Are they upset that so many, especially in places like Europe, have gone back to using wood burning fireplaces because the same cult made the use of affordable energy sources like natural gas very expensive?
Changing how we heat our homes can benefit both health and climate
The cheerful glow of a wood-burning stove creates a cozy atmosphere on a cold winter’s night, but the aesthetic appeal of wood burners comes at a high price for human health.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warns that wood smoke is largely responsible for poor air quality during winter months in many residential areas across the United States.
Burning wood, in addition to producing toxic gases such as nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide, also generates tiny, solid particles called particulates.
“The particle pollution is especially dangerous because these particles are so tiny that they can travel deep into the lungs, causing irritation and inflammation,” said Dr. John M. James, medical specialist and spokesperson at the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
Well, they actually have a point from an environmental point of view. Of course, what are so many people in 3rd world nations going to do without wood burning stoves? Starve?
Another clean alternative to biomass and fossil fuels is hydrogen, which produces no greenhouse gases or particulates when it burns.
Research and early trials are underway to investigate the safety of hydrogen as an alternative fuel source for heating homes.
In the meantime, one of the fastest-growing technologies is “district heating,” which involves piping heat from factories, waste incinerators, or underground (“geothermal” heat) into homes.
This works well in areas of high population density, such as cities, but less well in rural areas.
Much research and investment lie ahead, but technologies like these offer a win-win for tackling climate change and improving public health.
Right, right, this is super easy for people to do, right? It won’t cost them money up the wazoo, right?
Also, some people just want a nice fire. So, these climate nags can F right off. Mind your own business.
Many blue states particularly in the west where they are popular have been putting bans on burning wood for years and years now. I have a friend who lives in Colorado and you cannot use firewood most days of the year. Another friend lives in Seattle and the same. They have alerts that go out and if you fail to heed the alert it’s a HUGE fine.
So it is no surprise that they will begin going after gasoline lawnmowers and wood-burning fireplaces by banning those beaches altogether.
Wood burning is largely neutral regarding global warming. You know why.
As the article correctly points out, wood burning is polluting, with well-characterized health effects.
That’s why we invented the chimney. A well drafting wood stove doesn’t put any of those things into the home, just heat. And where I live in Virginia, it is free heat since there is an unlimited supply of wood just laying on the ground waiting to be cut and stacked.
It is pretty obvious that all these leftist trends and fads are aimed at people who live in cities and have no experience being self sufficient.
hydrogen fuel… great idea….but….
how do you produce mass quantities of hydrogen??
deionizing water requires huge amounts of electricity. where does that come from?? fossel fuel plants?? nuclear??
chemical production requires…. chemicals. where do they come from, and more importantly, where do they go after being used??
and how will the hydrogen be delivered to your home??
tanker trucks and stored in big tanks in your back yard?? how safe is that??
pipe lines?? think of the enviromental impact of digging millions of miles of new pipe lines. no, you cannot use existing natural gas lines, they are the wrong material.
no, hydrogen, while it sounds good on paper, is just not doable in the real world.
My nephew, living off the grid, has a wood stove as his only heat source. While he has some solar panels set up, they’d never provide enough juice for electric hear. Deep in the woods in eastern Kentucky, it would cost him multiple thousands to have the electric company to run powerlines to his self-built cabin.
We had a wood stove as supplemental heat when we lived in the Keystone State. Oddly enough, once we added the wood stove, the sparktricity never failed for more than a couple of hours. We had been without heat for 30 hours starting Christmas morning of 2002, before we got the wood stove!
Alas! my darling bride — of 42 years, 11 months and 2 days — absolutely vetoed another wood stove when we moved here, saying that it made too much of a mess, but, after the first winter here, and a 4½ day power outage, we got propane, and a propane fireplace as supplemental heat.
Our Betters always know what is right for Other People, and just know that they have the right and duty to force their views on others.
A good friend has a farm in the Eastern MO hills and heats with a wood burning furnace + a Heatilator fireplace. The furnace blower IS electric, but he’s had few if any outages. Uses well water, has a septic tank, a freezer full of venison, smoker and huge charcoal grill… all pretty typical in rural MO.
Professor Hale has pointed out that the chimney was invented to get the smoke out of a building. Indoor cooking was done over fireplace fires and then on wood burning stoves attached to chimneys. Now, folks are cooking with wood and charcoal burning grills [outdoors] and a fundamental of good barbeque is being slow cooked over a smoldering wood fire. Now these clowns apparently want us to give up barbeque! Since our gracious host resides near the ‘holy land’ of barbeque, I would presume that he has partaken and may even have an opinion.
Supplemental heat is also a viable use for wood burning. If the cliff dwellers of the cities wish to depend on sparktricity for heat and food preparation, I’m sure they’ll stay warm and well fed during periods of no juice. The rest of will just have to get by with another log on the fire and slow smoked pork or brisket.
North Carolina is NOT the holy land of BBQ. Memphis, Kansas City, Texas are all better. By a lot.
In NC they mop the meat with vinegar and catsup. Good lord.
BTW, the article included this sentence: The smaller the particulates, the more easily they pass from the lungs into the bloodstream and throughout the body.
That’s not likely to be true. 2.5 micron particles are too large to cross into the blood stream. The smaller the particle the deeper into the lung they can go.
Which ever Elwood this is, you need to get out more. I’ve studied, cooked, and eaten barbecue all over the country, excluding the left coast. Cooking a butt this weekend and my son is doing a brisket in a couple of weeks. All of the sauces have their beginning in S.E. VA and N.E. NC with a basic vinegar pepper sauce they pick up ketchup around Raleigh and get thicker west of Lexington. On the southward trek, it picks up mustard south of Fayetteville, peaking around Columbia. Of course, there is an outlier, Big Bob Gibson’s White Sauce in Decatur, AL. Usually served with chicken, but good on pig as well. Check it out.
Memphis, KC, etc, have good ‘cue as does TX, where I currently reside. There are differences, but I would not say there is a best. Everyone has their preference which may not be yours or mine.
Now these clowns apparently want us to give up barbeque!
Uncle, In California, they have been pushing that agenda for decades. They also want to get rid of gas powered lawn equipment too. (“cliffdwellers” don’t have lawns and are blissfully unaware about how their common areas and corporate landscapes get maintained).
The odd part is that they also want unrestricted immigration from third world countries where people habitually cook on open fires, even indoors. You think it is a coincidence that when high rise buildings catch fire it just happens to be full of 1st gen immigrants? Sure, the news will cover that up and say the cause was a fire door propped open or flammable insulation.
You don’t have to tell me that Professor Hale. As a fireman I could tell ya that 70% of all house fires are minorities and I’d say it’s 50/50 between blacks burning shit up with drugs, smoking and heaters and Hispanics making food on small portable stoves. The Cubans are big on that too. They also do a lot of passing out drunk.
I very rarely had to put out a fire in an upscale neighborhood or even a working class white area. They usually burn up their boats for insurance money.
FJB
LGB,
Thank you for your service.
LOL.
UnkleC wrote:
My work here is done.
Check.
