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| The vast oceans and forests of our blue-green planet are awe inspiring. Temperate and tropical forests are the lungs of our planet. They breathe in carbon from the air, breathe out oxygen for our life. Forests call the rain, cleanse the air, circulate weather currents, regulate global climate. |
Our vast breathing forests need to be restored. Humans have been cutting them to eat and to build. Now is our time to restore them by what we eat and how we build.
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Returning to healthy eating through the natural food movement means eating less protein from animals and cows, more from plants and even algae. This healthy choice means we reduce the earth’s surface area needed to grow our protein and cut carbon and methane emissions. This takes pressure off cutting forests. Restoring our health is restoring our forests.
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Building from fiber waste and grass through the alternative building movement means using less trees and more plant and grass fiber. Bamboo is a giant grass and some species grow stronger and harder than oak in just 5 years. Why wouldn’t we want to build with a strong natural fiber that takes 5 years to grow instead of 20, 40 or 80 years?
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The average family home, built from wood from trees, takes about an acre of forest (.4 hectares). The same home built from bamboo, takes only the size of the house itself, because bamboo grows so fast and so dense. This means we save 20 times the earth’s surface area to grow our houses. This too, takes pressure off cutting forests. Building with bamboo is rebuilding our forests.
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Imagine a bamboo house of grass in the trees along a breezy beach. A romantic dream only a few people get to live out in their lives, and a few more get to visit for a short while to remember how life can be in paradise.
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Today the first bamboo houses are being built in all kinds of places and climates for people who want to live in a bamboo house. These houses are large, strong, beautiful and environmentally sustainable, with all the amenities. They are way beyond the little house of grass on the beach, but still have the same feeling for those who live inside.
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The next evolution is using bamboo as a structural material for all kinds of buildings in cities and towns, where most people live. These won’t look like little bamboo houses. What will they look like?
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The International Bamboo Building Design Competition was a call out to the world’s architects, builders, designers and students to envision and design new bamboo buildings: Pick any category, any function, any climate, and design buildings with structural bamboo. "Visionary Bamboo Designs For Ecological Living" shows the best award winning designs for ecological living.
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Ever walk in a bamboo forest? As sunlight filters through the mist, the towering bamboo, arching overhead like a cathedral, clacks in the breeze, waving back and forth. Walk and breathe in any forest and feel the gratitude for your good fortune and remember the future of your children’s generations breathing in the vast forests of our blue-green planet.
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American Bamboo