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Fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal are not renewable and their
consumption is the leading cause of global warming. Burning
fossil fuels sends carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas,
on a one-way trip.
It pumps million-year-old carbon from inside the earth into
the atmosphere, where the concentration of carbon dioxide is
increasing.
Burning oil, gas and coal is like spending the earth's savings,
and scientists say it is changing the global climate. Wood fuel
is different. As trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide from
the air in a process powered by the sun. Indeed, about half
the weight of dry wood is this absorbed carbon.
A tree destroyed in a forest fire or one that falls and decays
in the forest gives up its carbon once again to the air as carbon
dioxide. So continues the earth's carbon/carbon dioxide cycle.
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.
Both natural firewood and wood pellets - made by compressing
waste sawdust - are energy products from the forest. Well-managed
forests can be a renewable, sustainable source of energy that
helps us reduce greenhouse gas emissions by displacing the use
of oil, gas and coal.
