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From: Arild Jensen (no email)
Date: Sun Apr 08 2007 - 14:56:41 EDT
> -----Original Message----->
> Ken James wrote:
> > And who will be the first to volunteer to fully live that way if there
> > are other choices? Would you let your kid die because Penicillen is to
> > high tech? Or would you want to work 10-12 hours a day in a hot bug
> > infested field trying to grow corn just to keep from starving to death?
>
Roy Pennington replied:
> That is not really valid since it's an all or nothing scenario.
> Select application of technology and knowledge would be possible
> when living a traditional lifestyle.
> You'd still have modern medicine. You'd still have modern knowledge.
REPLY
Roy is right. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.
A good beginning would be a shift from a wasteful consumer society to a more
conservative society that valued longevity of utility in tools, appliances
and so on.
Naturally the manufacturers won't like it since products would not become
obsolete and this would cut into their profit margin. I would argue that
society's long term welfare is more important that the short term profits of
one individual or corporation.
Is it better to manufacture 500 pairs of shoes for one Esmaralda or the same
quantity of shoes for 500 individuals.
Better still, would it not be better if those shoes were practical and
lasted several years of daily use?
Consider boats.
the senior naval architect at work has become convinced that cold molded
wooden boats are as good, if not better than FRP or even aluminum or steel
hulls. He recently showed me photos of a storm damaged hull that had
sucessfully been repaired and recommissioned. This was not a little
daysailer but a 98 foot twin diesel luxury motor yacht.
Cold molded wooden construction can make use of woods that cannot be used in
the traditional solid form of beams and planks. It represents a renewable
and thus sustainable resource. The use of wood requires far less toxic
material than the quantities of chemicals required to make FRP hulls and
does not require the use of toxic smelters and blast furnaces required to
make steel or aluminum plate. remember that FRP hulls relies extensively on
petroleum feed stock.
Cold molded hulls like traditional wooden hulls have a number of superior
characteristics. Warmer, less noisy, and has a certain ambience (for lack of
a better descriptive) that is totally lacking in FRP or metal hulls.
Cold molded allows for complex shapes equal to anything achievable with FRP.
Cold molded can be made one off. So can FRP but the plug construction for
FRP is more labor intensive or else requires a tremendous amount of sanding
which produces a lot of toxic dust. It is true that cold molded does use
some adhesives and some of these are the same as would be used in FPP, but
the total amount used of these modern and perhaps by definition toxic
chemicals is much less.
The argument that cold molded or for that matter wooden boat construction
will rot too soon is not valid. There are any number of examples of
traditional wooden boats lasting a long time. Cold molded would stand up
even better due to nature of construction. Conversely, how many steel and
aluminum hulls have corroded prematurely due to lack of care and
maintenance.
and what can you do with a junked FRP hull?
Cold molded construction does require skilled labor. This precludes building
them in places where only cheap unskilled labor is available. For those who
are willing to settle for any cheap mas produced tupperware boat this is
probably bad news.
On the other hand, how many people now sail in an older hull whose interior
has been totally refurbished. That is a good example of the re-use and
recycle principle I was talking about. Nothing wrong with that. However you
can't do that with a cheap chinese built chopper gun fabricated boat. Only
quality hand lay-up will last many decades of sailing.
Interior refurbishment still requires skilled labor and craftmanship.
Arild
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