Courtesy: Shinsung Basic Materials, Korea

The problem

Concrete considered one of the most durable material man to invent. However, the corrosion of steel in reinforced concrete often raise concerns over the durability of concrete structures. Structures exposed to corrosive conditions such as roads and highways, coastal structures, underground structural elements and water retaining structures requires frequent repair and maintenance due to corrosion damages.

Repair and maintenance of steel reinforced concrete structures is an additional expense which results in huge burden on the authorities which maintain those structures. In the United Kingdom, repair cost due of concrete infrastructure exceeds £500 million/year (Broomfield et al. 2002) and much higher in the United States and Canada (Bedard 1992). Even sometimes the repair and maintenance costs have exceeded the original cost of the bridges. Due to these concerns, there were considerations either to protect steel from corrosion or replace it with non corrosive materials.

Better quality concrete, steel protection methods such as epoxy coating, galvanizing have been practiced in the last decades in an effort to prevent the corrosion in steel reinforced structures (Clarke 1999). However, the efficiency of these methods raised concerns when corrosion was detected on epoxy coated steel reinforcement (Keesler & Powers 1988).

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Cement is to our buildings as corn is to our food supply. Just as corn is an ingredient in countless food products, cement is a building block for much of what is around us: our roads, our buildings, and our bridges. And, as with corn, plenty of cement substitutes promise to make our environment cleaner. But swapping conventional cement for “greener” equivalents is proving to be a tough challenge.

While many companies tout a more sustainable product than the limestone-based cement that dates back to the ancient Macedonians, cement in its current form is here to stay. One reason is logistics – most of us live within 20 miles of a cement plant, which means any drastic change will involve an overhaul of infrastructure, not to mention the massive education that will be required to retrain everyone from truck haulers to civil engineers. As more buildings rise while others are remodelled, the key to sustainable development will be the smart use of this material.

Efficiency and design has a prominent role in developing smarter cement and concrete structures. Less promising are the expectations of cement alternatives that perform well in a laboratory, but not in the concrete jungles of Seoul, Sao Paulo, and Los Angeles. Efficient design can help reduce the cement industry’s global impact, which contributes about five percent of the globe’s total carbon emissions. And yet cement and concrete are materials that offer durability and thermal properties, and can reduce energy and water waste throughout the places in which we live and work.

The holy grail of sustainable cement is for the material to be carbon-neutral or even carbon-negative. Novacem is one company that promises a more viable alternative to conventional portland cement. The UK-based firm’s product has a base of magnesium oxide and magnesium silicates (ie talc). The cement only needs be heated to a lower temperature than conventional cement, which is why Novacem touts its product as a carbon-neutral or even carbon-negative process. Novacem stands behind its twenty years of research and has won a bevy of awards – but its product and those of other companies have yet to scale.

According to Peter Taylor of the National Concrete Pavement Technology Centre, smarter design and usage would be a more effective solution. Taylor and other engineering professionals with whom I spoke suggested that cement and concrete will never be truly sustainable.

The question to ask is: can we make cement better?

Fly ash is one material that could contribute to greener concrete. The byproduct of coal combustion could replace up to 30% of limestone-based portland cement. Taylor, however, points out that the conservative nature of engineers lends them to stick with construction practices that have been in place for decades. But even small reductions in portland cement can reduce concrete’s CO2 impact. One example is the reconstructed Interstate-35 bridge in Minneapolis, which used a base of only 15% portland cement. The 30-foot tall sculptures that grace both sides of the bridge also contain a cement with photocatalytic qualities that remove carbon monoxide and other pollutants from the atmosphere.

The concrete industry is listening and focusing on both sustainability and resilience, according to Kevin Mlutkowski, the American Concrete Institute’s sustainability director. Mlutkowski explained that enhanced durability will be the key for the concrete industry to meet increased building demands without compromising the environment.

What architects, designers, and consumers all must do is to start looking at cement and concrete as valuable resources. Recycling concrete into kitchen countertops, instead of slicing granite out of mountains and quarries, is just one small example. Encouraging architectural features that repurpose concrete, instead of energy-intensive processes that involve pulverising and firing it, are another idea. New approaches, and an emphasis on smart use, reuse, and design, can burnish concrete’s reputation as a sustainable, not polluting, material.

Leon Kaye is founder and editor of GreenGoPost.com

More often, the research and development in science aimed for dissemination of your findings to the rest of the world and every researcher expects it to be utilized someway or other anywhere in the world. There his work gets a fulfillment. Nevertheless, the way publishers operate and restrict the access lead the work to be contained within a circle. The way this operate is quiet a complex formula.

