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Preface
The unique customs and customs of countries around the world have created completely different scenes, and what is common in one country may be completely different in another.
While the mainland abandoned wooden power poles many years ago and promoted them nationwide, the United States is still full of wooden power poles, which makes people feel confused.
Why is that? Could it be that Americans are making such a choice for the sake of environmental protection?
Wooden utility poles can do more harm than good
As the greatest invention since the age of steam, the wide application of electricity has also promoted the progress of the second industrial revolution of mankind and made important contributions to the development of science and technology.
Since electricity has been widely used in daily life, human beings can no longer do without electricity, and in order to spread convenient electric energy to all corners, telephone poles have been erected and become a ubiquitous thing in daily life.
As a renewable resource, trees can be continuously regenerated through artificial planting and natural growth, and as long as they are used sparingly and rationally and the tree resources are protected, wood can be continuously supplied.
Therefore, before cement was widely promoted, it had a long history of use, and wood derived from trees and easy access became the initial choice of materials for building power poles.
Since the popularization of electricity, wooden poles have become an important part of power facilities, and the wood treated by modern industry can be perforated and installed as an excellent pole material after simple processing.
As electricity was gradually spread from cities to rural and mountainous areas, wood poles became the first choice in these areas lacking an industrial base, as a ubiquitous, light and easily available natural material.
Utility poles made of wood, even if they are 8 meters long, weigh about 80 to 100 kilograms, compared to cement poles that can easily reach 400 kilograms, the difficulty of transportation and construction of wooden poles is greatly reduced.
Although it has many advantages, the disadvantages of wooden poles are also obvious. Even after a variety of processes, the service life of wooden poles is very short, generally only about 25 years.
In addition, it is difficult to achieve the exact same shape of trees grown in the wild, and the differences in quality, weight and internal structure make it difficult to standardize the production of wooden poles.
The characteristics of wood itself also make wooden wires easy to decay in a humid environment, and it is easy to cause fire in dry conditions, which can induce the possibility of explosion, which is very easy to endanger the lives of surrounding residents.
Information sources:
China News Network "U.S. Media Speculates on the Cause of the Hawaii Fire: Exposed Power Lines, Tilted Telephone Poles" 2023-08-27
In August last year, a wildfire broke out in Hawaii, killing as many as 115 people.
The devastating fire was caused by the hot and dry weather and hurricanes that blew down the island's old wooden power poles that had fallen into disrepair, and sparks from the live wires that came into contact with the hay.
Due to their lack of safety and disaster proneness, wooden poles can do more harm than good overall, even if they are light and readily available.
So why do Americans still choose to use wooden poles on a large scale until today, when they are highly modernized? Is it because Americans pay attention to environmental protection and value the environmental benefits of wood?
Americans don't love wooden poles for the environment
In the early years, many people boasted about the importance of environmental conservation in developed countries, and many people still believe that Americans live frugally and attach great importance to environmental protection.
Is this really the case?
In fact, Americans are far from making the most of their contributions to environmental protection, as their large number of environmental organizations and adherents around the world boast about.
Judging from the electricity consumption alone, the story of the Harvard Library being lit up at half past four in the morning has been widely circulated on the mainland, causing heated discussions among the Chinese people about the students of the world's highest universities being so diligent.
But in fact, the vast majority of office buildings and public places in the United States do not turn off the lights 24 hours a day, which is why Manhattan, New York, has become a very conspicuous city that never sleeps in space, because the local high-rise buildings never turn off the lights.
According to local surveys, lighting in non-residential buildings in New York City consumes about 18 percent of the energy used by buildings, and even though the city legislated in 2010 requiring buildings to turn off their lights in the early hours of the morning, not many people did.
The survey also shows that New York City buildings account for two-thirds of the city's energy consumption, and that the main source of energy consumption is not the lights that stay on all night, but the excessive use of air conditioning.
According to a 2015 survey by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, New York is the most wasteful of the world's 27 megacities.
Not only does it use more water and electricity than any other country, but it also produces more than twice as much solid waste per capita as Mexico City, which is in second place, and consumes several times more energy per capita than other metropolises.
Information sources:
CCTV "The reporter of the main station sees the world丨 does not turn off the lights in the early morning, and the air conditioning is overused...... how serious is the energy waste in New York, the "city that never sleeps"? 》2023-03-21
Even so, the amount of energy wasted by New Yorkers, such as water and electricity, and the amount of solid waste they produce, is far lower than in other U.S. regions, enough to imagine how wasteful Americans are.
