• Request to reduce fireplace burning not unreasonable • Human activity contributes to global warming Request to reduce fireplace burning not unreasonable In order for one household to stay warm, they like to burn their fireplace a lot. They have cold knees.
• Request to reduce fireplace burning not unreasonable • Human activity contributes to global warming
Request to reduce fireplace burning not unreasonable
In order for one household to stay warm, they like to burn their fireplace a lot. They have cold knees. Blankets, heating pads or any other less smoky solution will not do. In this particular situation, the constant fireplace burning is not limited to cold winter days. It’s year-round and it is not in a rural neighborhood. It’s as tight a neighborhood as you can find anywhere, including the Mainland.
If smoke is bothering a neighbor and they ask you to put out the fire due to it entering their home, wouldn’t you? According to Mr. Gonsalves, some people you can’t please. Really? How many people would be pleased to have their house fill with smoke on a regular basis? As it turns out, wood smoke is known as toxic and can harm health.
I appreciate Ms. Tokioka’s concern about policing and effective ways to settle issues, but let’s remember this is a neighbor who has been asked more than 80 times in 10 or so years to put out his fire and doesn’t think he should have to.
Does Ms. Tokioka have another effective suggestion for the neighbors breathing smoke because Gonsalves prefers to let their fire burn? Luckily, the days of cane fires are over. If you were in the path of the cane smoke, it was a bad situation. The fact that we did endure it does not make it less toxic.
Recently, we eliminated outside burning of green waste. Why did we do that? Because it’s bad for you to breathe toxic smoke.
It’s no less toxic for neighbors downwind of a neighbor regularly burning a fireplace in a compact neighborhood. Do we ignore it and continue to allow one neighbor to cause an unhealthy situation for many?
If multiple requests to stop burning are ignored then there needs to be a remedy when common consideration and courtesy can not be brought into the picture.
Paulo Tombolo
Wailua Homesteads
Human activity contributes to global warming
Climate warming is happening far more in the Northern Hemisphere than the Southern Hemisphere. This indicates:
1) Global warming is due in part to human activity, because most human economic activity is in the Northern Hemisphere.
2) Global warming is not caused that much by CO2, since CO2 spreads all over the globe in around one year.
If not by CO2, then what? Two likely causes are human changes to albedo (whiteness of the Earth) and irrigation. Winds bring dark soot from European and Asian smokestacks to the Arctic snows. This darkens the color and causes warming.
The melting amplifies the effect, causing more warming. In the U.S., there are 100,000 square miles of black asphalt pavement and black roofs. The energy of the extra heat from this alone is 120 times as much as all the U.S. electrical energy.
My friend in Washington state has a beautiful cherry orchard on what used to be desert. Trees are darker than the light sands of that area.
Trees also produce more water vapor, which is the biggest greenhouse gas of all. There are around 90,000 square miles of irrigated land in the U.S. Irrigation has a double warming effect of producing dark green leaves and water vapor.
Should we paint our roads white? Stop irrigating? I don’t know.
Keep in mind that another ice age seems to be a greater danger than a “hot age.” During the warmer periods of Earth’s history, life flourished.
Mark Beeksma
Koloa
