Originally Posted by cooker
Forest fires have been happening for millions of years and nature is completely capable of addressing the seasonal and localized pollution from wood stoves. Admittedly if wood burning stoves deplete the forests we have a problem. The pollution from cars and the car industry is far more widespread and is year round and includes unnatural compounds like dioxins and PCBs.
Here's a source that tends to back up Bekoloist's claims.
That is a valid point, cooker. Good work doing the research bekologist refuses to, however, that article appears to be from circa 1998.
From the article:
"While new cars and light trucks emit about 90 percent fewer pollutants than three decades ago, total vehicle miles driven have more than doubled since 1970 and are expected to increase another 25 percent by 2010."
So they're not 20 times cleaner than 20 years ago, they're even "better" - but we use them more.
"As a result, cars and light trucks are still the largest single source of air pollution, accounting for one-quarter of emissions of smog-forming pollutants nationwide."
Assuming this is still close to accurate, some seven years later, it does indeed tend to back up bekologist's claim that cars are the biggest polluters of Puget Sound. Although it doesn't take into account any other sources of pollution specific to the area...