| I read with interest the article
in the September 16 issue of the Tulsa Beacon regarding the
anticipated escalation of oil prices. If oil does go to $100
per barrel, and I think that it will, it can affect the cost
of construction a great deal. Construction has a huge impact
on the nation’s economy, so much so that every month the government
releases the number of housing starts.
Anything that affects our economy also affects
our security, because legislatures don’t like to spend money
on defense when there is a perception that their constituents
are in need.
The article pointed out that we have an abundance
of oil in our offshore reserves without mentioning the fact
that the oil that is left on our soil may not sustain us for
an extended amount of time. Environmentalists have seen to it
that most of the offshore oil remains off limits, and while
they may feel that they have achieved a great victory for “mother
earth”, they have unwittingly won a battle but lost a war.
The inability to access that oil has made us
so dependent upon foreign oil that it affects our foreign policy
decisions. It will probably be necessary at some point for congress
to reverse some laws simply to keep the nation running.
I hope that we have some time to adapt to the
growing cost of oil before it actually hits us, and it is possible
to do so if enough of us are willing to do so.
Our buildings consume enormous amounts of energy.
The energy consumption begins when the raw materials are harvested
and processed into construction materials. More energy is consumed
when the construction is done, and even more energy is consumed
by the building during its operation and maintenance.
Early in our energy conservation days, beginning
back in 1973 with the Arab Oil Embargo, the most we thought
about doing was adding more insulation to our homes to reduce
its energy usage. Even after all those years, the average residential
or commercial client rarely thinks beyond that extent. It is
very difficult to get clients to get past the “we’ve always
done it this way” mindset.
Granted, Americans are fascinated with their
own built environment, flocking to home shows for the latest
gadgets. But these things don’t really change the way that they
think about things.
However, manufacturers have been thinking about
how their products are made, and architects are eager to design
and specify new things when clients are willing to change their
way of thinking and accept things that they are not accustomed
to.
Here’s a simple example. When you build a parking
lot, your choices are simple – asphalt or concrete, right? Wrong
– for a number of years several manufacturers have been making
products made of concrete or plastic that resembles a waffle.
This material, called an “engineered grass porous paving system”,
is placed on the ground, the holes are filled with soil, and
grass is grown in the soil. Cars can then be driven over this
material without harming the grass, leaving the look of a lawn.
There are numerous benefits gained from the
use of this material. First, it greatly reduces the amount of
fabricated materials because the material is porous, not solid.
Second, it reduces solar heat gain that creates “heat islands”
that increase building cooling costs. Third, it allows stormwater
to percolate into the ground, greatly reducing the need for
detention ponds that take up valuable land areas. This also
allows the stormwater to be filtered naturally.
The point of this example is not to suggest
that we should all turn our parking lots into grass, but that
if we are willing to open our minds up to doing things a different
way, not with just one or two items in our buildings, but across
the board, we can over time begin to make a huge impact on our
country’s future.
Americans tend to accept drastic change out
of necessity, but not without some resistance. It took a terrorist
attack on our own soil to get us to take terrorism seriously.
Even now, the majority of us still have not absorbed the need
to change the way we build our buildings in order to do our
small part to make this country more secure.
That security means more than constructing buildings
that deter terrorists from attacking them. It means doing what
is necessary to reduce our need for foreign oil, and especially
oil from hostile countries who use those revenues to fund attacks
against us.
We don’t all have to work for the CIA, the FBI,
or Homeland Security to do our part to make this country more
secure. We can all do our part by conscientiously paying attention
to how we build our environments.
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