Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization

Paper

Higher demand also came from the expansion of mining, and the growing production of nails, wire, horseshoes, and weapons for land armies.

Wood remained indispensable not only for building houses and transportation equipment (carts, wagons, coaches, boats, ships) but also—as iron smelting rose in parts of Europe—for charcoal production for blast furnaces

m2 in the early 1950s to 220 m2 by 2005).

by 2050 there will be 12.4 Mt of obsolete aluminum scrap that

copper as the standard choice first for water pipes, and later also for heating and cooling systems.

All of these products begin as ethane. In North America and the Middle East ethane is separated from natural gas,

Compared to the theoretical minimum of 6.3 MWh/t,

According to the US inventory of timberlands, the tree growing stock in the year 2000 stood at 23.65 Gm3 and it produced an annual growth of 670 Mm3 (USDA, 2001). This productivity compares to the removal of about 490 Mm