How Solid Is Concrete's Carbon Footprint?

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"reseach realted to climate change" amy be a "prioity" .....but it is also a cash cow. i think we need to be cautious and honest about any quick fix solutions or research areas that get funded. There is just too much cheap moral capital in "thinking green" floating around. Unscrupulous politicians are going to grasp on and good faith efforts to care for the planet..PFFFFT.
..and I can't believe Irena Sendler lost the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore (????)

joe of MI 8:30PM June 02, 2009

Actually you "pave" with asphalt or concrete not cement. Cement is merely the powder that glues the aggregate together.
p.s It's We'll not will....

doug of OR 4:28PM June 01, 2009

I just happen to be in Switzerland when Hurricane Katrina hit the Southern USA. There was a record rainfall at that time (so-called 100year rain) and there was massive flooding in central Switzerland. The city of Bern was really flooded and many homes were under water. I don't know but would bet that because the homes were built out of masonry that as soon as the river went down, the people just cleaned the homes and are living there as they were for at least a 100 years. They didn't have to tear down and rebuild as was done in New Orleans and the coast of Mississippi. Building out of durable products just makes (as in measure twice, build one time)good sense and is very environmentally sound as well That's a great way to reduce our carbon footprint.

Jim Anderegg of WA 4:22PM June 01, 2009

Actually, building with wood recycles carbon. We just need to replant the trees we lose, but the forestry companies do that anyway.

James Fox of PA 12:43PM May 31, 2009

re-inforce concrete with carbon fibers made from coal plant blow-by. bubble the CO2 thru algae tubes on coal plant outputs. the carbon compounds and oils in algae are easily converted to gas and biodiesel.
Sell it as a feedstock for plastics or anything else biological compounds similar to oil can be used for.
Why not make carbon fiber sheetrock? carbon fibers - add a bit of resin and you have carbon based replacement for fiberglass. Corvettes are made of this.
Use carbon compounds in charcoal like form as soil enricher for farms. Charcoal has already been proven as a way to improve crop yield and build soils that lost their organic matter.
fabricate carbon fiber based girders. If they can build jet 747 parts and mountain bikes out of it, buildings can be build of it. Might even fabricate by growing huge girders for arcologies in place, like the one proposed for Tokyo bay.
Then it is just a matter of keeping a balance between carbon not in the atmosphere and CO2 we spew out.
It's pretty simple - if we dig up all the oil and coal and burn it we will have spewed out 7 times the amount in the atmosopher, 330 gigatons. Great if we want a venus like smothering atmosphere. Not so good for oceanic plankton that create 70% of the oxygen we breathe.
So why sequester it? use it!

erbium of CA 3:10AM May 30, 2009

It is obvious that recycled concrete can best be used in concrete products like concrete block, concrete pavers, concrete segmental retaining walls etc. Maybe we can quit building houses temporarily out of wood and use a permanent building product that will not blow over or come apart when flooded.That would be a real way to offset the carbon footprint of filling dumpsites with our temporary housing debris.

bill holden of AL 5:10PM May 27, 2009