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ApparentlyABot t1_j93brip wrote

Reply to comment by grat_is_not_nice in Scientists have figured out a way to engineer wood to trap carbon dioxide through a potentially scalable, energy-efficient process that also makes the material stronger for use in construction by giuliomagnifico

Okay, but how does that make it number one? I feel like there are many other I dustries, such as rare earth mining and iron working that requires the same amount of energy if not more.

What makes the concrete industry the worst as you put it?

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Langola t1_j93cn5j wrote

We produce concrete more than anything else on this earth

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DGrey10 t1_j93t4gb wrote

Last time I looked at I believe it was something on the scale of 1 cubic meter of concrete per person per year on the planet. Mindbogglingly huge amount.

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SuperGameTheory t1_j94d3fs wrote

Goddamnit, I demand my 40 m^3 of concrete. I have some steps to build.

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EnkiduOdinson t1_j954b8e wrote

In fact if you treated concrete like a country it would be third on the list of countries that emit the most CO2, right after China and the US. So concrete production produces more CO2 than India with its population of a billion people

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ApparentlyABot t1_j93drp9 wrote

From my quick google aearch I can see that's the consensus, but it still isn't the worst emmiter for being the most produced resource which is pretty surprising. It's thrid.

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dosetoyevsky t1_j93v4t5 wrote

OK. So what's your point then? Is this not a problem, except for the semantics?

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iinavpov t1_j95a6gm wrote

First or third is not semantics.

Prioritisation of efforts is important, and the wrong ranking means bad environmental consequences.

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tired_hillbilly t1_j94oizl wrote

Creating concrete takes a lot of energy, which is one source of CO2, but creating cement releases CO2 in one step of the process. Even if you had a 100% carbon-free source of energy, creating cement still produces CO2.

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iinavpov t1_j95a91h wrote

Yes, except that it's a low energy process (compared to steel, or even making CLT).

The volumes are gigantic, however.

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