[Strawbale] Cement vs. clay (was "trashcrete")

[Shody Ryon]

Hi,
I was just about the write about the CO2 emissions,
but you beat me to it. I saw this on the Discover
channel last week, and they were saying that changing
the way we build houses will have a significant effect
on global climate change. Thinking about this a little
should, in my opinion, have a big impact on whether or
not (or how much) Portland cement products are used.
Granted that CO2 is a relaitively heavy gas (I think),
what size volume would a pound of CO2 be at normal
atmospheric pressure be (14.7 PSI at sea level, more
or less)? Thinking about how people use concrete ...
that is a lot of CO2, and I do not think everyone is
going to stop using concrete so I wonder if clay can
be used instead of concrete for foundations (perhaps
with bamboo rebar)? Clay that will not only be kept
dry, and by dry, that likely does not mean just
putting some 6 mil polyethylene sheeting down, I
think. A very effective drain system could be used
that might include rain water collection systems, an
overflow that included an effective wet lands area
and/or dry well and perhaps an AGS or other solar
heating system to continually bake the foundation as
well as supply an isolated controlable heating system.
That would reduce CO2 emissions from some of the
convensional heating systems too.
Cheers,
Shody

<snip> 
> The issue with cement is not just embodied energy,
> but also that a pound of
> CO2 goes into the atmosphere per pound of cement
> produced.  So by my
> thinking, if clay is local, has almost zero embodied
> energy, and produces no
> greenhouse gas...it's a winner from an
> eco-viewpoint.
> 
> Thanks, Sigi





 
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