Likes Alter energy

TreeHugger has a look at a use for the glut of timber from trees killed by pine beetles - Interlocking Cross Laminated Timber Could Use Up Square Miles Of Beetle-Killed Lumber, and Look Gorgeous, Too.

The Mountain Pine Beetle is killing trees across North America, including up to 44% of Colorados forests. If there was any infrastructure investment to be made right now, I would have thought it would be to set up a pile of cross laminated timber factories fast, and put people to work churning out panels at a standard size and stockpiling them; CLT is strong, fire resistant, it sequesters carbon dioxide and it makes very pretty buildings.

At the University of Utahs Integrated Technology in Architecture Center, (ITAC) they are working on a modification of the design of CLT for the American market, namely figuring out how to make it cheaper.