Chemistry Professor
Fritz Vahrenholt,
co-founder of Germany’s
modern environmental
movement, warns that
burning wood for
renewable heat
is worse than
burning fossil fuels.
Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt,
wrotean opinion piece for
Die Achse des Guten titled:
"Wood Burning Is
The Wrong Path".
Wood “generates
significantly more
CO2 per kW of heat
than fossil fuels do.”
It then takes 40 to 80 years
before the burned tress
can be replaced by new growth,
and act as a CO2 sink
( trees absorb CO2 from the air).
“Wood combustion is
therefore not climate-neutral,
the CO2 content is increased
in the next decades more than
by the combustion of lignite
or hard coal!”
In Germany “every wood stove
is a government-subsidized
dirt centrifuge. "
"They all produce gigantic amounts
of fine dust, compared to
any other heating technology."
“In the suburbs, wood-fired
heating systems account for
about 50 percent of
fine particulate pollution
in the air” !
A German commission recently found:
“The proportion of direct emissions
of PM2.5 (particulate matter) is now
well above that of combustion engines.”