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by yardie 3690 days ago
It's a net zero emission as long as the trees come from a sustainable forest.
1 comments

Only if the person actually plants a tree for every fire they burn. Even then, that does not offset the ash and other chemicals in the thick smoke ejected into the air that causes huge pollution problems at any scale.
A healthy forest plants trees all on its own.
I'm wondering how forest fires being a natural thing fit into your viewpoint. I don't think that fact entirely negates your point, but it does seem to dampen it at least.
Trees contain carbon. Burn trees, and they release carbon. New trees end up growing in the ash after it falls and re-capturing carbon. It's a natural, cyclic process.

The problem isn't that humans release carbon or other pollutants (burning trees, coal, oil, etc), it's the scale we do it at, and that we don't automatically re-capture it without doing extra work like planting more trees.

>Only if the person actually plants a tree for every fire they burn.

But wouldn't a tree be more likely to grow, and in the long run the expected number of trees in a forest be unaffected by the felling of any given tree? (the same can't necessarily be said for the felling of hundreds of trees of course).

Not to mention the well documented health issues related to regularly inhaling wood smoke, even in small amounts.
> and other chemicals

you mean "the chemicals" that came from nature in the first place ?

Yes, like plutonium, but we're not going to be dumping that all over the place either.

Cyanide is also "natural" but not great for our health depending on the context. The same for the "chemicals" that, when burned, cause some nasty stuff compared to if it wasn't burned.

* I love burning wood.