Antiques have become one of the most popular furniture items being used today with “Green” decorators. As we all know, there are no better sustainable items than antique furniture. Their “atomic footprint” has already been determined and subtracted from the environment. It’s impact, whatever it may have been has been lessened over the last 150 to 200 years to the pont of next to nothing. Yet to try and create that same item today , would leave a terrible impact on the environment and air we breath.
Iron beds have gone through generation to generation and still maintained their original strength and beauty. They take nothing from the environment to produce as do reproductions that are currently being made and require new steel production and all the energy needed to produce them. New York, Texas and Florida decorators seem to be our largest group of “green decorators” and antique iron beds seem to be one of their favorite decorating items.
When man can put back into use an item that was used over the years, he has helped put us back on a course that we need to be on if we’re ever going to save our planet for our children and generations to come. For us to keep producing items today that take away from our world more than we’re able to give back, puts us on an eventual collision course with extinction. As dramatic as that sounds, it’s not that far fetched. Certainly not for generations to come………but eventually. For those who choose not to believe in the “Greenhouse Effect” , you have only to look at the empirical data compiled on the melting Polar Icecaps. The production of steel and all metals, has devastating effects that enhance global warming, So using metal beds, antiques and anything else that was constructed back in the 1800’s, is as responsible as we can ask people to be, when considering our planet and what we can do to help preserve it.
So the next furniture item or house hold item, that may have been produced years ago, and still has lots of use to it……..consider using it before going out and buying something very similar. We all need to be more responsible.
I’m not espousing living in a tree house because construction of new homes and the materials needed are not environmentally conscious. But what I am suggesting is the use of possible recycled building materials that have already left their atomic “footprint’ on the earth years ago. Recycled wood, siding, roofing materials and imitation wood products that help preserve the forest instead of the deforestation loggers have continued to it us with over the years. We can’t afford to continually cut down our forest at a faster rate than we’re replanting. Much of the world’s rain forests have been cut down since the 1960s due to economic reasons. While logging is the primary cause, agriculture, mining, cattle ranching, oil exploration and the building of dams also play a role in deforestation. These actions destroy indigenous plants and cause the extinction of native wildlife as well. It is feared that the loss of rain forests will increase CO2 levels in the atmosphere and result in global warming.
Lets all do our part in saving our planet. I’m old enough to have stood in the audience with my parents when John Kennedy gave his inaugural acceptance speech and said “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”. We could all do more………
I hope you’ve found this blog informative . I invite you to revisit my website
to answer any and all questions you might have about antique iron beds.
I also invite you to take a look at our company Face Book page for multiple photo albums on Custom Finishes, Canopy Conversions and a comprehensive “Before & After” King Conversions album.
