Short answers, pulled from the story.
In the United States and Canada, milled boards are called lumber while timber describes standing or felled trees. This distinction creates immediate confusion for travelers crossing the border into Britain where the term timber is used in both senses.
Cornelis Corneliszoon van Uitgeest invented the first wind-powered sawmill in 1593 while operating from his home in Uitgeest. This Dutch inventor made the conversion of logs into planks thirty times faster than previous manually operated sawmills could manage.
Eighty percent of all lumber comes from softwood species like pine, fir, spruce, cedar, and hemlock. Hardwoods such as white pine and red pine appear less frequently because they cost more to process.
Fungi attack wood when moisture content exceeds 25 percent on a dry-weight basis while oxygen remains present and temperatures stay warm. Wood with less than 25 percent moisture can remain free of decay for centuries if conditions hold steady.
Cement and concrete manufacture generates approximately 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions annually. Iron and steel production accounts for another 5 percent of those same global emissions figures.