Originally Posted by
Happy Feet
I know, that's why I'm done. When someone starts telling me the trees I see aren't what I see or that I don't understand basic greenhouse gas terminology it's a little too much. I'll have to relate this to my Instructors at the Horticulture College I attended to get my Diploma in Greenhouse Management.
I'm not saying that you aren't seeing trees only that you are calling them by a wrong name. There is a large difference between a Populus deltodides and a Populus tremuloides and a Populus balsamifera as well as the other 25 to 30 different poplar tree species. There's even a large difference those and hybrid poplars which combine various traits of poplar species to create a tree that grows fast enough to harvest for energy.
But, since you seem to have some horticulture experience, you should know that.
Originally Posted by
Happy Feet
Again, never said a twig stove was bad. Just clarifying terms. Stuart seems to be confused between carbon footprint and carbon neutral. A twig stove has a very small carbon foot print, to the point of being insignificant, but it isn't carbon neutral. That's all.
No, you don't seem to understand the difference between what a carbon footprint is and what carbon neutral is. Yes, burning a twig...or a tree...has a carbon footprint but it is carbon neutral because the carbon was stored from the carbon cycle and when burned is quickly absorbed in the carbon cycle. That's why companies plant trees to offset their carbon footprint. Most industrial processes don't depend on wood for power. They use fossil carbon. To offset their fossil carbon footprint, they plant trees or other plants to absorb the excess fossil carbon.
Even if we go by your definition, the amount of carbon emitted is so small as to be not enough to make a mountain out of the molehill. That's what I object to most about your argument. You really don't need to make people feel bad about burning a tiny amount of carbon to cook a meal. Do you not cook on tour? Not eat? Not wear clothes? Not bathe or wash clothes? Or ride a bike made by energy intensive processes? Unless you avoid all those processes, you have a much larger carbon footprint...and not a neutral one at that...than someone who burns a few twigs to cook dinner. You don't need to carbon shame someone unless you are prepared to be carbon shamed yourself.