Don’t put the heat on wood burners
I don’t believe Environment Secretary Michael Gove’s initiative to ban wood-burning stoves is justified. Wood burners are the greenest form of heating because there is a zero carbon footprint. If we ban them, they will have to be replaced by other forms of heating, so greenhouse gas emissions will increase. Yes, it makes sense to ban wood burners in urban areas, but most of these stoves are used in rural areas where air quality is not a problem. A. G. JIGGENS, St Martin de Gurson, France. onE major and avoidable source of pollutants is missing from Mr Gove’s list of targets: fireworks. together with bonfires, they burn untold amounts of unregulated materials and chemicals, some of which could be carcinogenic. All this to entertain young children, who are susceptible to pulmonary and respiratory illnesses.
MIKE WALKER, Highley, Shropshire. HoW can the Government’s ambitious plans to cut air pollution be reconciled with supporting the expansion project at Heathrow? this would exceed the critical level of nox emissions — nitrous oxides that cause air pollution — and be incompatible with the UK’s climate change commitments.
REv ANDREW McLUSKEY, Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey. WHY demonise householders who have wood-burning stoves when the country’s biggest producer of Co2 is the drax power station in Yorkshire? It burns around 7.5 million tons of wood pellets from the U.S. a year.
MIKE DURAND, Penzance, Cornwall. MR GoVE can’t stop wanting to save the world in a bid to grab the headlines. Instead of banning woodburning stoves, he needs to remove all the polluted hot air from the House of Commons.
BRIAN BEST, Hazlemere, Bucks.