Nothing new under the sun. Take a look at Central Park in New York. Almost everything you is is constructed. They dug the ponds and built up the hills. They didn't have geofoam but if they did they would have used it. Look a Tunnel View in Yosemite. It's there because NPS manages the trees below the view to frame it. Hell, the very idea that there is urban space and nature space is something we humans invented.
Re:On Geofoam
by rosetremiere on Thursday July 29, 2021 @11:34AM
(#27997759)
I think you're not replying to the main (or at least, most important imo) point of the parent: it's that this man-made landscape has now plastic embedded in it, with all the potential risks it entails
For what it's worth, I don't think there's anything wrong with creating (or re-creating) natural spaces. There's no reason to become a nihilist over it.
I expect the foam to collapse after just a few years, causing the whole hill to just deflate.
Re:On Geofoam
by throw0101a on Thursday July 29, 2021 @11:06AM
(#27997399)
There are houses built with foam blocks as the form for holding concrete (ICF) built in the 1970s that are still standing.
Make sure the foam used has the proper PSI rating, and make sure you have proper drainage to reduce hydrostatic pressure, and there's no reason these things can't last 'forever'. It's not like the foam is biodegradable after all.
Not biodegradable, no, but it does have this pesky vulnerability to gasoline and other solvents, which turn it into napalm. Thanks to the extremely low density, a little bit of liquid can dissolve a whole bunch of foam. So long as it's well-sealed, there's no problem, but I'm a little nervous when I see it being used to construct highway onramps and the like.
I guess they forgot about all the machinery and oil consumed by the manufacturing process. Granted, the oil is not being burned but polystyrene is not really environmentally friendly itself either: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polystyrene
I see the economic and engineering qualities, especially when building whimsical parks and so on (which is a frivolous use case). But I can't help but feel this is a perverse way to build natural landscapes such as parks. Imagine what happens when a burrowing animal finds its way onto one of these things? What happens when you have to dig under the foam in the event you need to do so? What about tree roots? What about micro-plastics? et cetera.
This line sums it up nicely:
> It can come as a shock to realize that giant bricks of polystyrene are stuffed below the turf, like silicone implants under the skin of a city.
Perfect for the Instagram generation: a fake city with fake tits.