[Stoves] Fwd: from K Smith [stove] Smoked out: Coal and health

[David G. LeVine]

On 06/08/2013 07:55 PM, Paul Olivier wrote:
>
> It is quite problematic to introduce coal-burning stoves in an area 
> that has a lot of biomass. For example, the north of Vietnam has a lot 
> of coal, but it also has a lot of rice hulls and rice straw. To 
> introduce coal-burning stoves in the north of Vietnam is surely not 
> the way to proceed.

Paul, I would like to disagree with you, not that biofuels are bad, but 
an area with "a lot of biomass" may still have a fragile enough 
ecosystem that burning the biomass (instead of fossil fuels) may be 
disadvantageous.  Consider England, at one time it had huge supplies of 
wood, now there is little growing.  The forests were burned as fuel and 
used as masts for wind powered ships, the forests are no more.

Hopefully we will be wise enough to use the best fuel for a given area, 
and not destroy the ecosystem by saying something like "Fossil fuel is 
bad, use biomass." without carefully examining the impact of use of 
biomass.  Take all the "waste biomass" from the fields and suddenly 
there can be a problem which requires adding something back to hold and 
supply some of the nutrients.

Dave  8{)

-- 

"A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the 
advice."

Bill Cosby