Discussion
I'm going to print this story, wrap it around a brick, and hurl it through a lot of windows
edit, this post is written from and directed at every motherfucker in southern california who lights a fire to feel cozy when it dips down to 64 degrees
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/23/wood-burners-linked-to-2500-deaths-a-year-in-the-uk-analysis-finds
@inquiline Heating my home costs me up to $800 a month *in addition to* my woodstove, when it gets really cold here. 🥶
But arguing it’s necessary in SoCal? With your weather? Do y’all just not insulate your buildings at all or something?
@mivox
it can get pretty cold overnight here in "winter", sometimes down into upper 40s outside. which is not nothing especially for older people, disabled people, etc. folks living outside probably can die of exposure, tho the heat is almost certainly worse
but most people just are not doing this for heat, they're doing it for "hygge fire" which in a basin that traps pollution (that is disproportionately experienced by poorer folks without greenspace, filtered air) pisses me off TO NO END
@mivox re insulated buildings: my first semester here i slept in a room that was an addition to a craftsman. the main house was pretty drafty, my room was like sleeping outdoors. but i just put on a lot of blankets, was fine
my current apt is lower floor of a duplex so it's like a cave which is better in summer (so better overall bc we have more warm weather here than not), never warms up even on warmer days in winter. ofc "warm" is all relative, it's not getting below 60 & ppl are burning now
@inquiline People in my buy nothing group regularly ask for wood and will even take treated lumber type stuff for "fire pits" in their backyards. It makes me want to scream. The exemptions to the burn ban days is some rule about income based for heating your home not for aesthetic reasons that pollute the whole neighborhood.
(I don't know the rule details since I don't have any way to burn wood, I've never needed to know)
@inquiline
I have more than a few people in my block list with the note "📎 to inquiline", 📎 being my shorthand for reply guy, like clippy the office assistant.
@inquiline We already have Smoke Free Zones in the UK in major cities. These arose as a reaction to the killer smogs of the 50s. Now we also have ULEZ appearing in London and elsewhere. The problem is not the legislation, it's the enforcement. And the selective nature. We control diesel vehicles but not boat engines, construction machinery, 2-stroke garden machinery, BBQs. Even garden fires. We make wood burning fires that produce visible smoke illegal but never actually prosecute.
@inquiline Wood burners are how the rural poor -- who suffer the worst fuel poverty in the UK -- heat their homes.
Fix fuel poverty before punching down.
I'm off grid and use a log burner to supplement my solar system in Shropshire.
Best approach is to have a room sealed unit and make sure that the wood is properly dried.
My wood is essentially zero carbon as it is locally sourced and cut with my battery chainsaw. I could use propane but it is more environmentally damaging.
It depends on the use case and is not appropriate in an urban environment.
@simon_brooke
guess what, i live in coastal southern california
i acknowledge people need to heat their homes but the air pollution here and gratuitous, yes gratuitous wood burning is what my post is about:
https://www.ocregister.com/2018/11/08/its-fireplace-season-southern-california-so-here-are-the-trends-wood-burning-restrictions-and-retrofit-and-replacement-regulations/
@inquiline A wood stove is the only source of heat in our house – can't afford electric heating.
wow a reply guy said that urban folks need to check their privilege about wood burning. this comes as news to all the children in my “majority-minority” urban county who have asthma
https://aafa.org/asthma-allergy-research/our-research/asthma-disparities-burden-on-minorities/
wood burning isn’t the biggest source of particulate pollution in LA County, but it is surely the most gratuitous
https://www.ocregister.com/its-fireplace-season-southern-california-so-here-are-the-trends-wood-burning-restrictions-and-retrofit-and-replacement-regulations/