Ah, the smell of wood stoves during the cold, winter months. The Norman Rockwellian smoke trailing slowly from brick chimneys, the cancer-causing particulates that mutate our DNA…wait, what?
As homeowners start to crank up their wood stoves this holiday season, what many might consider to be a symbol of energy self-sufficiency could actually be one more plume in global warming’s cap.
“I think many people who heat with wood are motivated in part by not having to ‘pay the man,’ the home heating equivalent of ‘living off the grid,’ ” Cutler Cleveland, founding Editor-in-Chief at Encyclopedia of Earth and Professor of Earth and Environment at Boston University, tells TakePart.
“I think many people view wood fuel use as ‘greener’ because it is renewable. In some respects it is, but combustion releases pollutants and forest ecosystems harvested for wood can be mismanaged as well,” says Cleveland.
Read the full story at TakePart.
