Energy

Wood has long been a source of fuel for humans, and it remains an important one, especially in developing nations like Kenya, El Salvador, and Mongolia. The heat produced by burning firewood is actually the warmth of the sun, stored in trees through the process of photosynthesis. When we burn wood we liberate the sun's heat through the "reverse photosynthesis" of burning!

When we burn oil, gas, coal, or wood we produce carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is what we call a greenhouse gas, and the fact that humans are releasing a lot of it is what is causing climate change. But wood is different from the fossil fuels coal, oil, and gas, because it is part of the natural carbon/carbon dioxide cycle. When a tree grows, it absorbs carbon dioxide from the air and stores it in the wood as carbon, which makes up about half of the weight of wood. When the wood is burned, carbon dioxide is released back into the atmosphere. The same amount of carbon dioxide would be released if the tree died and were left to rot on the forest floor.  So basically, when trees are used for energy, a part of the forest's annual growth is diverted from the natural decay and forest fire cycle into our homes to heat them.

Wood smoke can be dangerous when inhaled, and when a fire is smoldering and giving off a plume of blue-grey smoke from the chimney it is polluting the air. But there are ways one can make sure that one's fire pollutes the air as little as possible, like using only seasoned (dry) firewood!

When wood for fuel is harvested sustainably (for example, cutting only dead or diseased trees), it can coexist with other forest uses. Research is under way on new technology that turns biomass into alcohol-based fuels. In Sweden, scientists are turning the limbs, branches, and other wastes left over from logging into fuels.

 
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