For most of us, the most visible result of the recent BLM riots is the massive amount of plywood businesses were forced to use once their windows were broken.
Thousands of square feet of plywood have been used in Portland. What about all the other American cities where riots have taken place? This has happened in scores of US cities, not to mention other cities around the world. Business must be good for plywood manufacturers.
But plywood has environmental costs. From Sciencing.com:
Deforestation
Deforestation refers to the removal of trees and other forest-related elements and ecosystems. This can range anywhere from a small project to a grand scale removal, and usually done for agricultural or industrial purposes.
Emissions
Emissions that are produced from the manufacture of plywood can negatively impact air quality. Three of the main types of emissions include those created from particle matter, veneer dryers and adhesives.
Particle (or particulate) matter consists of wood dust and bits that are released into the air during log cutting, bark removal, plywood sanding and plywood cutting.
Once logs are debarked and cut into smaller pieces called peeler blocks, the blocks are heated and soaked in a warm water solution. The wet peeler blocks are then sliced into veneers, or thin sheets of wood. As the damp veneers are being dried, air pollutants are emitted from the wood in the form of organic compounds such as methanol. Also, depending on the drying method and type of wood, other pollutants are released through fuel combustion from the drying equipment.
After drying, the veneers are glued and hot pressed to form plywood. Additional air pollutants such as formaldehyde are released from the glue and pressing process.
Another visible result of the BLM riots is the huge amount of graffiti, most of it done with spray paint. Spray paint is also damaging to the environment. From the EPA:
Regional impacts Solvents evaporated in spray painting are precursors to photochemical air pollution (‘smog’). In the presence of strong sunlight they react with nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere to form ozone and other undesirable photochemical air pollutants.
This is a regional impact. The time taken for the solvents emitted from spray painting to react photochemically is typically from three to four hours. (See diagram above.) By that time the air parcel containing the emissions will have moved to another locality in the air basin.
This is why progressives around the world have worked to put an end to the riots…
Oh wait, never mind. They haven’t.
I totally agree with you that BLM is harmful to the environment. Nevertheless, the economy and the prestige of the state are under attack.
You forgot to mention the environmental cost of producing glass. So it can be broken again in the next riot.
Yeah, but then I remembered right after publishing the post. I thought to myself, “I’ll let somebody bring that up in comments.” So thanks for doing that.