Remember the three little pigs? Each had a different plan for keeping the wolf from his door. One pig built his house of straw. Another built with sticks.
Those two pigs soon learned that although wood and straw are easy to build with, they aren’t very sturdy. One good huff and puff, and their houses came tumbling down.
What did the smartest little pig use? He built his home with bricks. That’s a strong material that kept the big bad wolf out, no matter how hard he blew. But what if those pigs had lived in the Arctic? They’d have had a hard time finding clay for bricks – or even sticks.
For most of history, people had to build homes with local materials. If they had trees, they built houses with wood. In some places, they used stones and boulders. In other places, snow and ice were the only building materials to be found.
Today, there are many more options for the three little pigs. They could build houses of steel, glass, plastic, fiberglass, and titanium. No normal wolf could even dent a steel home. He could blow until he was blue in the face.