There is sound evidence that the water-use efficiency of bamboo is twice that of other trees. This makes bamboo far more capable in handling harsh weather conditions such as drought, flood, and high temperatures. If we compare bamboo to cotton which is a very thirsty crop – requiring up to 20,000 liters of water to produce 1 kg of cotton and 73% of the global cotton harvest comes from irrigated land. Some estimates indicate that cotton is the largest user of water amongst all agricultural commodities.
One of the most positive effects of bamboo is that it absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than equivalent stands of trees and breathes out nearly one-third more oxygen. More bamboo in cultivation globally would certainly help cut the globally rising levels of carbon dioxide and substantially fight against global warming.
Bamboo is an undeniably versatile and fast-growing crop, the fastest growing land crop, with a rate nearly equal to that of the ocean’s giant kelp. It is exceptionally good for the environment and has been said to have more than 10 thousand uses. All of which range from bicycles frames, clothing, household goods, toilet paper, fodder, curved roof tiles, and construction materials for windmills, scaffolding, farming infrastructure, homes, buildings, and quality biochar; and of course, this list of benefits must include the fact that the bamboo crop itself is invaluable in reducing greenhouses gases causing global warming.
In the wake of earthquakes, tropical storms or hurricanes, bamboo shelters provide sturdy, humanizing, and cost-effective ways to house residents recovering from the ravaging consequences that Mother Nature can inflict. While we have not seen these structures used in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the international community is embracing the trend for use in cost effective quickly assembled shelters.
Bamboo is the ideal safeguard against the loss of carbon respiration that happens when there are mass die-offs, as is the case with the current corn monocrop. Threats that come from a lack of biodiversity do not end with crop production or large swaths of open land. If just small amounts of bamboo interspersed within American grasslands and as fodder can do some good for the environment, then the same can be said of the collective effect of small bamboo cultivations on the private property of environmentally minded individuals.
There is no denying that America needs biodiversity in a warming climate. Bamboo can be grown on farms in stands, and intercropped on ranches and in pastures, and some clumping bamboo can be planted in urban areas. We all have a role to play in making the world climate more secure by making America more ecologically diverse. So many people will be wanting to grow it in their yards for beauty and privacy screens, or windbreaks on private properties.
The advantages of cultivating bamboo are seemingly endless. It is environmentally friendly, absorbs huge quantities of carbon from the atmosphere and replacing it with life-giving oxygen. It grows at an incredible rate, two or three months for maximum height, and reaching its maximum strength and hardness in 3-4 years and can be cut and used for several more years, but bamboos regenerate. After culms are cut, or if they die off later, new shoots sprout and grow from the rhizomes (roots) beneath the soil. This continuous process lasts for the life of the plant, which can span more than 100 years. Add the fact that bamboo products are harder and more resistant to both moisture and termites, bamboo and its benefits continue to rise head and shoulders above the competition.
A fast growing and a naturally renewable tree-like grass. It requires little maintenance to farm as it does not need any pesticides or herbicides and little water to grow. There are about 1,200 to 1,700 different species of bamboo in existence, depending on the source of your information, and most are highly adaptable, particularly thriving in high humidity regions. Bamboo grows in Southeast Asia, Africa, Australia, Latin America, and in suitable regions of the United States along with the United Kingdom and throughout Europe. Certain varieties can also grow in colder climates found throughout the United Kingdom and Northern America, and some species can even be grown at higher altitudes.
Thanks to the largely increased environmental awareness and subsequent government support including opportunities for Chinese companies to offset their carbon emissions by buying credits in bamboo plantations. Therefore, INBAR ’s Director General Ali Mchumo believes the future is bright for the plant in China.
Bamboo Winding Composites and Bamboo Plastic Composites have been being developed in China for more than a dozen years and are posed to completely transform the Chinese reliance on western resources such as timber, steel, plastic, etc… Both of which are much higher in density and strength and are rapidly becoming eco-friendly game changers that can be used globally. It would be wise for other nations, particularly our own to follow this trend of invention that considers the planet as an ally rather than a commodity to be exploited at its own expense.
