Considering that the lumber industry gets the bulk of their wood from farms and tracts that are continusouly replanted, they aren't cutting down old growth forests like "the old says". Compared to aluminum or steel, wood frame construction is fairly renewable and to be encouraged.
Google is creating new products and services that increase demand for energy. Everything they do requires more computers sucking up power, more devices to be made with crazy materials in them etc.
"the lumber industry gets the bulk of their wood from farms and tracts that are continusouly replanted"
I believe most commercial logging is clear cut. This is devastating to not only trees, but soil, animals, watersheds, migratory birds, and who knows what else down the line.
We need wood, so we have a lumber industry that grows trees and cuts them down. But don't think for a second that replanting a clear cut wasteland with monoculture seedlings is in any way "renewable" or "encouraged".
If you have any doubt about the effectiveness of replanting, zoom in and around British Columbia with google maps. What appears to be a massive unbroken forest is actually riddled with clearcuts.
Thats a good point. It'd be interesting to see someone do the calculations to see how the energy levels required for building and running electronics (in addition to the destruction of areas that possess various necessary minerals) compares with the amount of energy required to do stuff manually.
The argument about wood as a good renewable building material is a good one, however, not getting the "bulk" and not getting most are two completely different things, and the world really needs to get on a renewable system fast.
Also, while in a lot of places you will find reference to there being zero net change in the amount of trees being cut down, the fact of the matter is that a lot of old growth forest is still being destroyed.
After reading the IAMA more closely, I think that I was wrong in my initial assessment of him, he is doing it because he want the exercise, and is still participating in more "real" projects on the side in a less stressful setting, which is cool. My real point was that it would be really easy to do something like this, thinking that it would be great, and then realizing some time later that you were part of something that you really didn't like on principle.
Considering that the lumber industry gets the bulk of their wood from farms and tracts that are continusouly replanted, they aren't cutting down old growth forests like "the old says". Compared to aluminum or steel, wood frame construction is fairly renewable and to be encouraged.
Google is creating new products and services that increase demand for energy. Everything they do requires more computers sucking up power, more devices to be made with crazy materials in them etc.