Many wood burning stoves in our neighborhood. In cold weather, air quality is rated poor because of them. When there are inversion layers their use is banned, other than for people for whom it is the only heat source.

In addition wood heat can worse than gas or propane for global warming. Leaving aside the question of whether the wood is source sustainably, there is the question of black carbon and soot. So even if the wood is from a well managed wood lot, where all wood harvested is replaced within five years or so by new growth, the problem is that soot has many times the global warming potential of CO2. Most wood stoves produce a fair amount of smoke - so even if the source is carbon neutral, the conversion of ordinary carbon in the wood into black carbon has a net global warming effect greater than natural gas or propane. New wood stoves with catalytic coverters or reburners don't have this problem to as extreme an extent, though they still produce some black carbon and I'm not sure how they compare to natural gas or propane. But older ones are definitely worse from a climate change perspective than natural gas or propane.

Yeah, I read the wind advisory yesterday, which didn't start until 11 today, and was all, oh, okay, as long as I move the wood before noon. Two flaws in that premise. 1: Noon not before eleven. 2: Wind does not actually just start at 35mph at time of advisory, just only then gets over the threshold of warning.

But it's okay, 'cause, done. The winds are craxy, though.

The new ones even without catalytic converters are much better than the old ones. It does give off a certain amount of pollution, of course, but when I'm burning well, there's no smoke visible from the chimney. Now, when I'm not paying attention or am being stubborn about starting from last night's coals, and let it smoulder, then it is both visible and clearly polluting.

Our wood all comes from snags or fallen wood. I don't know how that rates in sustainability, because the forests aren't being manually cultivated to replace the falls, but the natural regrowth is considerable. Most of our wood comes from fire prevention land-clearing. Out here all the small diameter trees go to the local pellet stove plant and paper mill. Both when we do it and when our primary vendor does, it comes from either state forest land permits or clearing private land.

Sounds like maybe Bayou St. John? Or Park Island?

Bayou St. John it was. They moved out before Katrina (my uncle had died, and the house was no longer financially feasible) and I think it was badly damaged. They're a little bit further from any water--both mother and daughter have bought houses off Esplanade near the Seventh Ward.

That Bayou St. John house was just one more example of pretty exquisite taste--their San Francisco house was breathtaking too. The sort that's quickly "ruined" by children.

all praise zool. mac is sleeping over at the grandparents' house, so I am going out for drinks with a friend. MUCH NEEDED!

Yay, drinks!

I'm pretty sure there is going to be drinking in my house, but whether it happens before or after my new computer shows up may significantly alter the quality of my installation process.

Timelies all!

~ma to all dealing with the blizzard.

The new ones without catalytic converters are required to have reburners which as you say are still better than the old ones. I can only find GWP (Global Warming Potential) figures for the old ones, but not for the new ones. The new ones (new being not that new - made since 1998 actually) are about 90% better. If that applies to black carbon in addition to other pollutants that would make them better than propane but worse than natural gas. Oh but there is methane from the old ones as well, and I bet that is reduced by more than 90% in the news. So at a guess the new ones are much better than propane and slightly better than natural gas, but only at a guess.

They can't possibly be going to send me the meds and no nurse shows up, right?

So the fact that I'm scheduled to receive the meds between 6 and 8 today has to mean good things, right?

Why won't anyone tell me about a nurse, though?

I wish I could exhale. And, dear lord, I need to de-slash the living room, stat.

OK, so I spent the day doing numerous errands (laundry, groceries, etc.) and got back a bit a go and now I'm just hunkered down to avoid the snowpacalypse. So far so well.

I'm seriously pissed about the weekend I was supposed to spend in Amherst and get some serious hang time with a friend I've only been in very intermittent touch with until the last few months. Guess that's what I get for planning something like that in February.