Azaran on 25/1/2023 at 20:57

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That's pretty much a universal thing in the internet age. Find things /people to get outraged about, post angry, inflammatory stuff about them online (even as far as doxing and trying to ruin peoples' reputation for offending), and boom! All of a sudden, you're on a higher moral pedestal.

"The world WILL conform to my personal views, or else :mad:"

Azaran on 25/1/2023 at 21:30

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Well they are cracking down on fireplaces and woodburning in many places. The city next to mine all but banned it - new homes can't have fireplaces, and existing ones have to have some kind of crazy contraption to filter out particles.

Let's allow cars and factories to pollute freely, but god forbid people should enjoy a nice fire

Harvester on 26/1/2023 at 08:49

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Fireplaces are terrible for other people in the neighborhood suffering from COPD or asthmatic conditions. In the Netherlands, some of those people have to stay indoors as much as they can on days where everyone lights their fires or pellet burners. Fireplaces emit a lot of micro particles that are bad for your health.

heywood on 31/1/2023 at 12:44

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Have most people there upgraded to high efficiency stoves or fireplace inserts? The difference between a traditional fireplace and a catalytic combustion stove is very big.

In my neighborhood, a lot of us still burn wood in open fireplaces on special occasions, like once or twice a month from late autumn to early spring. It's a guilty pleasure because it's dirty and wasteful, but because the homes are more spread out here and nobody is doing it on a regular basis, air quality is good. Unless we've all lost power in a winter storm, then everybody is either burning wood or running a generator and you don't want to be outside.

My friends with camps or seasonal homes use catalytic combustion wood stoves. If you feed them with completely dry wood that's free of bark, once they get going it's hard to see or smell any smoke coming out, just heated air, as if it was a gas or oil furnace that was burning. I know there are still micro particles in the flue gas, and you wouldn't want to be in a high density neighborhood or in a valley that traps air if all your neighbors are burning at the same time. But in an average suburban neighborhood, I doubt if anyone would notice if 25% the homes switched to high efficiency would burners for their primary heat source.

heywood on 31/1/2023 at 20:24

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At least they weren't all burning dung I guess :p

In central Asia, a lot of people still heat with old, inefficient coal stoves. They don't have the money for a modern coal boiler and radiator system. Fortunately, the population density is very low in places like Mongolia.

The worst smog I've experienced was in Shanghai circa 2004, mostly from old trucks and 2-strokes it seemed. It wasn't terrible 20 floors up, but at street level it was bad enough to give my wife a headache after 10 minutes of walking around.