> At the risk of starting a holy war, the largest source of dioxin, if my
> memory serves me right, is forest fires and the burning of wood for heat
> (dioxin is a product of incomplete combustion).
>
> Not Dow Corning.
>
> Don't confuse advocates like Moore with people who "tell the truth" ....
As an allergy victim, I love this!
Half the carbon in the air during peak smog times in Denver, and
presumably many other cities, is from wood smoke. You can smell a
metropolitan area at 20,000 feet from the wood smoke in winter!
Some of the most vicious pollutants are caused when people damp down
wood burning stoves. The heat and lack of oxygen creates polly-aromatic
hydrocarbons, which are potent carcinogens. In the areas where wood smoke
is common, winter nights are often equivalent to smoking a pack of
cigarettes. (Which is why I can not go home to New England in the winter,
where I belong.)
Where wood and coal are burned in the same area, sulphur from coal
burning dissolves in the winter's night mists along with hydrocarbons from
wood smoke. As the mists dissipate in the morning, the droplets of
sulphuric acid become more and more concentrated. These eat exposed
stone, masonry, plants, and produce respiratory distress when inhaled.
Of course, the current proliferation of wood smoke is a heck of a lot
better than it was in the late 1800's and early 1900's! You may recall
the windows over doors, and upper windows in older buildings... those
were to deal with smoke problems from pot bellied and other stoves that
our grandparents used. But if you really want to see polluted lungs, look
at some of those from people found in ancient times, when wood fires were
kept burning in poorly ventilated huts, yurts, and tents.
So much for using renewable ecologically sound wood fuel, rather than
that deadly nuclear stuff! Far more people die each year from the
indirect contributions of wood and coal smoke, than have ever died from
nuclear accidents in the USA. (Not sure about Chernobyl... but we don't
build our reactors of combustible graphite!)
Similar polly-aromatic hydrocarbons, and worse, are released by diesel
engines.
Another huge source of airborne carbon, is automobile TIRES, which
wear, releasing dust that roadside bacteria eat.
As to those nice snug low air turnover buildings made to increase
energy efficiency, out-gassing of formaldehyde used in wood glues, particle
board, printing, etc. has resulted in a huge increase of allergy problems
and chemical sensitivities. (Another contribution is modern medicine --
people with allergies now survive instead succumbing to other illnesses.
Ask your grandparents how many of their peers survived to graduate from
high school. Or even grade school!)
Of course, nothing can mess up a climate as much as a few volcanos...
Is global warming a problem? Remember the stories of Eden? The
climate was warmer and wetter some 12 thousand years ago, which the
climatologists call "The Eden Epoch".
Are Indians (Amerinds,) ecological people? America has fewer species
per land area because Indians ate many of them into extinction. They had
some help, in the 1200's, mid-western climate changed, turning rich meadow
lands into grasslands. And likely stamping their culture with some
reverence for ecology lost.
We need to look more at clean solar and nuclear power. As to modern
civilization killing us... In 1900, average life span was in the 50's, up
from the 40's in Roman times. Today, it is in the 70's, so we are not
doing that badly!
The single most effective way of dealing with automobile traffic, and
pollution, is to promote telecommuting via the internet. Move electrons,
not people!
[EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------ [EMAIL PROTECTED]
----------------------- IMAGINEERING --------------------------
----------------- Every mouse click, a Vote -------------------
---------- Do they vote For, or Against your pages? -----------
--- Have you analyzed your viewer's footprints in the logs? ---
--- Webmaster's Resources: http://www.mall-net.com/webcons/ ---
--- Web Imagineering -- Architecture to Programming CGI-BIN ---
---------------------------------------------------------------
____________________________________________________________________
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Join The Web Consultants Association : Register on our web site Now
Web Consultants Web Site : http://just4u.com/webconsultants
If you lose the instructions All subscription/unsubscribing can be done
directly from our website for all our lists.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
