Have we reached a tipping point?

[SpaceBus]

... are you suggesting I allow the pH of my lawn to drift?

I see the amount of lime used in agricultural and turf applications ever-decreasing, better options are available today for soil conditioners and even simple pH correction, than the old traditional lime-based products.

As to masonry, well I just repointed the entire back of my house in lime and sand last summer. It’s a very large stone house. I did not ask how much lime was used, but I suspect it couldn’t have been more than a few hundred pounds for a very large area of stonework. By comparison, it can take a few thousand pounds per acre to bump soil pH a few tenths.

Get the aggies shifted from lime to other calcium vehicles, and I have to believe this impact can be largely controlled.

Lime in concrete? Where? I’ve never heard of such a thing. Lime is mostly reserved for mortar and plaster, isn’t it? It’s costly stuff, and I don’t think i adds strength in a Portland-based mix, it’s there for workability in most mortar and plaster applications. Or for historical applications, any building that pre-dates Portland.

As begreen mentioned cement is made from lime. Portland Cement also contains lime. For a few months I have been researching alternative building methods in an attempt to build a cabin or small house on our property without using cement. Unfortunately pretty much everything requires cement, which means lime. Unfortunately lime is procured from burning limestone.

 

[Ashful]

Concrete is 7-15% cement. Cement has lime or calcium carbonate as a key ingredient.

Composition of cement

Interesting. You learn things, here! I make mortar out of lime or cement, sometimes a combination of the two.... never realized one contained the other.

 

[SpaceBus]

Interesting. You learn things, here! I make mortar out of lime or cement, sometimes a combination of the two.... never realized one contained the other.

Portland cement usually contains more clay, and that's really the only difference. Mortar usually is just concrete made of fine sand and lime. I'm not a Mason at all, just been reading about it recently. Honestly it's all pretty depressing if you care about the environment. It's like every human process is disruptive in some kind of way. And this is from a person with like six videos of doing burnouts, donuts, and power slides in V8 RWD cars from different angles uploaded to YouTube. The more I learn the more I become sad about my hobbies.

 

[begreen]

Cement is the third largest source of CO2 emissions on the planet. The scale of concrete used by China is gobsmacking. There are now over 200 citied in China with a population greater than 1 million. In Europe there are only 35. Many of these cities are new within the past 30 years. It took billions of tons of concrete to build them. They all are connected by vast roadways and this doesn't include super long roads like the ones to remote areas like Tibet. Between 2000 and 2013 the world added 7.4 million miles of paved roads. In the past decade, China has built 1.3 million miles. With numbers like these one can see why cement has an enormous impact on emissions. And also, why we are running out of sand of the quality necessary for making cement.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Looks like china is in meltdown ,cities look like ghost towns. Hospitals like war zones. Their business model of bringing every farmer into a city to work in factories is backfiring.

 

[woodnomore]

Looks like china is in meltdown ,cities look like ghost towns. Hospitals like war zones. Their business model of bringing every farmer into a city to work in factories is backfiring.

Funny how things work, some believe we are at the tipping point with climate change with temps going up, others believe that solar minimum will bring us colder temps. The CDC says most that get the virus do not die yet the Chinese are locking cities down. Society has tried to eliminate evolution with survival of the fittest, nature always wins.

 

[vinny11950]

nature always wins.

Did you get that from the movie Jurassic Park?

 

[woodnomore]

Did you get that from the movie Jurassic Park?

Have never seen the movie.

 

[vinny11950]

Have never seen the movie.

You should see it, great fun.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

The scale of concrete used by China is gobsmacking.

All the more evidence that my tiny little concrete project will make zero difference in the trajectory of climate change. Prepare for it, cuz china and indian and so many other countries are NOT going to stop growing and polluting. And no one can make them stop.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

The CDC says most that get the virus do not die yet the Chinese are locking cities down.

Hyundai has just shut down production in South Korea ,so the panic is spreading. I guess the next big war will start with Bio weapons ,they spread panic thru the whole country quickly.

 

[begreen]

Hyundai has just shut down production in South Korea ,so the panic is spreading. I guess the next big war will start with Bio weapons ,they spread panic thru the whole country quickly.

This is developing into an unexpected patent war too.

Chinese scientists ask for patent on US drug to fight virus

BEIJING (AP) — Scientists in the city at the center of China’s virus outbreak have applied to patent a drug made by U.S. company Gilead Sciences Inc. to treat the disease, possibly fueling conflict over technology policy that helped trigger Washington’s tariff war with Beijing.

apnews.com

 

[Seasoned Oak]

People packed into cites stacked on top of one another like in china may not be a good thing when the contagions are on the loose.

