![]() ![]() Sure there is a sacrifice -– even I enjoy a wood fire on occasion -– but it doesn’t mean living in a colder house, traveling less, reducing electricity consumption or anything else that has a broad impact on standard of living. Particulates are visible in higher concentrations and your nose, eyes and throat tell you that there is a problem with the air. GHGs are invisible and odorless.Īddressing the wood smoke problem does not require a fundamental shift in the way we live. The science on local particulate air pollution is settled – both that wood fires are the primary source in winter and that the health threat is significant. And it takes much less imagination to understand the danger from wood smoke than the danger from carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Yet, they ignore warnings about the pollution from their wood fires, in some cases even blatantly violating the burning bans that have been called on nearly half of all days in the bay area since November 1. Most are concerned about pollution in general and believe that greenhouse gases are causing potentially devastating climate change. Many of these neighbors are friends of mine. They are caring people who recycle their newspapers and bring home their groceries in reusable bags. And as the local air quality authority has called a record number of no-burn days due to poor air quality (high levels of PM 2.5, the fine particulates that can get through the respiratory system and lodge in lungs), the anger at restrictions on those cozy fires has also cut across political lines. What I’ve noticed in my neighborhood is that the desire for a cozy wood fire cuts across political lines. The clear skies have also brought some cold nights and, with them, wood smoke. has been dealing with severe winter weather, California is experiencing a record dry spell.
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