https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-vhsn5-13e2fca
Episode 56CQ. April 15, 2023. “The truth will set you free, maybe” issue.
The world may be divided into two kinds of people: Person A) those who tell the truth and listen to the truth, or Person B) those who lie and don’t listen to the truth. Logically, the first kind of person, Person A, should be walking free (and breathing freely) because “The truth will set you free” and the second kind of person, Person B, should be in jail. Just kidding, maybe. I’m talking about truths that are objective, and truths which point out harm being done to me. Seriously. 1) The one truth I’ve relied on most my whole life is the truth that “What is in my bank account is my money, and if you take it without my permission, you are stealing my money.” That truth can be objectively proved. If you deny that truth, you are trying to steal my money. 2)a second truth is that if you win an election without breaking the rules, you are elected and have the position. That truth can be objectively proved. If you deny that truth, you are trying to steal an election, even if you are the one making the untrue statement “Stop the steal” to confuse others. 3)a third truth is that individual human actions are causing climate change, and individual human actions can slow climate change. If you deny that truth, you are probably trying to burn wood residentially, and in debate on the subject, you are making the untrue statement “wood burning is Carbon Neutral” to confuse others. Or you are remaining silent and relying on backroom political machinations by wood burning industry lobbyists, to create loopholes for them and you, to keep your residential wood burning legal, although it harms the health of near neighbors. 4)a fourth truth is that Residential Wood Burning produces PM2.5, particulate matter of 2.5 micrometer size, the perfect size to infiltrate the human lung, producing a cascade of human health problems. Research by scientists and doctors over many years proves this is true. How this is denied is too confusing to explain here, but trust me, this harm to health from PM2.5 is true, and denial of health problems is false. I’m not lying. I am one of those pesky person A’s. 5)a fifth truth is that Residential Wood Burning PM2.5 enters the yards and infiltrates the homes of near neighbors of residential wood burners. Near neighbors’ yards can be thought of as fence line measurement sites, or even stack measurement sites if neighbors are close enough to the wood burner’s stack. This is an objective truth and has been proved by PM2.5 monitor data above Environmental Protection Agency (E P A) “safe” PM2.5 limits taken over many years now. 6)a sixth truth is that PM2.5 from indoor Residential Wood Burning steals the breath and the health and shortens the lives of near neighbors of residential wood burners, but nothing is being done about it if the residential wood stoves are indoors. I helped pass local ordinances across Wisconsin against Outdoor Wood Boilers twelve years ago, but if regulation of indoor wood stoves is attempted, new laws will have to be passed for indoor wood stoves, although both forms of wood burning, indoor and outdoor, produce the same resulting emissions, PM2.5 that invades the yards and infiltrates the homes of near neighbors. 7)a seventh truth is that Residential Wood Burning is done in homes in stationary devices, so it is easy to pinpoint the source of the PM2.5, if the PM2.5 is monitored hyper-locally. However, PM2.5 emissions occur, are in the air of a locality long enough for humans to breathe them in, and then the particulates eventually fall to earth, so the PM2.5 pollution that can be measured in the air is hyper-localized. That doesn’t mean that the pollution doesn’t exist, but it is not caught on most traditional E P A PM2.5 monitors costing $100,000, and not usually caught on any PM2.5 monitors at all if they are not near the stationary source. PM2.5 monitors have to be hyper-localized, and they have to be near a Residential Wood Burner to count that particular offender’s emissions. There are not enough PM2.5 monitors in the world right now, and PM2.5 monitors are not located in enough places to pinpoint the source of pollution and help near neighbors solve their health problems by shutting down indoor residential wood burning. Governments, probably Health Departments of governments, be they federal, state, or local governments, should hand out low-cost PurpleAir PM2.5 monitors to any near neighbor who complains of their neighbor’s wood burning polluting the air in the near neighbor’s yard, endangering the near neighbor’s health. There should also be laws accompanying those government PM2.5 monitor handouts saying that data from those monitors should be evidence to shut down each individual wood burner stove (or wood burning fireplace, et cetera) whose stack or fence line has PM2.5 levels above government limits (be they annual limits of 8 micrograms per meter cubed or daily limits of 25 micrograms per meter cubed). 8)an eighth truth is that PM2.5 helps cause climate change as well as causing human health problems and early deaths. The Paris Accords and subsequent international agreements that set Climate Goals for countries around the world leave out biomass (wood) burning from their counts of PM2.5, using the untrue argument of wood burning being Carbon Neutral (see point 3 above). This attempt to list the simple truths you can rely on is getting too long, but you get my drift, or else you are denying the truth, Person B.
9)President Biden’s proposal to limit tailpipe emissions before cars come off the assembly line should serve as an example for limiting PM2.5 emissions. The end result of his legislation will be replacement of polluting gas-powered cars by electric cars in the near future, saving us from catastrophic climate change and human health problems and early deaths from particulate pollution from that source, car emissions.
Because cars are not a stationary source of PM2.5 pollution, cars are a mobile source of PM2.5 pollution, President Biden’s specific proposal is appropriate and will work as a solution for PM2.5 emissions from cars.
Because wood stoves are stationary sources in residential areas, fence line or stack monitoring in the yards of near neighbors who complain of PM2.5 entering their yards and infiltrating their homes is appropriate, and appropriately hyper-localized, and will work as a solution for PM2.5 emissions from residential wood burning, if there are laws which use the PM2.5 monitor online data for each individual wood stove to solve PM2.5 emissions by shutting down those individual wood stoves one at a time. It is hard to make individuals responsible for their actions, but it can be done. Consider the analogy of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M A D D). Citizens harmed by drunk drivers, who had family members killed only because they happened to be in the path of drunk drivers, campaigned to have breathalyzer tests for drunk drivers used, and the data from breathalyzers used to get drunk drivers off the road. RAWSEPresidents were harmed or died early, or their family members were harmed or died early because they happened to be in the path of the PM2.5 smoke from residential wood burning, as near neighbors. RAWSEPresidents is campaigning to have PM2.5 monitors placed hyper-locally and to have the data from those PM2.5 monitors used to shut down residential wood burning. RAWSEPresidents have already had costs to their health, and the cost of each PurpleAir 2.5 monitor is only under $300, a price that must be paid, apparently, to protect the health of near neighbors of residential wood burners. Don’t let wood burners continue to steal our health.
As always, indigent wood stove burners in the United States are eligible to apply to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to get financial help to switch to alternate forms of home heating such as the new Heat Pumps that work at temperatures well below zero Fahrenheit.