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Comment by SoftTalker | Hacker News Reader

Wildfire carbon emissions are very different from fossil fuel carbon emissions. Wildfires are releasing carbon that trees and other vegetation pulled out of the atmosphere in the relatively recent past. It's carbon-neutral for the same reason that burning firewood to heat your home is carbon-neutral.

Fossil fuel carbon emissions are releasing carbon that has been sequestered for millions of years. It's a net increase in current atmospheric carbon.

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Wildfires in forests are indeed burning trees.

Wildfires in suburban communities are burning non-wood materials, including many things made from hydrocarbons.

Good point. Also we need to consider the costs of rebuilding.

At the very least this suggests that if you're planting trees for carbon offsetting, the how and where matters.

I hate this claim. It's true on the surface, but just look at city statistics from 50 years back. If you think burning firewood to heat your home is good for the environment in any way, you're insane. Perhaps, perhaps, it's not a huge problem for global warming, but it's a problem for CO, NOx emissions, toxic gases, it's not efficient, it generates toxic ash, occasionally it's really bad in unpredictable ways (it can be toxic, it can be carcinogenic, it can even be radioactive), it's ...

It's really bad for the environment.

That assumes an inefficient burn that doesn’t actually heat a house either (a traditional inefficient fireplace heats a room but draws in cold outdoor air into the house). A proper wood stove, etc both heats the house and produces dramatically less pollutants.

Lol, tell that to southern Poland a decade ago. On a quiet winter days air pollution on the lower third of the country is off the charts even with all the limiting measures enacted over last years. The point is that burning stuff is incredibly polluting in any setting.

When I read about Poland I see stuff saying they just banned coal and there are traditions of burning yard waste. I saw an article stating that in 2022 all fireplace manufacturers need to meet new standards which normally implies the existing are grandfathered in. I would still wonder about what percentage of the pollution is from inefficient burns.

On the other hand pollution standards can leave a lot to be desired and the EPA certification is being gamed [1].

I am interested in this topic- I would like to get the least polluting wood stove available (in the US).

[1] https://www.nescaum.org/documents/nescaum-review-of-epa-rwh-...

so the greening measures do nothing by your own admission ?

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