Happy March from The Last Straw. While temperatures and tensions continue to rise across the states and ripple overseas, independent communities like ours are gathering together to remain critical and build a difference. Our mission and stance in growing natural biogenic building materials and living light with the land is more important now than ever.
BIOSPHERICS
Unexpectedly, January 2025 was Earth’s hottest January on record
“January 2025 as the warmest January on record, 1.59 degrees Celsius (2.86 °F) above the 1880-1899 period, which is its best estimate for when preindustrial temperatures occurred… There seems little doubt that global warming and the impacts of climate change are accelerating.”
There are lots of hot links and facts in this article. Check out the PBS article too.
FIELD NOTES
Trump administration drops work on stronger building codes for disasters
"In an era of climate change, building codes take on a new importance" says Rob Moore, senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, a non-profit environmental group. "Everything we build today needs to be built for the world we're going to inhabit decades from now. And we know what the failure to do that looks like because it's all around us." Building codes are complicated so read the Martin Hammer piece, “An Oral History of Better Building Codes” for the whole story.
As the Trump administration drastically shifts the priorities, people around the US and World are left frustrated. Farmers are turning to Tiktok to discuss the USDA freeze.
FIELD NOTES
Trump Reinstates Executive Order Mandating ‘Classical’ Architecture for Government Buildings
“The newly issued policy, officially titled the Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture executive order, is aimed at promoting a kind of civic architecture that “commands public admiration.” When it was first introduced in 2020, many US architects critiqued the move as regressive, viewing it as an attempt by the Trump administration to impose a uniform style on public buildings and to promote nationalist ideals.”
FIELD NOTES
For green building, there is nothing more local than straw
Even if we do not feel represented by the US administration, there is always power in the words, pictures, and care that we share with others. Like, Lloyd Alter, who is writing here on straw in reaction to material independence:
FIELD NOTES
Next step in the journey for mass timber logistics hub
“Construction is underway at Europe’s largest timber hub on the Dutch island of Flevopolder in Lelystad. Spanning 155,000 m², the design of the building blends functionality with biogenic building materials, using over 23,600 m³ of mass timber and 40,900 m² of straw wall panels. Over 40% of the site is dedicated to its landscape, designed to increase biodiversity by at least 10%.”
That’s 440,243 SF of panels over the 1,668,406 SF building!
BIOSPHERICS
Buying a home in California? Here’s how seriously you should take Zillow’s climate risk data
“Science has not caught up with our demand for climate services to help inform us about specific properties.” Zillow uses climate factors for prospective properties’ chances of climate crisis and climate related disaster. “A house with a fire factor of 4, for example, has a 3-6% chance of burning over the next 30 years, according to First Street projections. The same property could have a flood factor of 6, which corresponds with a 99% chance of flooding.”
ECO-TECHNICS
NbSI (Nature-based Solution Initiative) Research in the Spotlight
“Mapping the effectiveness of nature‐based solutions for climate change adaptation, led by Alex Chausson and Beth Turner, produced the first global systematic map of evidence on the effectiveness of NbS for climate change adaptation, demonstrating the potential of NbS to build resilience to climate change.”
The most-viewed article of 2024 in the leading environmental journal, Global Change Biology, with an impressive 23,232 views.
EVENTS
Call for Pitches for the Whole Earth Redux. Due March 14th. If you are thinking of pitching, please share your ideas with The Last Straw too!
EU Petition for Natural Building Materials through HouseEurope! We wish we could sign this petition for assistance and tax-incentives for renovating and reusing buildings.
Call for Art Submissions for the Sun & Moon Magazine from our friends at Broccoli Publishing. SO cool! Submissions due March 24th at hi@broccolimag.com.
RESOURCES
Publication: Belonging by Connecting.
“With this field guide, we aim to delve deeper into the power of local communities and the radical shift in roles necessary to bring them to life.”
We wish you a lovely month and if you ever find yourself near London (U.K.), San Francisco (California), or Green River (Utah) please let us know and let’s meet up!
With love,
The Last Straw Editorial Collective
DON’T MISS OUT, GET OUR LATEST MAGAZINE NOW!
The Last Straw Issue 76, on Natural Building Education
How do you learn natural building? How do you teach it? No one told us the one catch-all trick to natural building education, but in this issue our contributors trace the histories and present to figure out a way ahead.
Love this statement: “Building is Political”. It is too easy to retreat from politics. Too busy. Too uninformed. Too demoralizing. But to withdraw from political processes or to not see the political act in every purchase made, purchase avoided, in every design decision, in every material selected or avoided...to not see how this is informed by (and itself informs) politics, is the opening that allows hoodlums to dictate how we shall live, lining their pockets while picking ours.
Of course your view of who the hoodlums are may differ however from my vantage point, a bunch of entitled billionaires and authoritarian felons (elected or not) are in no way looking out for the “little guy” or the world we inhabit. All that they do is in service of increasing their own personal power and wealth.
I think that natural building and high-performance construction – a people centric, socially inclined, environmentally considerate approach - to be part of resistance to the authoritarian oligarchy that otherwise is aiming to descend on us from all angles.