Cement Industry Is at Center of Climate Change Debate

[jpak]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/business/worldbusiness/26cement.html?_r=3&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1193601828-rfioQZ1xPwOiCXdS+8Y73g&oref=slogin

PARIS, Oct. 23 — In booming economies from Asia to Eastern Europe, cement is literally the glue of progress. A binding agent that holds the other ingredients that together make concrete, cement is a crucial component in buildings and roads — which is why some 80 percent of it is made and used in emerging economies.

China alone makes and uses 45 percent of worldwide output. In places like Ukraine, production is doubling every four years.

But making cement means making pollution, in the form of carbon dioxide emissions. Cement plants account for 5 percent of global emissions of carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming. Cement has no viable recycling potential; each new road, each new building needs new cement.

Now, green incentives may be increasing pollution. The European Union subsidizes Western companies that buy outmoded cement plants in poor countries and refit them with green technology. But the greenest technologies can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by only about 20 percent.

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[donsu]

1. I just recently learned about this - kick this info far and wide

nt

[fed-up]

2. A new Chico State program educates students on the eco-wonders of concrete-article below

http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Content?oid=575797

Paving the way
A new Chico State program educates students on the eco-wonders of concrete

By Monica Unhold
This article was published on 10.04.07.

Chico State's Concrete Industry Management program is housed within the College of Engineering, Computer Science and Construction Management. For more information visit www.ecst.csuchico.edu.

Sharp-eyed students may have noticed subtle changes in the terrain of the Chico State campus recently. In some areas, flat pavement that once pooled up with rainwater has been replaced with a rougher variety that allows water to pass through it.

The new surfaces are the work of Chico State's Concrete Industry Management program, which is making its presence known by swapping out some of the campus' conventional concrete for a more eco-friendly variety, pervious concrete.

Along Big Chico Creek, for example, several parking spaces behind Glenn Hall have been repaved. The area was the ideal place to lay pervious concrete because of the way it soaks up water, allowing it to drain back into the soil, said Dirk Vanderloop, academic coordinator for the CIM program.

The special concrete forms an environment for bacterial microbes that can digest many toxins, thus preventing them from reaching the groundwater, Vanderloop explained. In the parking spaces, the new surface will filter out any oil or other harmful fluids that collect, allowing the clean water to filter down into the creek.


...snip

[razzleberry]

3. the carbon-offset scams just keep on comin'

these people have no shame

[Kolesar]

4. I suppose we could get masonry blocks from sandstone quarries

That's the only solution I see besides this:

One industry project called the Cement Sustainability Initiative suggests that concrete should be mixed using smaller portions of cement to reduce emissions.