Priorities, Issues, and Burning Wood for Heat

Earlier this year I was at my mother-in-law's house looking for a piece of scratch paper to write on. She has a drawer where free scratch pads are stashed when they arrive in the mail, such as those from non-profit organizations. I pulled one out to use.

The pad was an advertisement for a nonprofit seeking to educate the public and find cures for lung disease. A tip on the pad was to stop burning wood for heat in your home as it contributes to poor air quality in the home and increases disesase in humans.

I was surprised to see that as I'd never heard that precaution before. I was reminded though, of how my maternal grandmother became ill in her late 80s with a cough. It took over two years for doctors to diagnose her problem. She had been on various medications which were not working. The problem in the end, was said to be an allergy from mildew or mold. She lived in a small home in northern Maine and almost her entire unfinished basement served as wood storage. Her furnace was wood-burning only. She was to get rid of the wood (which nearly killed her as she believed in being frugal and using what you have on hand) but she did it. She installed an oil burning furnace. Upon cleaning out her home and stopping the use of the wood, her cough instantly disappeared and there was no sign of illness.

Then I thought about some of my friends who have a passion for saving the Earth. They do not like petroleum use and seek to reduce the use of heating oil so they had bought new wood burning furnaces and started buying or scraping up free wood to burn to both save money and to save use of oil. They think scavenging wood where they can get it as "free fuel" so they like it even more.

I gave one family a huge dead oak tree that a tree company felled as it threatened to fall onto our house. They spend days cutting up the huge trunk into sizes they could lift and hauled it away. They were going to rent a splitter to split the wood. They acknowledged that their project was costing both the mother and the father many hours of hard physical labor and also monetary costs to drive here and there to get free wood plus the rental fee for the splitter, but they felt this was worth it to not burn oil. They still said they felt they were probably saving money.

Looking at the recommendation from the lung health nonfprofit organization I wondered if anyone burning wood to "be green" realizes that they may be putting their health, and their children's health, at risk.

There is also the issue that wood burning without filtering it pollutes the air more than burning heating oil (with a furnace that filters the exhaust). I recall hearing a few years ago that some places in California were making wood burning in house fireplaces illegal in order to try to keep the air cleaner to reduce air pollution.

Wood is a renewable resource but there is not enough of it to replace oil or other forms of heat in everyone's homes. There is too much of a demand compared to the supply.

Being Green?

Being green has its consequences. There are competing interests. If you listen to the lung people, their priority is to help save humans from developing a lung disease. If you listen to the green living people they want you to use less oil and use anything else for heat instead. It's interesting to identify different people's or organization's priorities and goals and then to compare the means to get to the desired end.

To those who want electric cars, I would ask that you investigate where your power company gets their electricity from. In Connecticut it comes from burning oil. So if you think by buying an electric car you are not using petroleum products you are mistaken. Some comes from burning coal which has its own negative consequences from mining and also from the burning. If someone is against coal use they may be surprised if they realize that the electric car they thought was good may use coal for the electricity.

To those who use hybrid cars to try to save the Earth I would ask you to research the negative environmental impact of creating the car and the toxic mess that results when your car is old and is no longer used. The toxic metals in the special battery and engine are a mess both during mining, manufacture, and when the old stuff needs to be disposed of. It has been said that the hybrid car is worse for the environment than gasoline burning engine cars.

Life is Complex

Life and living is more complex than most people like to admit. It's just not that simple folks. Everything has consequences. Everything.

Do you really want to make a positive impact? Then you must educate yourself. Sometimes the trendy thing that seems to be good is actually more damaging than doing things the old way.

You should also look inside yourself and see what you care about and what your priorities are. Maybe you fill find out what you care about most is external appearances and doing what the crowd does rather than taking a stand and doing what is right and best for your cause. If you really care about the Earth perhaps using a gasoline burning car has less of an environmental impact than paying a higher cost for an electric car. If you care about good health for humans and the Earth you might realize that heat from heating oil or natural gas is more environmentally friendly.