Environmental Conservation and Wood Utilization

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Environmental conservation has become one of the greatest concerns of all the people in the world. This issue is related to wood utilization in two major view points such as carbon dioxide emitted by the use of manufacturing energy and absorbed during the growth of trees. Wood construction materials require less manufacturing energy, which, in turn, means less carbon dioxide emission. In addition, wood keeps absorbed carbon in itself as far as it is not burnt. Therefore, wood is environmentally superior to other materials in terms of potential effects on atmospheric carbon dioxide. As examples of the environmental effect of wood utilization, the following two results were obtained: 1) If wood construction becomes popular in Korea as in Japan, more than 24% of carbon dioxide emission during construction of residential housings can be reduced: and 2) If aluminum windows are substituted by wood windows, more than 19% of carbon dioxide emission can be reduced. If the principle of "cut and plant" is kept well, wood is the best construction material for environmental protection as well as human residence.