Sometimes, when I am stacking wood so that a summer's worth of sunshine
can make it a cleaner, hotter fuel, I think of those super tankers carrying
immense cargoes of black gold from the ancient forests of the Middle East.
I think of the wells that Saddam set afire, and the noxious roar of the
jet engines of the warplanes we used to assure our access to cheap oil.
My wood comes from hills that I can see. It's delivered by a guy named Paul
who cuts it with his chainsaw, then loads it in his one ton pick-up. We
talk about the weather, the conditions in the woods and the burning characteristics
of different species. We finish by bantering about whether he s delivered
a large cord a medium or a small. I can t imagine having the same conversation
with the man who delivers oil or propane.
The wood burner perhaps more than anyone appreciates what powerfully concentrated
stuff oil is. I know the impact of one summer of sunlight on my woodpile.
Think of the immense quantity of natural energy required to make a fuel
as compact as oil. No wonder we have been so beguiled that we have plunged
in a dependency habit that is hard to kick But oil we are learning. has
its' negative side effects just like any narcotic. We know the supply is
finite so we have to dole it out like the precious commodity that it is.
We also know that burning oil (and wood) has an environmental impact to
which we need to be sensitive. In today s world even something as simple
as burning a stick of wood touches on so many diverse and complex issues
that coming to a clear uncomplicated answer can he next to impossible.
So now I burn my wood in a clean burning stove. Theoretically I should be
able to go back to feeling good about wood but life is never that simple.
On the positive side of the ledger comes the information that wood burning,
in combination with responsible reforestation, actually helps the environment
by reversing the green house effect. The oxidation of biomass, whether on
the forest floor or in a stove, releases the same amount of carbon to the
atmosphere. It makes more sense for wood to be heating my home than contributing
to the black skies over Yellowstone.
It's nice to have a choice, and since I have to keep warm, I'm choosing
to burn wood. I keep returning to the fact that humans nave been burning
oil for about fifty years and wood for tens of thousands of years. Many
of our current problems , from a planetary perspective, have come during
the age of oil. Many of our current economic woes can similarly be placed
at the doorsteps of the sheiks, oil men and politicians who have led the
greedy charge into energy dependence. And, of course, we can blame ourselves
too. When we were told to believe that there was an infinite supply of clean
and cheap energy, we should have known there is no such thing as a free
lunch. Our task now is to properly manage the Black Magic before its all
gone, and so are we! Wood can give us a renewable alternative, and when
used in combination with responsible replanting, can reverse the harmful
effects of our romance with oil.