[permaculture] Firewood:- Sustainable and Appropriate Energy Source

jedd jedd at progsoc.org
Tue Oct 9 09:16:35 EDT 2007


On Mon, 8 Oct 2007, Healing Hawk wrote:
> In other words, the human would have to
> contribute something of equal value in perpetuating the biosphere for that

 This reminds me of your earlier assertion:

>> Humans do not possess the power to replace the manifold
>> ecological services provided by a single tree.

 It seems to me that 'planting another tree' meets that requirement.

> I don't understand how "new plantations managed for timber and firewood
> have no net carbon dioxide emissions and actually take 0.17kg of CO2 out of
> the atmosphere for every KWhr of heat produced" when trees sequester carbon
> as they grow then emit that carbon when burned.  That isn't saying it
> doesn't happen, just that I don't understand it.

 Are you burdened with a belief that when you harvest a tree
 for fuel, you burn every piece of it, above and below ground?

> Permanent culture will not occur until
> human existence is no longer predicated upon exploiting nature.  

 As has already been observed, this is not a question unique to the
 human experience.  Everything relies upon everything else, and
 from the latter's point of view this typically means getting eaten
 by the former.  I'm not sure where the anthropomorphism comes
 into it for you -- white ants eating my trees is natural, beautiful,
 celebrated, but me burning them is exploitation?

 I'm also not sure that I'm comfortable with you continuing to assert
 that I'm not part of nature.  This seems to be a common trap for
 reductionists.  It makes a handful of concepts easier to grasp, but
 ultimately I think it complicates many more things for them.

> What we also have is an admission that wood is only the
> lowest greenhouse gas emitter, according to Holmgren's
> research.  It still emits greenhouse gasses. 

 Dude .. *I* emit greenhouse gases.

 But I'll be buggered if I'm going to stop breathing just so that you
 can feel smug about doing the right thing by the talking trees.

 Jedd.



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