 800 million gallons of gasoline — and spill an additional 17 million additional gallons of oil — every year. The two-stroke engines used by lawn mowers and leaf blowers are especially dirty because they do not combust about 30% of the fuel they use, which releases volatile organic compounds.

A 2014 study found an idling scooter with a two-stroke engine releases 124 times as much volatile organic compounds as an idling car or truck. The EPA states that using a typical gas-powered lawn mower produces as much volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxide — a powerful greenhouse gas — as driving 11 average new cars over the same timeframe. In total, according to the agency, lawn mowers account for 5% of American (non-climate) air pollution. On top of that, many lawns are cut by a gardener who visits regularly, burning gasoline on the way there and back.

“Lawns are fossil fuel-dependent, period,” Douglas Kent, a landscape contractor who teaches at Cal Poly Pomona, told Yahoo News. “They don’t have to be, it’s just how we maintain them — the mowers, the blowers, the edgers.”

Then there are the emissions associated with making fertilizer. The most important ingredient in fertilizer is typically ammonia, which contains nitrogen that helps plants grow. Ammonia is made at high pressure and at high temperatures. So it requires a lot of energy, which is usually supplied by fossil fuels like coal and natural gas. Ammonia manufacturing is responsible for more than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

“[Lawns] are huge nitrogen consumers, and nitrogen is the most energy-dense nutrient that we manufacture,” Kent said.

“When you add all that energy we’re dumping in lawns and compare it against the amount of biomass that’s being stored in the soil and the tissue, you come up with 1 acre of lawn [that] contributes approximately 3,112 pounds of carbon dioxide per year, which has the energy equivalent of 156 gallons of gasoline,” Kent added. (He made that calculation, drawing on previous research for the data inputs, for his book, “A New Era of Gardening: A Book on Gardening for Oxygen and a Healthier Atmosphere.”)

Many of the same attributes that make most well-manicured American lawns a net contributor to climate change also cause them to fail Tallamy’s other sustainability tests. Fertilizer, for example, typically comes mixed with herbicide to kill off weeds — the two-in-one products are referred to as “weed and feed.”

But a person’s weed is an insect’s food. The weeds that pollinators depend on, such as clovers and dandelions, are being systematically eliminated from lawns every day. And pollination is the very basis of biodiversity.

“Most vertebrates don't eat plants directly: They eat things that eat the plants, mostly insects,” Tallamy observed.

Likewise, short, regularly cut grass does not absorb much water — an increasingly important task as climate change leads to more flooding from heavier storms — and that runoff can funnel fertilizer and herbicide into lakes, rivers and oceans, potentially poisoning fish and harming swimmers.

“Lawns are destroying our watersheds, because, first of all, they don’t hold the water that other plants are holding,” Tallamy said. “It’s almost like paving the ground during a hot, dry summer.”

Grass is the most prevalent irrigated crop in the U.S., and lawns use 3 trillion gallons of water per year. Due to the warmer temperatures and more severe droughts associated with climate change, water scarcity has become a crisis in much of the West, forcing local governments to limit the amount of water residents can use outdoors, although many homeowners are reportedly ignoring the rules.

In short, the more ways we measure it, the more inferior Western civilization is revealed to be. And all because of the Turanian blood memory.....

90sRetroFan

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Re: Decolonized Housing
« Reply #29 on: July 04, 2022, 11:47:00 pm »
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinese-firm-prepares-hand-over-093000050.html

Quote
China is preparing to hand over a new US$140 million parliament building as a gift to Zimbabwe - the latest in a series of grand projects across Africa designed to deepen its influence in the continent, where it is the largest trading partner and lender.

The site at Mount Hampden, about 18km (11 miles) northwest of the capital Harare, heralds the start of a new city.

The 650-seat building will replace the current 100-seat, colonial-era building which Zimbabwean officials consider too small for the country's 350 legislators.

WE WILL REPLACE YOU!

This is the new building:



(The guys in the Western suits somewhat spoiled the otherwise encouraging photo, however.....)

Quote
Sitting on the top of a hill, the imposing circular complex, which has been built by China's Shanghai Construction Group, is fully paid for by Beijing.

The choice of shape is likely inspired by:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Zimbabwe

Continuing:

Quote
The contractors said the facility was now ready to be handed over, 3½ years after construction started on a project that employed more than 500 Chinese technicians and 1,200 local workers.

"There is no doubt that the new parliament will become a landmark building in Zimbabwe and even in the whole of Southern Africa," Shanghai Construction Group manager Libo Cai said on Wednesday.

"It will be yet another milestone for the China-Zimbabwe friendship which keeps getting stronger year after year."

All Rhodesian architecture must be demolished! Examples (contrast with the Zimbabwean architecture above):







« Last Edit: July 04, 2022, 11:57:18 pm by 90sRetroFan »