According to a 2019 study by the United Kingdom, the United States accounts for only 4% of the world's total population, but produces 12% of the world's municipal waste, many of which are thrown away food.
According to estimates by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Americans waste up to 60 million tons of food every year, and 40% of the food in the United States is thrown away, so much commodity waste is accompanied by the 100 billion plastic bags consumed in the United States every year.
In 2020, the United States withdrew from the Paris Agreement, and so far only Americans have made such a choice.
Since it is not because of environmental protection, why do Americans with such a developed economy choose to use wooden poles on a large scale?
In fact, the reason is very simple, just because the United States has a large number of forest resources suitable for use as power pole materials, according to statistics, the total forest area in the United States has reached 300 million hectares, and the forest coverage rate exceeds 30%.
Most of them are natural forests that have grown for many years and are lined with giant trees, so abundant that Americans can easily obtain economical wood to make standard wooden poles.
In addition, most of the electric power companies in the United States are private enterprises, and in order to pursue higher economic interests, they will naturally choose wooden power poles with lower overall costs, and the Hawaii fires mentioned above were caused by the local power companies neglecting to replace wooden power poles.
In this case, why is the mainland vigorously promoting cement power poles, and even completely replacing the wooden power poles that can still be used?
Why don't you choose wooden poles in China?
Compared with the United States, although the mainland is also vast, with a forest area of nearly 200 million hectares, the forest coverage rate of about 20% is far lower than the world average.
In addition, the quality of forest resources on the mainland is not high, and there are not many forest areas suitable for logging, and a large part of them are planted forests grown from afforestation in recent years.
Due to the scarcity of forest resources, the mainland also needs to import a large amount of timber from abroad every year to meet domestic production needs, and in 2023, the mainland will import more than 77 million cubic meters of timber converted into logs.
Information sources:
CNR, "State Grid Accelerates the Construction of a New Power System"2024-02-27
At the same time, the mainland's electricity promotion started slowly, and after the country's electricity was used on a large scale, the production of cement was also very mature, which is also an important reason for the mainland to replace the original wooden electric box with cement poles.
As the world's largest and strongest power company, State Grid is a global leader in long-distance UHV transmission technology, and in order to reduce the losses caused by long-distance UHV transmission, it usually needs to use thicker transmission lines.
But at the same time, it also means that the weight of the wires will increase exponentially, and wooden poles can easily be overwhelmed, so the sturdy and durable cement poles have become the first choice on the mainland.
In recent years, with the progress of national science and technology, more and more cement poles have been replaced by special steels with longer life and stronger structure.
In densely populated cities, the renovation of cement poles that were not scientifically planned in the early years has also been quietly promoted in many cities.
The renovation of old telephone poles has been vigorously promoted
After the reform and opening up, especially since the beginning of the new century, China's economy has taken off, and China's urban development has also undergone earth-shaking changes.
With the continuous improvement of urbanization, the cement power poles that can be seen everywhere in the increasingly densely populated cities have also become the sword of Damocles that will threaten the safety of people's lives and property.
Whether there is no scientific planning, resulting in bare wires on telephone poles or even books messed up, not only affect the overall aesthetics, but also easily cause fires.
Or after years of wind and rain erosion, the cement pole that has stood for many years, in addition to collapsing because of dilapidation, there are many cases of driving down power poles every year, in addition to causing regional power outages, it is also easy to cause the danger of electric shock or smashing pedestrians.
In addition, due to the lack of scientific urban planning in rapidly expanding cities, it is common to find a telephone pole standing in the middle of the road when walking on the road, which brings a lot of inconvenience to people's daily life.
Therefore, the uprooting of these cement poles and the promotion of underground urban wires and cables have become the choice that many cities in the mainland are promoting and trying.
Information sources:
Xinhuanet "How does Chongqing "weave" a "safety net" underground? 》2024-03-23
In the mainland of Chongqing City, more than 80,000 square kilometers of underground, there are more than 180,000 kilometers of pipelines criss-crossed, and now Chongqing, is still vigorously promoting the construction of underground comprehensive pipe gallery.
In Chongqing High-tech Zone, which has the largest and most functional comprehensive pipe gallery in southwest China, the telephone poles have almost disappeared, and most of the wires and cables are buried under the road.
epilogue
Whether it is the mainland that chooses to vigorously promote the construction of cement power poles, or the Americans who do not pay attention to environmental protection choose wood as the material for power poles, there is no right or wrong.
In essence, they are all the results of being affected by different environments and different development conditions, as long as they meet the development needs of the country.
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