See the two amazing You Tube videos on “Bamboo Winding Composites” and “Bamboo Plastic Composites” along with other bamboo implementations because it may become the game-changing business models across the world. This would be a necessary accomodation required to help reduce emissions by 50% within ten years which was recently requested by the U.N. Secretary General.
It is mentioned that “bamboo is becoming part of the government’s focus on sustainable growth and with roughly 15 million acres of bamboo in China, that’s hardly surprising.” Calling technology “ a game-changer for China’s bamboo industry,” Mchumo suggests that the plant “is becoming a truly hi-tech material in construction.” It is used today in a wide range of products such as flooring, urban utility tunnels, pressure pipes, urban utility tunnels, modular assembled homes, modular community restrooms, modular villas, railway sleepers, telescopes, storm-drainage pipes, shock-resistant exteriors for bullet-train coaches, wind turbine blades, the list goes on. It is also stated that “We’re confident that bamboo could end up replacing steel, timber, plastic and not just in housing, but also in the infrastructure around us. That’s why we often refer to bamboo as ‘green gold.’”
Businesses have been adopting bamboo in the use of packaging made from the fibers which goes through a process remarkably like paper and cardboard, and in most cases, there are no additional chemicals or additives. In this case, bamboo packaging can be considered more sustainable than most packaging alternatives given the sustainability of bamboo as a raw ingredient. Dell Computer for one has started to use bamboo packaging, for their products.
A downside to bamboo can lay in its construction. Sometimes Instead of being cut and used whole, bamboo is sliced into pieces and glued together, this makes it exceptionally strong. Layered bamboo can be used for rebar. Farm uses include windbreaks, vegetable stakes, trellis poles and lattice, shade laths, climbing laths, Irrigation pipes, Irrigation ditch linings, fencing, stables, animal shelters, corrals, sheds, out buildings, bamboo windmills for pumping or energy, long punji stakes to keep out deer and critters out of crop areas, livestock fencing, and easy to move livestock rotation gates and mobile fences.
Once again, bamboo winding composites and bamboo plastic composites have been developed in China for more than a dozen years both of which are much higher in density and strength, and are rapidly becoming eco-friendly game-changers, that can be used globally. Bamboo is posed to completely transform the Chinese reliance on western resources such as timber, steel, plastic etc. China intends and already has begun to spread these initiatives to less developed nations that can help build their economies and increase the number of products sold in western nations under their expertise in their belt and road initiative within Asian nations. The Philippines and Nepal have already signed contracts with them.
Regardless of bamboo’s ecological credentials, the distance a product must travel greatly influences its carbon footprint which is why we address high-tech bamboo alternatives regarding transportation as well. Nonetheless, the Green Peace Corps will address this drawback head-on in the hopes of accelerating the cultivation of this carbon sequestering and seemingly endlessly useful plant ally.
Currently, the largest commercial scale production of bamboo is taking place in China. This means that most bamboo products in the United Kingdom and the United States have been shipped from across the globe. China is by far the largest producer and processor of bamboo globally, however this sector remains a niche market. Furthermore, the sector’s total value is estimated at approximately $40 billion (BN), according to the China Bamboo Industry Association. Additionally, China exports approximately $2.2 billion of bamboo products per year, mostly to nations in the European Union (EU).
An objective of the Green Peace Corps (GPC) is to cultivate and produce bamboo products in America and the other nations where the process can be replicated. In addition, the utilization of bamboo is extremely important through its ability to sequester greater amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) as well as supply more oxygen (O2) than trees produce, not only this but bamboo can supply building materials and products ten times faster than wood from growing trees for wood products.
Bamboo is a very ecological way to help prevent deforestation as it is an extremely strong, fast-growing plants that can provide a sustainable alternative for many products made of wood, like durable paper, and soft toilet paper. Bamboo provides a very low-cost, energy-efficient, and durable way to build homes and structures especially within the tropical and subtropical areas.
