jailcd2015029: Bamboo: Material for Sustainable Development

Abstract

As we know, with the development of science and technology, the environment is getting worse and worse, and the environment problem is becoming more and more serious in all over the world. It causes adverse ecological and socio economic effects. By now, Global Warming is one of the major concerns in environmental issues. One of the most effective ways to prevent global warming is to replace materials which emit high level of CO2 with those of low level CO2 emission materials. We can conserve energy on a larger scale by using green materials. Green building material, especially bamboo is considered to be a modern and environmentally friendly solution to lower the amount of CO2 emission, thus protecting the environment and reducing the energy consumption. Bamboo is the "green steel of the 21st century," according to Vietnamese architect Vo Trong Nghia, one of the leading exponents of bamboo architecture. Can bamboo save the planet? The answer to that question remains to be seen. But this amazing plant and its surging popularity in a huge variety of products offers mankind a chance to enjoy many of the comforts of modern life without causing irreparable damage to our environment. Bamboo construction is often associated with poor rural housing somewhere in a remote tropical country, but as a building material, bamboo stands out because of its structural and mechanical properties, its strength/weight ratio is one of them.