Editor:
I concur with Gordon Bell (“Stoked on wood heat,” Letters, Jan. 25). Sechelt enjoys good air quality and anonymous tip lines are for police states. Excluding wave, wind, geothermal and solar, wood is the most environmentally friendly energy source. It is carbon neutral, not contributing to global warming. The CO2 used by a living tree equals the CO2 emitted when it rots on the forest floor.
A wood stove not only heats a house but can heat water, cook food, dry laundry and start seedlings.
I would like to see some double-blind peer-reviewed studies supporting the Clean Air Society’s fear-mongering.
The best practice to lower particulates is to buy a wood stove with the latest technology, which will reduce emissions by up to 90 per cent. Until recently, one could receive a $400 provincial rebate on the purchase. The Clean Air Society has decided to end the local rebate for replacement stoves, so many old wood-burning stoves continue their inefficient, smoke-producing contribution because people can’t afford to upgrade.
Ted Leathley, Sechelt