When we consider the textile industry, most of the cotton grown is treated with far too many synthetic fertilizers and chemicals. Cotton accounts for about 25% of the world’s insecticide use. Bamboo can also be used in making textiles that can be a fine, equally soft alternative to cotton while requiring far less water, chemicals, and labor to produce.
As wind turbines continue to gain popularity all over the world as an environmentally friendly and cleaner source of energy, the materials used to make the blades on the turbines are evolving to make the turbines more efficient at harnessing the energy of the wind.
Soon we may expect to add biofuel to the list of its common uses, as it is being developed for this purpose. The tremendous rate of bamboo growth means a steady supply of the crop, whatever its use, and stands dedicated to biofuel production would be able to be harvested virtually in a continuous manner for that purpose and could be useful as the world eliminates fossil fuels production. The demand for bamboo in all its various uses is growing in Western countries, just as it should be.
A recent study led by Kansas State University now adds context to these same shared challenges by focusing on the effects on drought regarding biodiversity in grasslands, instead of in crop selections. The study tested a wide range of grasses on their resistance to drought by depriving them of water until each one died out. The idea motivating this project is that if ranchers and landowners maintain a diverse grassland, the more drought-resistant species will be able to take up the essential functions of sequestering carbon dioxide while providing fodder for grazing animals. Excessive reliance on only a small number of species could spell doom for the entire ecosystem.
There is plenty of available biodiversity when it comes to grassland. The world possesses over an estimated 12,000 different species. Among them, bamboo certainly stands out above all the others. There are in fact some species of bamboo that are tolerant of drought. Some can survive on as little as 350 millimeters of annual precipitation, or less than fourteen inches. While those certainly are not bone-dry conditions, it is roughly half the average annual precipitation for the state of Iowa, so the right kinds of bamboo could survive in moderate to severe drought conditions for certain areas.
Ironically, the abundant resource that is bamboo was once referred to as the “poor man’s timber”, however bamboo is now aimed to revolutionize the way we build our most modern of metropolises. The “green steel” of the 21st century has been researched, developed, and implemented in China for generations. Now more than ever, the research of bamboo as a building material has become priority as the Chinese government races to address their (rather significant) part in the global climate crisis and discovering what role they will play in providing environmentally sustainable development globally.
One aspect of it will include sustainable infrastructure solutions, both residentially and commercially. Both of which are “urgently required to support the world’s growing and increasingly urbanized population.” China is home to the largest population in the world nearing 1.5 billion people, with that comes one of the world’s largest construction markets, which is currently fueled by predominately energy-intensive materials like cement, steel, and timber whose production leave behind a huge carbon footprint.
The world’s most energy consuming industry is the steel industry. Steel alone requires about 20 gigajoules of energy per ton produced with three quarters of the energy coming from burning coal. What if the world could rethink this? The answer to this is to offer an alternative that could at least ease the amount of steel being produced. China has its focus set to not only reduce the energy expenditure while also reducing the significant amount of CO2 emissions that are a dirty result of these industrial activities.
Another and perhaps the most shameful facet of the mining industry is the massive amount of wastewater generated. For each ton of steel produced, 80 tons of toxic water waste is also created. For this fact alone, the steel mining industry stands out among the rest as the single most toxic polluter in the world. Now zooming out, we know that steel production generates 145 billion tons of wastewater annually, that is 19 tons for every single person on the planet. Now that the world is fully acquainted with the most depressing facts on earth, it is time to discuss solutions.
The International Bamboo and Rattan Organization (INBAR) construction task force coordinator Liu Kewei sells bamboo as a sort of triple threat by the fact that “it grows extremely fast, it’s naturally strong, and it’s degradable. There are several advantages of using it in construction,” says Kewei. As for its mechanical properties, it is flexible with a tensile strength that is said to be even stronger than most steel, and its strength-to-weight ratio trumps that of both timber and brick. Plus, as it can be easily composted, using bamboo helps cut down on the country’s construction waste which Liu says accounts for a staggering 30 to 40 percent of total urban waste.
