In Praise Of Pavement
As a long time eco-warrior, I would have never believed that I would have anything good to say about cement and paving. And trust me, it is hard to do so now. I don’t think that I have come to a major change in my philosophies, but I will admit that there are some benefits to some of the things that I don’t agree with.
First of all, from a spiritual standpoint I believe that we were given this wonderful planet so that people could be happy here. But the message that we need to take care of the planet shouldn’t need to be displayed on a huge video wall.
So a big part of taking care of the planet is taking care of the people who live here. Most of the people on the planet are fortunate enough to live in a house of some sort. But did you realize that for hundreds on millions of people in the world, those houses are merely walls and a roof over dirt floors? From the standpoint of sanitation, this isn’t that great of a step up from no house at all. It is impossible to get a dirt floor clean. And a clean home is necessary for the health and well being of its occupants.
The simple addition of a hard, waterproof floor in a house makes other simple technologies, like brooms, mops, and disinfectants effective. Because we take hard floors for granted in North America, we tend to forget that the simple luxury of having a few dollars worth of cement between our family’s feet and the elements can prevent a wealth of diseases, including parasitic hookworms.
The benefits to people of paving don’t end at the front door of course. We are nostalgic for dirt roads, but there is a very quantifiable economic benefit to having a paved road in front of your house. Not only is there less dirt to track into the house, but the people living in the house will generally make more money because trade is easier with better transportation.
Of course there are limits to the benefits of paving. If a road through an endangered forest is paved, it is a sure bet that the forest will be targeted by loggers who may only see short term profits. There is also the overall warming effect of paved ground opposed to bare vegetation.
But this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t make life a little better for those in tough areas.