the.com/cement
the gray sludge holding civilization together, quietly outgassing more than every airplane combined
means A binding powder that, mixed with water, hardens to glue stone, sand, and gravel into concrete — or, figuratively, anything that fuses things firmly together.
from From Latin 'caementum,' meaning rough quarried stone or chips of stone used in building — drawn from 'caedere,' to cut or hew (the same root that gives us 'incision' and 'scissors'). The word arrived in English through Old French 'ciment.' Curiously, the Latin originally meant the broken stone aggregate, not the binding paste — the meaning slid over the centuries from the rubble to the glue that holds rubble together.
- co2 culprit
- Roughly 8% of global emissions come from it
- roman flex
- Their seawater concrete still stands after 2000 years
- hungry powder
- It hardens by reacting with water, not drying
- endless thirst
- Most-used substance on Earth after water
portland cement — invented 1824 by joseph aspdin in england, now 95% of global cement production
lafarge holcim merger — 2015 merger creating world's largest cement company by revenue across 90 countries
three gorges dam concrete — completed 2006 using 27.5 million cubic meters of concrete, world's largest dam by volume