The tensile strength of steel is 23,000 PSI, while the tensile strength of bamboo is 28,000 PSI. In fact, bamboo was layered and used for rebar to construct bases by the United States navy in the Pacific Islands because of steel shortages after WWII. In Asia, it is often used in place of steel for the construction of buildings and roads to reinforce concrete.
Bamboo has been said to have approximately 10,000 uses. We can find bamboo coffee cups and bamboo alternatives to plastic kitchen utensils, cutlery, dishes, bowls, toothbrush, tableware, straws, basketry, and houseware. In 2018 alone the UK is estimated to have used an average of 127 rolls of toilet paper per person. Much of this paper is made from virgin softwood. That is incredibly wasteful when we all know what toilet paper is used for. However, several companies in Australia and Asia are now making soft bamboo toilet paper at a comparable price.
Although China is the current supplier of most of the world’s bamboo product, the GPC wants to make bamboo our largest eco-crop which will be extremely beneficial to farmers and local economies. Bamboo will be used along with industrial hemp, another eco-crop, as a natural ecological alternative that can supply an endless stream of sustainable building materials and products that create opportunities for local investment, prosperity, and employment. This will help finance struggling farmers and communities and help them regain their footing after the pandemic and the oncoming climate instability which will certainly follow until we make the necessary system changes necessary to coexist with nature.
While the bamboo plant has shallow roots called rhizomes, which they develop to create a fibrous network underground which helps to hold the soil together. By not disturbing the roots and soil between harvests, the soil and the micro-environment beneath the surface continue to develop and improve. Soil improvement helps with water absorption, as well as aiding in the prevention of soil erosion. Many areas where bamboo is grown are subject to heavy rain and monsoons during the wet season, and improved soil along with healthy roots helps to minimize landslides. Bamboo also protects the embankments of waterways.
Bamboo is stronger and more durable than even the toughest hardwoods. It also grows much faster than its hardwood and softwood equivalents. As such, it can be harvested every 3 to 5 years. Some timber is only harvested when trees are around 30-50 years old. So, at the same time stands of bamboo can produce products nearly ten times faster than the area of trees and sequesters approximately 13 times more carbon.
Swiss engineering entities such as Esoro and 4erC worked together to create the Rinspeed BamBoo idea along with companies AkzoNobel and Schoeller to design the frame of the exterior and interior part of the vehicle. Furthermore, Rinspeed states that the initiative was initially designed to be a golf cart, but it has revolutionized their way of thinking to create new bamboo concepts.
The Rinspeed BamBoo is an electric car that is a four-seater. The vehicle is front-wheel drive which uses an electric motor with a maximum power output of 140 nm of torque at 4500 rpm and 54 kw (72hp). The acceleration is from 0-50 km/h (31mph) in 4.7 seconds with a top speed at 120 km/h (75mph). The lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) battery pack’s range is around 105 km (65 miles) at 90 km/h.
The dashboard control panel was created based off the shape of a giant breadbox along with the exterior shell created from plastics supplied by Ticona, a polymer manufacturer. The idea was to implement a breadbox framework to achieve a futuristic VDO display. Located in the glove box houses a docking station to enable connectivity for all electronics whether there is a tablet or smartphone in the vicinity. Additionally, personal messages can be seen on the “identiface” screen. This technology was developed by Mbtech subsidiary for Daimler in Stuttgart, which is designed to replace the radiator grille. In appreciation for the vehicles internet capability which displays the manufacturer’s logo meanwhile enabling internet browsing from one destination to the next.
The breadbox blueprint is amplified by an avant-garde design which contains Harman JBL GreenEdge speakers. In turn, this provides the global leader in infotainment systems and premium sound on concentrating on connectivity with the encompassing scalable entertainment system along with the preinstalled “Aha Radio” application. The German supplier Eberspächer catem provides an electric high-voltage heater which is encapsulated in the center of the vehicle. A Swiss company by the name of Tectonex developed a canopy resembling roof that inflates to provide protection for the interior.