Does wood burning really reduce CO-2?

[trailmaker]

Hearthstone website claims burning wood (in one of their efficient stoves of course) emits less carbon dioxide than the same amount of wood rotting in the forest. I had assumed it was about even. Is this just advertising mumbo jumbo? If this is true it would be good to know. I'd love to tell my "pretend" green friends that that I'm reducing global warming by heating with an insert.

 

[sdt7618]

well it might not reduce but try getting carbon nuetral with oil, gas or others.....

On a note, I have a close friend, who is a industrial chemist and this is proven fact. The wood you burn would have taken in the toal amount of carbon during groth as releaased then you burn it... not to mention the the gasses released during the time it takes it to rot to soil!. totally renewable energy!

My Name is Steven and I burn wood!!

 

[willt1981]

id tell your green friends that youre reducing global warming whether the advertisement is true or not. i cant believe that any oil or gas based heat system can be better than burning wood. for one thing it's shipped across the world before its even burned. for another the carbon released has been out of the global system for millions of years. carbon from wood has been taken up in the last hundred years. and when you burn it another tree can take it up to be burned in fifty years of so. it really gets me when people complain about burning wood and they heat a 3000 sq. ft. house with oil and drive an hour to work. i think smoke coming out of a chimney is simply more visual and they think it has to be bad. too bad they dont think a little deeper than that...

 

[trailmaker]

Thanks for the responses. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area there's no shortage of pretend environmentalists. People live in a huge house in the "right" area code and drive one of their four cars 90 minutes to the job they need to afford the house. They buy a Prius as their fifth car and recycle and then start pontificating about the environment. I burn deadfall from my own property, which seems pretty green to me, but when I tell people this they just give me a blank expression like I'm speaking a different language. :bang:

 

[bore_pig]

Who cares. Human caused global warming is a farce. To think that we can beat Mother Nature at her own game is nothing but arrogant. The planet has been warming since the ice age. Otherwise, we'd still be in the ice age. Tell your pretend green friends to f off.

 

[husky455rancher]

Who cares. Human caused global warming is a farce. To think that we can beat Mother Nature at her own game is nothing but arrogant. The planet has been warming since the ice age. Otherwise, we'd still be in the ice age. Tell your pretend green friends to f off.

thats EXACTLY how i feel global warming is total bs.

 

[chainsawaddict]

Carbon is carbon is carbon.


Wood burning utilizes atmospheric carbon as an energy source, instead of buried carbon.

Folks, man is causing increased carbon levels in the atmosphere (not by burning wood) and it is changing our climate. Its not the only reason, the earth has been warming naturally for the last 10,000 years, but we are not helping. The degree it is changing the climate is up for debate, but it is changing it, denying that is nothing short of ignorance.

 

[chainsawaddict]

Thanks for the responses. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area there's no shortage of pretend environmentalists. People live in a huge house in the "right" area code and drive one of their four cars 90 minutes to the job they need to afford the house. They buy a Prius as their fifth car and recycle and then start pontificating about the environment. I burn deadfall from my own property, which seems pretty green to me, but when I tell people this they just give me a blank expression like I'm speaking a different language. :bang:

its funny how it works

I commute with a 50mpg '81 VW rabbit diesel (POS), heat solely with wood, grow and live off of a tremendous garden, but the greenies look down on me. Im nothing more than an unsophisticated hick, when in reality my practices are incredibly better for my surroundings.

 

[K7NUT]

its funny how it works

I commute with a 50mpg '81 VW rabbit diesel (POS), heat solely with wood, grow and live off of a tremendous garden, but the greenies look down on me. Im nothing more than an unsophisticated hick, when in reality my practices are incredibly better for my surroundings.

I love it, your doing what they talk about, won't give up there "way of life", but your the bassakward redneck/hick!?
You must remember who's in control, He fornew what we would do and built accoringly, but also remember, we go when we go, we have no say.

Keep burning WOOD!!!:greenchainsaw:

 

[slinger]

its funny how it works

I commute with a 50mpg '81 VW rabbit diesel (POS), heat solely with wood, grow and live off of a tremendous garden, but the greenies look down on me. Im nothing more than an unsophisticated hick, when in reality my practices are incredibly better for my surroundings.

Sounds like sustainable livin to me.

Good on ya!

 

[chainsawaddict]

I love it, your doing what they talk about, won't give up there "way of life", but your the bassakward redneck/hick!?
You must remember who's in control, He fornew what we would do and built accoringly, but also remember, we go when we go, we have no say.

