When someone speaks of the jungle, it’s automatically presumed to be about the green, luscious, vibrant ecosystem built head to toe with trees, vines, and lively animal activity.
But the concrete jungle is a very divergent place. It generally isn’t green and monsters don’t prowl and prey isn’t hunted. There are not many plants, and people run from corner to corner every second. Concrete doesn’t have seeds like the plants; little seedlings won’t sprout, and no next generation naturally grow forth to replace the last.
So how does the concrete jungle preserve itself without functions like these? The simple answer is that it can’t.
After all, buildings are generally only built to last 50-100 years so they must be repaired or replaced but this isn’t sustainable for the future. Generally, concrete is not the first part of the building though, mostly pieces like I-beams and lumber deteriorate first, and concrete is soon after without these supports.
"The jungle cannot regenerate from concrete decay and this will only hurt the United State's infrastructure in the long run," said Kirby Federocko ('21).
The U.S. government is currently over 19 trillion dollars in debt and having to repair concrete buildings in cities every few decades isn't going to help our debt. President Trump’s new trillion-dollar plan may help with the infrastructure problems in the U.S. but it won’t exactly soothe the immense amount of debt that the U.S. is in. All that infrastructure will be built like everything else has and it will be relatively useless and will need repairs in less than a century. That’s not looking into the future very far is it?
If America wants to remain as strong and influential as it is now then there must be a change so that we can dig ourselves out of this hole we’re so deep in. With every coming year, 129 billion dollars is used to keep the infrastructure from falling apart.
This fallout would endanger millions of lives. The need for a durable and efficient material is needed fast if we wish to protect these lives.