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In addition to describing old methods of burning wood, when speaking about its health effects this article completely ignores the weather factor. Even with prop

In addition to describing old methods of burning wood, when speaking about its health effects this article completely ignores the weather factor. Even with proper chimney construction, atmospheric pressure and presence or absence of inversion can cause smoke to hover at the ground for days—or quickly take it to high altitudes and disperse. I am not sure whether the research he mentions controlled for this factor. In particular, quotes like this: > It might be the clearest day of the year, but burn a sufficient quantity of wood and the air in the vicinity of your home will resemble a bad day in Beijing. strongly hint at atmospheric inversion, frequent in some areas and rare in others. (Also, “sufficient quantity of wood” makes the point completely meaningless, but that aside…) IMO recommending for or against wood burning should take into account typical weather patterns of a particular area, and ideally there should be a way to notify people when atmospheric conditions are not right for this. I agree that Sam Harris has a frustrating tendency to moralize, but I still subscribe to his podcast. There are good points raised in most discussions, if not by him then by his guest. Strong opinions is a double-edged sword.

7952 6y ago
In my country people leave their wood burner running all winter regardless of the weather. People are never going to turn it off just because of weather conditions. And there is moralising on the other side of the argument, it is just less explicit. The old fashioned "natural" manliness of chopping and burning wood is definitely considered virtuous by a lot of people. Maybe this is restricted to middle class though.
- strogonoff 6y ago
  The existence of people for whom burning wood is the only way to heat their homes in winter now does not preclude the possibility of a future where people can choose to use thermoelectric facilities for cooking or (in winter) heating when weather allows, and use electricity from other sources (batteries or mains) at other times. (In my view there is hardly anything especially manly or romantic in buying fuel for a modern pellet stove. As far as I know unless one literally owns a forest one can’t legally go around chopping down trees in most countries. Chopping may be a good exercise though.)

7952 6y ago

In my country people leave their wood burner running all winter regardless of the weather. People are never going to turn it off just because of weather conditions. And there is moralising on the other side of the argument, it is just less explicit. The old fashioned "natural" manliness of chopping and burning wood is definitely considered virtuous by a lot of people. Maybe this is restricted to middle class though.

strogonoff 6y ago
The existence of people for whom burning wood is the only way to heat their homes in winter now does not preclude the possibility of a future where people can choose to use thermoelectric facilities for cooking or (in winter) heating when weather allows, and use electricity from other sources (batteries or mains) at other times. (In my view there is hardly anything especially manly or romantic in buying fuel for a modern pellet stove. As far as I know unless one literally owns a forest one can’t legally go around chopping down trees in most countries. Chopping may be a good exercise though.)