I suspect too that our usage patterns for wood are "subsidized" by the availability of coal. There was just an article here the other day that talked about how

I suspect too that our usage patterns for wood are "subsidized" by the availability of coal. There was just an article here the other day that talked about how deforestation in Ethiopia (for use as fuel) has had dramatic ecological impacts up and down the Nile. IIRC Coal caught on in England in part because deforestation had gotten so bad that they needed another source of fuel to run industrial engines