Keep burning WOOD!!!:greenchainsaw:

I am exposed to a lot of the "academics" because I went back to college and am majoring in a field that studies climate change. Its funny to listen to them talk about sustainability with their patio gardens and their flourescent light bulbs.

I believe man is influencing climate though, and I am doing things that lessen my impact. Thats all that I can do, and in the long run it is better for me and my family.

 

[Labman]

As a chemist, I fail to see how converting the carbon in wood to CO2 would be any different in your stove or lying on the ground and rotting. Well, a little CO in your stove.

From there it gets very complicated. Are you replanting trees? How else might you heat your house? Etc.

 

[husky455rancher]

i drive a 03 dodge ram 2500 pushin over 400hp daily. my other 2 cars are a 69 charger R/T Se and a 76 camaro. take that tree huggers!

 

[clutch25]

thats EXACTLY how i feel global warming is total bs.

No kidding!

CO2 is an essential TRACE GAS in the atmosphere. If you want to help out with Gorebull Warming, start netting clouds out of the sky since water vapor is a much more efficient GHG....

What a joke!

On a more civil note...the wood is going back to "carbon" regardless...you are just extracting the usefull energy in it.

 

[Patrick62]

Oh no! it couldn't be...

http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog/the_sky_is_falling_or_revising_the_nine_times_rule/

 

[chainsawaddict]

Ignorance is bliss


and both extremes of this issue are really missing the boat.

 

[turnkey4099]

Ignorance is bliss


and both extremes of this issue are really missing the boat.

Very well put. Both the "there is no GW" and "GW is all man made" are both wrong.

The middle line is "GW is happening and man is contributing"

Harry K

 

[sloth9669]

Gw

Well no matter what we all do we will all add co into the air. But there are many things we can all do to cut back some. You all know what they are and if we did them it would make a differece. I for one think burning wood is much much cleaner then any oil/gas u can use. Olny thing better renewable or use nothing and freeze. But I'll burn my wood thanx

 

[smokechase II]

Global BS

"Hearthstone website claims burning wood (in one of their efficient stoves of course) emits less carbon dioxide than the same amount of wood rotting in the forest. I had assumed it was about even."

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The rotting and the burning of wood are essentially the same process. The same amount of heat is released etc., time is the real difference.

Carbon isn't going to change into another element in one process versus the other. Their argument must be based on C being sequestered into something other than CO2. This may have merit depending on how secure that other molecule is. {Keeping it from becoming CO2 and making it into the atmosphere.}

================

There should be reasonable caution with placing too much of the blame on carbon - CO2. It is the least effective of the greenhouse gases.

Natural Gas is attractive as it emits the least carbon of the fossil fuels AND the energy needed to pipeline deliver it is smaller than anything else.

The earth has seen at least 50 ice age periods in its modern period.
The best predictor of ice ages is the orbit of the earth and its tilt with respect to the sun. The orbit is an ellipse that gets flatter etc and these factors have been shown to be 100% accurate with Ice Cores from nearly 400,000 years studied for this so far.
There are other factors that contribute but they have been shown to be short term. Volcanoes - lack of Solar - Sun Spots and so forth.

The Earth has been in or transitioning in/out of ice ages for 90% of the last several million years.

WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE IN AN ICE AGE NOW based on the orbit predictors.

There is reasonable evidence to suggest that we have been in a human sponsored global warming event for several thousand years and that the entire planet is benefitting from our forest removals for farming and the growing of rice, (again deforestation + methane), and now the industrial revolution. The placing of the Northern Hemisphere under the standard thousands of feet of ice means a net loss of life. Not just environmentalists.

============

In either case relax on the carbon end of this discussion. It is primarily there to support an agenda, not actual global warming concerns.

And yes, the cycling of atmospheric carbon versus bring out fossil fuels perspective is worth pointing out too. So burn wood and be happy!

 

[irishcountry]

Somewhat unrelated but the "green" city folk mention how they eat only organic meat you mention you raise your own (and pay less and its as close to oraganic as you can get) and get a look like your a weird/cruel person and they say how can you do that! Mention you burn wood too and they think you just stepped out of the ashes of H@ll!! Its all about perception and they percieve meat as a product that comes in a package looking pretty and acceptable, burning wood is tons of smoke going into the air like a thousand packs of cigarettes going off at once!!