The following discussion highlights the importance of practicing our unique individual ability to influence time, drawn from my 30 years experience in a building surveyor role, and seeing first-hand the increasing complexity of situations which can arise when our intellect is put to poor use, by investing in idea systems which ultimately turn into harmful experiences as ‘world leaders’ mistakenly approach quality and money the wrong way around.
In this case, the situation of mould growth in housing is discussed, and the very harmful effects it can cause.
It also highlights how the poor and incomplete reporting of such situations in the mass media, including the BBC as a ‘world leader’, can further distort and intoxicate what is already a major problem as it seeks to amplify ‘who is to blame’. This aspect touches on the need to carefully differentiate between first-hand media and second-hand media, as discussed in the manual to this website.
Parallel situations and incomplete investigative reporting have also developed in areas including fire safety and building compliance, as highlighted by situations such as Grenfell, again largely as the result of our poor use of intellect and somehow believing that by throwing more money and rules at something it will resolve itself.
Such beliefs and idea systems need ‘turning around’ in the sense of first seeking quality — knowing that the quantities including money then take care of themselves — and this can only realistically be done from the ground-up, or the ‘inside-out’, through each and every individual seeking to learn why harmful situations come into being through the over-extension of the intellect.
Rather than believing that governments, or charities, or specialist companies or institutions will ‘come up with the answers’, we need to recognise that everything ultimately is a personal matter, and one which will eventually come knocking at our door in one way or another if we choose to not act at an individual personal level, from the ‘inside-out’.
Self-Deterioration
Whilst we see our selves as individuals, we also see our selves as one human race.
We are all connected, so whilst something may be happening half way around the world which you would not like to happen to you, then really it’s getting very late to be thinking that thought, as it’s already happening within you in one way or another.
These are the hints and clues which indicate that we are putting our intellect to poor use, and we need to change the way we think to get things back on the right track. If we do not then self-deterioration gathers pace, becomes self-consumption as discussed in the manual, and ultimately self-destruction; or extinction in simple terms. Self-extinction.
Let’s then take a case in point — mould growth in UK housing.
Because the process by which mould growth arises is not fully understood by many, this then leads to it never really being solved. Expert advice may be sought by authorities and policymakers but because the correct action does not fit in with the economic or money model then half-baked schemes are unwittingly devised which only really ‘buy time’.
All cases of self-deterioration are to do with the poor use of the intellect — to always drive for more money rather than more quality — so pushing our creativity and productivity in the wrong direction, so much so that great harm can be created, self-created.
We can then look to see how mould growth develops, using an appropriately named bullet-point list:
- UK experiences prolonged wet and cold periods
- Housing needs to be heated to stay warm and dry
- Heating is a relatively high cost for many families, so heating not always on
- Windows are kept shut as this otherwise lets out the heat, whether or not housing is ‘well insulated’
- Windows also kept shut during day for security reasons as occupiers are out at work
- Human activity generates excess amounts of water vapour (cooking, showering, drying clothes, breathing, etc)
- This water vapour needs to be dispersed to the outside by means of opening windows (natural way) or proper use of extract fans (mechanical way)
- Windows are however kept shut and mechanical ventilation costs money, is noisy, clogged or broken, so not always used properly
- Water vapour builds up in housing
- There comes a ‘dewpoint’ when excess water vapour can no longer be held in air and so has to condense on cold surfaces, usually around windows
- Spores naturally existing in air use condensed water to grow into mould
- The rest of the process is generally known in terms of how mould affects human health
To first take a somewhat cynical look at how a primarily money-and-productivity-driven intellect deals with this, it is generally not realised that a simple and inexpensive mild bleach solution will deal with the ‘symptom’ of mould growth, yet there are companies upon companies who market ‘mould killer’ products and the like — wholly unnecessary in terms of achieving a quality of life.
The problem however runs deeper, far deeper, than just companies, who ultimately are made up of individual thinkers, seeking false profits from misled knowledge.
For this I’ll explain an actual situation that I experienced when carrying out surveys a number of years ago.
The location was an inner-city area and the property a three or four storey development of flats, maintained by a social housing association. The occupiers, a family with children, were experiencing mould growth, especially around the windows, which is one of the first places mould growth begins to show as these are amongst the coldest parts of a property.
On checking the heating and ventilation provisions I noticed that the dial on the wall thermostat was missing, meaning that the heating couldn’t be turned on, even if the boiler was in working order, ready and waiting. I found this puzzling and asked the parent who was at home with the children where it was, thinking it might broken or something like that. Instead, with an odd almost fearful hesitancy, the dial was picked out of a dresser drawer and handed to me. It didn’t look broken, and it wasn’t, as when I reinserted it onto the thermostat body it worked perfectly fine and I could hear the click of the switch as I rotated it, so turning on the heating from the boiler.
To be continued…