Thats a good point. It'd be interesting to see someone do the calculations to see how the energy levels required for building and running electronics (in addition to the destruction of areas that possess various necessary minerals) compares with the amount of energy required to do stuff manually.
The argument about wood as a good renewable building material is a good one, however, not getting the "bulk" and not getting most are two completely different things, and the world really needs to get on a renewable system fast.
Also, while in a lot of places you will find reference to there being zero net change in the amount of trees being cut down, the fact of the matter is that a lot of old growth forest is still being destroyed.
After reading the IAMA more closely, I think that I was wrong in my initial assessment of him, he is doing it because he want the exercise, and is still participating in more "real" projects on the side in a less stressful setting, which is cool. My real point was that it would be really easy to do something like this, thinking that it would be great, and then realizing some time later that you were part of something that you really didn't like on principle.
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Thats a good point. It'd be interesting to see someone do the calculations to see how the energy levels required for building and running electronics (in addition to the destruction of areas that possess various necessary minerals) compares with the amount of energy required to do stuff manually.
The argument about wood as a good renewable building material is a good one, however, not getting the "bulk" and not getting most are two completely different things, and the world really needs to get on a renewable system fast.
Also, while in a lot of places you will find reference to there being zero net change in the amount of trees being cut down, the fact of the matter is that a lot of old growth forest is still being destroyed.
This reasonable looking article: http://ecology.com/features/paperchase/, says that 9% of wood for paper is taken from old growth forests.
Here is another place that lays it out in a graph: http://www.greenfacts.org/en/forests/figtableboxes/figure-2-.... http://www.greenfacts.org/en/forests/.
After reading the IAMA more closely, I think that I was wrong in my initial assessment of him, he is doing it because he want the exercise, and is still participating in more "real" projects on the side in a less stressful setting, which is cool. My real point was that it would be really easy to do something like this, thinking that it would be great, and then realizing some time later that you were part of something that you really didn't like on principle.