Significant research and development is being done to try to reduce the emissions or make concrete a source of carbon sequestration, and increase recycled and secondary raw materials content into the mix to achieve a circular economy. Other environmental concerns include widespread illegal sand mining, impacts on the surrounding environment such as increased surface runoff or urban heat island effect, and potential public health implications from toxic ingredients. Most notably, the production process for cement produces large volumes of greenhouse gas emissions, leading to net 8% of global emissions. This widespread use results in a number of environmental impacts. Globally, the ready-mix concrete industry, the largest segment of the concrete market, is projected to exceed $600 billion in revenue by 2025.

Its usage worldwide, ton for ton, is twice that of steel, wood, plastics, and aluminum combined. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most widely used building material. And if you're asking What is the weather today?, that would rarely be phrased using how.A vast concrete structure – The Hoover DamĬoncrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. If you're talking to someone who's far enough away that 'their' weather is likely to be different to whatever you're currently experiencing, you'd have more reason to ask what they think of their weather.īut if you're talking to someone who's actually with you, you probably wouldn't be asking what the current state of the weather is (you can see as well as them whether it's raining or not). Arguably some people might think the what version is more appropriate when the speaker is specifically interested in knowing what the weather actually is (or perhaps will be, later in the day).Ĭonversely, the how version might be more likely if what the speaker wants to know is how the addressee feels about the weather.Įxpanding on the above, I suspect the 'frequency of occurrence' of the how version (relative to the what version) would be higher in the context of telephone calls.

What is the weather right now