The first loop of this complex formula starts with Universities and funding bodies who expect their research to be published in a reputed journal. Well, they have to revise whether they need reputation or dissemination of the knowledge to a greater audience. It is very important to understand that any new technology or development should not have any restriction on further development. If happens, it cannot be a pure academical/human factor advancement. As once Bill Gates mentioned, “if the other technologies are so open as software industry, the you can see miracle in every sector of the world”. So this gives a flavour that how important is knowledge for technological advancement and greater socioeconomic development of the human race.

When it comes to technical or scientific journal, the researchers and professionals approach Google to find out those unless otherwise they explicitly have an idea about the source. In such a situation, what if Google itself owns the publishing business. They of-course know how to generate business  while keeping the source free for users.

In this perspective, I strongly believe that the Google’s entry into publishing business by acquiring a big publishing house will break all the barriers that scientists and professionals face while getting the access to journals and articles in respected streams.

Reference:

David Colquhoun, 2011, “Publish-or-perish: Peer review and the corruption of science”, Guardian.co.uk

In the modern world, one side there are systems which tend to melt various ethnicities inside while there are some societies which are still backward to understand this. Forcing one to live another one’s system could be a violation too.

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Then I displaced from my hometown with another nine hundred thousand people, and spent days in streets without proper shelter and food. People died along due to several diseases. Days spent without education, proper health care and there was no space for fun. But, I didn’t understand the meaning of life.

Later, I moved to the capital city of the island, where people had everything we had in our village. However, bicycles were replaced by buses. An average person can travel by bus as cycles and motorcycles were assumed to be dangerous on those city roads. About 20% of the city population lived a life equivalent to what is offered in the western cities. Another 20% suffered for food even. The rest 60% called average, struggled to make a decent living. Traveling on buses and trains was neither joyful nor pleasant. However the 60% left with no other choice. The lawmakers, entrepreneurs and business people were in the top 20%, never thought about improving the 60%’s life while making a good business. They were busy with making their life more comfortable by importing the most luxurious vehicles, building world class restaurants, pubs and clubs to serve their fellow 20% by selling basics to those struggling population. They had everything they wanted. But no one really cared about the 60%, even the law makers. Thus 60% continued the same life. The big picture of the city never changed. Because the majority still remain the same. You find nothing other than more chaos on the city roads and other facilities with time. But, I didn’t understand the meaning of the life.

Finally, I went to western world, where every single person had everything including luxuries, world class restaurants, pubs and clubs. A very small percentage of people struggled to make that living. Although they struggled, the opportunity was definite. Still there are complaints about lack of social life, instability in the society due to the pursued mechanical life. However, still I didn’t understand the meaning of life.
What could I really say a life? I had the advantage of a very few to witness all four states and I do not understand that where do we really begin and end. What is the real purpose of a government other than fighting the wars and making the world a bad place to live. Do they really care about giving all the world citizen a decent life. If then what is that decent life. Would you call having all luxuries by giving up what we had in my little village. Or, all the governments and law makers are really trying to put all people to the stage where we were during the displacement times. Did we chose them to do so.

Else we all be at the state of the top 20% living in the capital by ignoring the poor 20% and struggling 50%. So that we will have some sort of achievement in our life by having some elements to compare your well being. Can it really be called a life?

Or are we all going to make all the efforts to bring all the world population to the state of the life lived by most of the industrialist nations. How did really make it happen. Does any of us really think about this, or at-least our law makers? Or they aren’t capable of doing such great transformation.  If they don’t what is the real meaning of life to them?

I am so terrified and stupefied by the meaning of life. Where do we start and where do we end and what we all will have at the end. All the countries on earth and communities on earth will have some meaning for a real life. Until they achieve that, my question will always remain unanswered.

There is a stronger reason why it was named “Youth Against War and Poverty”. Accumulation of ammunition and nuclear weapons around the world does not necessarily bring peace in the world. Rather, it would lead to destruction and youth are aimed to fight for no cause. It was always the youth who dedicated their valuable lives for bad politics which never gained anything in a big picture.

Youths were motivated to fight against governments by regional politicians/state politicians where the youth had no idea what they were doing. Therefore, this movement aims at attracting educated and intellectual youths who think rationally that any war bring destruction and subsequently leads the poverty of the society.

War not only destroys the current prosperity of the generations, but the future too. It lacks developments and leave the war regions abandoned where people are forced to live a substandard life with poverty.

When the world produce sufficient food to feed all the 7 billion population, why 15% of the population struggle to find food and be malnourished. The major cause is war and destruction which cause poverty in the regions.

We aim to bring people with similar interest to join the movement, so we can educate, persuade and convince the youth around the world to engage in more productive activity which could bring economic prosperity and can eradicate poverty to make the world a better place to live.

The website of the movement about to be launched very soon and will meet you soon.

We do really have no idea of how many hot spots around the world visited by Chinese people are under construction.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13820048