The broad topic of this paper is environmental sustainability, and the narrowed topic is how environmental sustainability can be achieved with bamboo, particularly in comparison with traditional materials such as wood.
My rationale for researching this topic is to explore the ways that bamboo can be used to sustain the environment and its suitability for that purpose. Although other materials have been proposed in the past as environmentally sustainable, commonly no one can find a worthwhile use for them sufficient to induce the public to buy them or else the properties of the material have inherent weaknesses for the purposes of using them widely in place of traditional materials such as wood and metal. Bamboo has a number of attractive qualities that could help it to rise above the pack and become a cornerstone of environmental sustainability if its uses can be identified and exploited.
1.3 Why Environmental Sustainability is Needed
Modern agricultural methods and the use of wood timber for housing, flooring, paper, furniture, and a variety of other uses have led to a negative impact on our environment. Goodland (190) points out that "Cattle caused or are related to the most environmental damage to the globe of any non-human species (e.g. overgrazing, soil erosion, desertification, tropical deforestation for ranches)," noting that "livestock now outnumber humans 3:1." Deforestation due to cutting down trees so that the wood can be harvested has resulted in similar problems with erosion and desertification. Our modern way of life is harming the environment, and environmentally sustainable foods, housing and furnishing materials, and clothing fibers are needed to replace the beef, wood, and cotton that currently impair our environment.
The purpose of this research is to investigate the use of bamboo as a substitute for less environmentally friendly materials in an effort to find ways t...