Bamboo is an underutilized renewal resource that is just as effective and sturdy as conventional hard wood materials, such as oak, pine, and maple. Bamboo can be dried, treated, molded and fashioned into virtually any shape, size or form, and stain a motley of different shades. It is less expensive to manufacture and it can be replenished quickly in nature. So why not bamboo?
If you are still not convinced, think about this. Trees can take almost sixty years to grow and mature to the appropriate size for logging. That means, if you plant a tree today, sometime in six decades, your grandchildren will be able to harvest that tree. It also means that the natural resources trees offer is being depleted quicker than we can restore them.
Yet, with bamboo, it takes an average of sixty days for them to grow and mature to the appropriate size and an average of five years to be dried and treated. Think of how many crops of bamboo could be harvested, treated and sold in the time it would take to grow one tree!
With bamboos versatility, it can virtually eliminate the need to timber trees, which means deforestation can be reversed. We can finally leave the Amazon rainforest alone, because we have a renewal resource in plentiful amounts across the world.
Still not convinced? Bamboo also accounts for carbon dioxide reduction. As we destroy forest after forest, the carbon dioxide emissions produced by humans is increasing. The only natural way to reduce carbon dioxide is to have plants available for air filtering. Plants absorb the CO2 and release back the clean oxygen molecules into the air for us to breath. Hence, carbon dioxide emissions are reduced.
Bamboo is practically indestructible. Bamboo was the only plant known to survive the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in World War II, and also provided the first signs of green life after the bombing. A plant that can survive an atomic blast? Why haven't we utilized this plant sooner?
Bamboo is also used in erosion control. Tobacco farmers in the southern United States use the thickly stalked bamboo to prevent wind erosion on their tobacco crops. New construction and landscapers have used bamboo as soil erosion and rain run off control. With it being naturally pest resistant, bamboo is an optimal choice for any lawn and garden.
If you still question if bamboo should be utilized, there are plenty of web sites that can offer more information on the scientific, industrial and environmental ways bamboo can help the planet. Bamboo is a vibrant, lively addition to any yard, and could just be the next major industrial material used by companies throughout the world. Just a few changes, and trees across the planet can rejoice. Natural habitats and indigenous plants can be saved. Regions can revive to their once splendor.
