Timber isn't the answer. The system is complex, and we need holistic solutions, not single-factor ones.<p>I think the answer is to stop building so dense, reduce our population, and reintroduce more nature to our deforested, inefficiently farmed, overly-paved modern world.<p>The more we have 12-story buildings, the harder they are to build and maintain. 3 and 4-story buildings are much easier, can be made with timber easily, etc. But we need to spread them out more. This would be good, as we could create more small businesses to service the people, less dense areas would require less intense civil management, communities would be smaller and more familiar.<p>The more people we have, the worse things get. You need more homes, cities get more dense, you require more resources / food / consumer goods / land, create more CO2. Quite simply, we have a shitload of people, and that causes us all kinds of headaches. If we just had fewer people, we'd have fewer headaches. We don't need to live like bunnies/rats/cockroaches constantly multiplying. And quite frankly, the planet would do much better with fewer of us.<p>We would also thrive more in a world closer to nature. You notice how there's fewer insects, fish are mostly disappeared, invasive species are rampant, and cities are increasingly hot and polluted? Most of that changes if we undo most of our "developing" and let nature come back. Replace concrete sidewalks with forest trails, grass lawns with trees and weeds and bushes. Remove [at least] half the roads and replace them with canopy and gardens. Grow only sustainable multicultures of foods on a quarter of the existing farmland (and stop growing so much fucking corn!) and pay a decent wage to work the land. Bring rivers and streams back. You will notice cities get cooler, biodiversity increase, CO2 emissions decrease, and our health will improve. Not to mention fewer car accidents, less noise pollution.