The emotional impact of watching a tree fall can cloud the reality of what wood actually represents to us as a building material. It's renewable and it acts as carbon storage, so chopping one down to build something may elicit a tear from some, but it is way more 'green' than using concrete.

Concrete releases about a ton of greenhouse gases per ton manufactured, where wood takes carbonfromthe atmosphere and sequesters it in things like houses, and the occasional tall building like we are seeing here.

Exactly how tall a structure can be while maintaining its fire safety is something I know nothing about, although I can't imagine feeling safe in any tall structure that is burning below me no matter what it is made of. But I do know that if we built less with concrete and steel and more with wood, our climate would thank us, or at least it may punish us less.

Lots of 6 storey wooden buildings are popping up, occasionally one a bit taller like an18 storey one in Vancouver但是276英尺确实是一个新闻人物。任何时候，一幢超过通常两到三层的木质建筑被规划出来，它就会让木材成为人们关注的焦点，并引发一场与不同材料相关的生态成本的迫切讨论。

Would I want to live on the highest floor of a wooden skyscraper? No not really, but you'd be hard pressed to find a firefighter living beyond ladder reach in any building no matter what it is made of (speculation of course, but in my defense a firefighter did tell me that once).

So weigh in please - praise and criticism are both welcome wherever you stand on it. Ignore the visual of a tree falling when you assess it as a building material; it's one of the better ones out there. Buildings account for about half of our emissions in construction and operation, so if we can lower the CO2 emissions when we build (in this case 2,800 tonnes) then that's a really good thing. We found this story onthe guardian, have a look there for more details.