pollution-spewing wood stoves

[Tylervt]

I came across a story from this past spring May 7/2022 from Popular Science. I know that where I live in Vermont's largest city the only place you can burn outside is a campground on the lake (outside fire) gota keep the tourist happy. At this point you can only use LP to grill. There is a big push to use electric to heat with mini splits (more government incentives) I see these as the new catalytic converters soon-stolen in the dead of night. Apparently clean natural gas is the boggy man!

An EPA fix for pollution-spewing wood stoves is backfiring​

An EPA fix for pollution-spewing wood stoves is backfiring

As health experts unravel the harmful effects of air pollution from wood stoves and woodsmoke, local officials and the EPA are testing replacement heating devices.

www.popsci.com

“In my view, it’s criminal that we allow people to be put in a position where they have to poison themselves and their neighbors in order to stay warm.”
Susan Remmers, Portland resident

 

[Garbanzo62]

I came across a story from this past spring May 7/2022 from Popular Science. I know that where I live in Vermont's largest city the only place you can burn outside is a campground on the lake (outside fire) gota keep the tourist happy. At this point you can only use LP to grill. There is a big push to use electric to heat with mini splits (more government incentives) I see these as the new catalytic converters soon-stolen in the dead of night. Apparently clean natural gas is the boggy man!

An EPA fix for pollution-spewing wood stoves is backfiring​

An EPA fix for pollution-spewing wood stoves is backfiring

As health experts unravel the harmful effects of air pollution from wood stoves and woodsmoke, local officials and the EPA are testing replacement heating devices.

www.popsci.com

Natural wildfires are essential to renewing the land. They cause far more pollutants than people burning wood for heat.

 

[VintageGal]

Natural wildfires are essential to renewing the land. They cause far more pollutants than people burning wood for heat.

Had we been doing more prescribed burns in California, we may not have needed to face these apocalyptic wildfires occurring every year!

 

[SpaceBus]

Had we been doing more prescribed burns in California, we may not have needed to face these apocalyptic wildfires occurring every year!

That has way more to do with the drought than lack of fires. Check out lake mead, and then you will understand why the California forests are all super dry and prime for a hellscape inferno.

 

[brenndatomu]

Sure drought factors in...but just as with anything, proper maintenance is needed. And the forest is no different than maintenance on your car, you can pay now, or you can pay later...later always costs more.

 

[Todd]

40 million people living in a desert doesn’t help lake Mead either.

 

[SpaceBus]

Sure drought factors in...but just as with anything, proper maintenance is needed. And the forest is no different than maintenance on your car, you can pay now, or you can pay later...later always costs more.

Yet the forest required no human maintenance before the decades long drought and had periodic fires that did not destroy every tree. Some tree species, Ponderosa Pine in particular, only reproduce during fires, and obviously fires are a natural occurrence. Natural forest fires usually don't kill the whole forest because there isn't an excessive amount of extremely dry plant matter on the ground. Decades of drought has made the soil very dry with a very dry layer of litter in huge monoculture conifer forests, basically a recipe for a devastating fire. The whole "prescribed burn" thing is really just a red herring to distract from the real cause of the crazy fires: Global warming. Sure, you can use prescribed burns to manage a small area of forest, but that's just to prevent surprise natural fires, specifically in forests where there will be a lot of people around. A good example is Fort Bragg NC which constantly has controlled burns; this keeps the firefighters sharp, prevents runaway fires caused by careless soldiers, and keeps any soldiers training out in the woods from being trapped by fires. How do you suggest to manage the CA forests, which account for 1/3 of the total land area?

40 million people living in a desert doesn’t help lake Mead either.

Lake Mead is also 100% artificial and created by damming the Colorado river. Lake Mead isn't even in CA, yet provides the majority of the water for the people living there and the agriculture that feeds most of this country. The low water level in Lake Mead is a direct result of less snowfall in the Rockies, which are the source of the Colorado river.

 

[brenndatomu]

Natural forest fires usually don't kill the whole forest because there isn't an excessive amount of extremely dry plant matter on the ground

Exactly...nature maintained herself...which we intervene on now, which is fine, but you can't just not do it at all, which from what I read, is where things are at lately. And like I already said, yes, drought doesn't help at all...looks like they have a temporary reprieve on that for now though