The Love Affair With the Fireplace Cools (Burning wood can cause a lot of harm & WE'RE ALL DOOMED!)

NY Times ^ | 1/19/11 | CHRISTINA S. N. LEWIS

[Libloather]

The Love Affair With the Fireplace Cools
By CHRISTINA S. N. LEWIS
Published: January 19, 2011

**SNIP**

“The smoke from a fire smells very nice,” said Diane Bailey, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council in San Francisco. “But it can cause a lot of harm.” The tiny particles, she said, “can cause inflammation and illness, and can cross into the bloodstream, triggering heart attacks” as well as worsening other conditions.

Or as Starre Vartan, a 33-year-old blogger who goes by the name Eco-Chick, put it: “Any time you are burning wood or cow dung, you’ll be creating pollution. It’s like junk food: if you do it once a month, then who cares? But if it’s something you do every day, it’s important that you mitigate it somehow. It’s a hazard.”

Not surprisingly, the green community has been sounding the alarm for some time. For the last several years, TheDailyGreen.com, an online magazine, has advocated replacing all wood-burning fireplaces with electric ones; an article published in September by Shireen Qudosi, entitled “Breathe Easier With a Cleaner Fireplace,” argued that there is no such thing as an environmentally responsible fire: “Switching out one type of wood for another is still use of a natural resource that otherwise could have been spared,” Ms. Qudosi wrote. And last fall, an article on the Web site GreenBlizzard.com, “Cozy Winter Fires — Carbon Impact,” called wood-burning fires “a direct pollutant to you, your family and your community.”

[Libloather]

I've got one hefty burn scheduled for today just to beat down the global warming.

Civility.

[La Lydia]

How in the world did our ancestors ever survive?

[ronnie raygun]

The New York times, like the tv commercial sez, journalists that are undebatably the best in the industry.....not

[momtothree]

Haven’t I read somewhere that they already did this in California (banning real wood fireplaces?) I adore our fireplace during the winter... sort of like valium to me. It comes in real handy when the power goes out as well.

[huldah1776]

If all particles are taken out of the atmosphere, then there shouldn’t be any cloud formation and THEN we will all die. LOL

[JRandomFreeper]

Cool. This morning, I burned some scrap wood in a barrel in the barn so I could work out there with a little heat.

These urban idiots need to KMA.

New Mexico uses primarily wood for heating. I think it's something like 70% of heating comes from wood. The state gives welfare recipients vouchers for fire-wood.

/johnny

[Noumenon]

We did some pre-winter forestry with a resulting Spring burn pile that you will be able to see from orbit. Get out the marshmallows. S’mores all around.

[hsalaw]

she said, “can cause inflammation and illness, and can cross into the bloodstream, triggering heart attacks” as well as worsening other conditions.

Yikes! I guess we don't really exist since, under this theory, all of our wood-burning ancestors died off.

[MSF BU]

A rebuilt Jotul can typically be found or Ebay or Craigslist, and they’re typically a bargain. My #8 works as advertised and will burn 14+ hours on a load of good hardwood.

[no-to-illegals]

I love my fireplace and the insert throwing warm air out into the house. I hate filling the wood shed for that causes a bunch of body warming. During the cold of winter the benefits of wood heat are equal to body savings and body thawing. Thus, I am grateful when warm. I simply cannot afford to be without my wood heat and wood heater. Freezing to death is not an option...lol

[rockrr]

Interesting find. Excuse me for a minute while I go feed the fire...;-)

[Outlaw Woman]

I purchased my home, new, in 1982. It was built with an area for a wood stove. I began heating my home with wood around 1984 and have done so ever since. Our electric rates sky rocketed here 2 years ago with a 60% increase. Before that I heated with wood simply because it beats electric heat all to heck but these past 2 years, it’s been a matter of survival of the electric rate increases and I’ll be damn if anyone tries to stop me. This has been coming on for years; just ask CA resdients that have fireplaces.

[Dr.Zoidberg]

Hmmm...

Can’t “burn” uranium or plutonium, can’t burn coal, can’t burn gasoline, can’t burn wood, can’t burn biowaste.

Looks like I’m going to have to start burning whiny, lying arsed liberals to keep warm.

[Magnatron]

Hmmm.

Can’t burn wood. Can’t burn coal. Can’t burn oil. Can’t burn gas. Certainly can’t use anything atomic. Supposed to use electric, but that mostly comes from wood, coal, oil, gas, and atomic.

I have a feeling I’m going to freeze my a** off soon.

[Bernard Marx]

TheDailyGreen.com, an online magazine, has advocated replacing all wood-burning fireplaces with electric ones

Yes, with electric cars, electric fireplaces etc. all that conversion of fuel (coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear) to heat energy can take place out of sight the watchful eyes of the Greenies. Dimwits!

[Magnatron]

You was typing yours while I was typing mine. I guess I was slower.

[bronxville]

Natural Resources Defense Council NRDC really need to be exposed for who they really are...remember the socalled Apal/APPLE SCARE? They Marxist scam artists doing the work for even more powerful scam artists!!!

[The Working Man]

I just put another couple of logs on the fire before I read this piece.

Just typical, here in the country a fireplace can keep you warm and alive if we lose power in the winter. City folk have mostly lost any conception of what it takes to live out on the edge of the grid.

[JPG]

How about burning unsold copies of the NY Times? Bet there is a lot of them.

[Dr.Zoidberg]

Great minds...