When will the threat of coronavirus end? It might return every winter

Like swine flu, the new coronavirus might become a regular part of a winter mix of respiratory bugs causing common colds and other illnesses.

www.usatoday.com

Would be better to be "off the grid " for awhile.

 

[begreen]

Packing them in aerial tin cans may be worse for the spread of virus. It's mobility that increases risk. That was the reason for the rapid spread of the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918.

 

[SpaceBus]

Funny how things work, some believe we are at the tipping point with climate change with temps going up, others believe that solar minimum will bring us colder temps. The CDC says most that get the virus do not die yet the Chinese are locking cities down. Society has tried to eliminate evolution with survival of the fittest, nature always wins.

There's probably something else going on with this virus.

 

[begreen]

There's probably something else going on with this virus.

So far it appears to be about 200% more deadly than the common flue.

 

[ABMax24]

There is some data to suggest that China's population is starting to plateau and will eventually shrink. This will dramatically reduce their need to consume vast amounts of material to build infrastructure for the people. Of course this has been shown in many developed countries, birth rates dramatically decrease. India is the next concern, their population is growing rapidly.

China’s Looming Crisis: A Shrinking Population (Published 2019)

Decades of “one child” policy, a declining birth rate and an increase in life expectancy add up to fewer young workers able to support a huge and aging population.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Seasoned Oak]

So far it appears to be about 200% more deadly than the common flue.

Its said to be 2% fatal ,so i presume the common flu is around 1% fatal. So cause for concern but not panic. The victims that succumb are usually very young or old and with compromised immune systems. Any serious illness will be fatal.

 

[begreen]

Sorry, I badly misstated that. Yes, so far it's 2% for the coronavirus, but that is only with one population group so far and it is unknown whether the cases will taper off in March/April like the regular flu does. The common flu is about .05% fatal. So 4000% more fatal.

 

[SpaceBus]

Such a deadly virus, yet only affecting one part of the world that isn't friendly with other parts. This is more than an outbreak, especially since it comes at such a time of high political unrest in China.

 

[Ashful]

This is developing into an unexpected patent war too.

Chinese scientists ask for patent on US drug to fight virus

BEIJING (AP) — Scientists in the city at the center of China’s virus outbreak have applied to patent a drug made by U.S. company Gilead Sciences Inc. to treat the disease, possibly fueling conflict over technology policy that helped trigger Washington’s tariff war with Beijing.

apnews.com

The way I read this, a Chinese company is trying to use their government to profit off this outbreak, rather than legally paying for a drug already developed, patented, and manufactured in the USA. Meanwhile, their own people are suffering and even dying from this disease, while they’re levering the opportunity for profit. These scum should be strung up, not supported by their government.

Its said to be 2% fatal ,so i presume the common flu is around 1% fatal. So cause for concern but not panic. The victims that succumb are usually very young or old and with compromised immune systems. Any serious illness will be fatal.

2% is concern for panic, IMO. If your kid (or grandkid) goes to a school with 600 other kids, you’re looking at 12 of them dying from this, just based on the 2% average. More likely double or triple that, given the distribution of fatalities among age groups. That is terrifying.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

The common flu is about .05% fatal.

I was surprised its that low. I was almost in that .05% in my mid 40s. I never forgot that experience and religiously get the flue shot each year after that. After getting the flu every year with varying intensity for many yrs before starting to get the shot, i havnt had a bad experience with it since getting the shot. If i did get the flu .i barely knew it. Unfortunately for many there is no shot for this one yet.

 

[woodnomore]

It is a wake up call when the Dr starts saying At your age you should....

 

[Seasoned Oak]

2% is concern for panic, IMO. If your kid (or grandkid) goes to a school with 600 other kids, you’re looking at 12 of them dying from this, just based on the 2% average. More likely double or triple that, given the distribution of fatalities among age groups. That is terrifying.

I was assuming it was double the normal rate. Whatever that was and all the victims were in a weakened state like nursing home residents. If its killing all age groups and otherwise relatively healthy people,then it is scary indeed. One positive note is only 2 deaths outside china with at least 200 cases .....so far.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Report: #CoronaVirus Deaths are Far Worse than China Admits, in Wuhan and Elsewhere

Those of us who follow the CoronaVirus statistics coming out of Mainland China, have always suspected the Chinese are lying about their 650 death toll, in less than 30,000 cases. After all, why bother to quarantine Wuhan, a Los Angeles sized city, unless it were absolutely necessary. And why...

www.smobserved.com

If this a story is true the death rate is actually 16% , truly terrifying! Also if true china may be in the process of accidentally decimating its population with its own Bio weapon.