Another application of the Grecian government formula blows up in their faces.
From EuroNews:
Smog hits Athens as cash-strapped residents choose fire over fuel
Bad news for austerity-stricken Greeks is also proving to be bad news for the environment – specifically the air quality in Athens.
Wood has soared in popularity, with many of the city’s residents using it to heat their houses, after an increase in duty has seen the price of heating oil double in two years.
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Also, via The Raw Story:
Air pollution in Athens has surged in recent days because of people choosing wood over more expensive fuels to heat their homes in the grips of a continuing economic crisis, the environment ministry said Friday.
Particulate matter has been measured at 150 milligrammes per cubic metre, or three times the danger level, especially in the northern and western suburbs of the Greek capital, the ministry said.
The visible smog is reminiscent of that which cloaked the mountain-ringed city before it modernised its cars and buses.
The folks who are managing AB 32 in CA have been aware, since at least early 2010, of the potential of our carbon tax(s) to effect air quality in an adverse way-
“An easily foreseeable result of AB 32 implementation in rural areas is an increase in the use of residential wood heating because of higher energy prices.”-
http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/ab32publichealth/meetings/012710/comments/chris_brown_mendocino_co.pdf
GlynnMhor says:
January 2, 2013 at 12:33 pm
Greece doesn’t have the manpower to police all the homeowners who choose to pollute.
Is it a choice when taxes went up, your salary went down (before taxes), half your famíly is unemployed and heating fuel costs 1,5 euros a litre? For a bill of about 3000 euros for the winter in an average house? And you can have the wood to burn for less than a third? And maybe you still eat and those trifles?
Andres Valencia says:
January 2, 2013 at 12:36 pm
It is so sad, decades of lying to the public are bearing poisonous fruit.
The poorer we are, the more we pollute, but the warmists solution is more poverty.
Truly, this is a fight well-worth fighting.
Oh yes. As current statistics show 20% of the energy obtained currently is actually renewable… from dung burning in 3rd countries…
And besides:
“Burning wood is the worst thing you can do for carbon dioxide emissions”
http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/britain%27s-mad-biomass-dash.aspx
But try to convince a fanatic…
As I’ve always said… it’s not the “suggestion of unintended consequences”, or even the “possibility of unintended consequences”. Just like Gravity, IT’S THE LAW, and around here we obey the law, mister.
Here in winter climate Calgary the vast majority of heating is by Natural Gas, which is probably about as clean burning as you’ll get. Wood smoke is definitely a rarity, so much so that when someone has their fireplace going it stands out through the neighborhood.
Also as I keep pointing out, “environmentalists” are completely blind to reality, somehow picturing everything humanity does as “polluting”. They all seem to have this image in their heads of toxic sludge dumped into every river, power plants spewing black palls of mercury laden soot across a thousand miles creating acid rain to kill the lake fish and destroy the trees, and the general death of nature everywhere humans go.
Then again, I have little faith that that picture is completely representative. Every once in a while we get an inversion layer here that makes Calgary look the same, but eventually the wind shifts and the smoke (which often comes from forest fires hundreds of miles away) gets dispersed. And as all Canadians should know, you can’t trust smoke that comes from BC…
more soylent green! says:
January 2, 2013 at 1:22 pm
The obvious answer is to cut down all the trees so they have no wood to burn–You just wait and see.
They’re importing it from Bulgaria 🙂 not even good for the trade balance. Next they’ll have to smuggle it.
Here in California, in the central valley, wood smoke coming out of your chimney on a ‘Spare the Air’ day will get you a fine.
A double whammy…the burned wood comes from trees, which would otherwise be busy lowering CO2 levels.
I don’t understand why they would need heat anyway, on average Athens has a fairly comfortable 65 °F temperature.
/sarc
MORROW’S MAXIM: Don’t be surprised or blame people when they behave according to the incentives under which they are placed!
The US is now averaging <10 micrograms/m3 for small particles, 60 micrograms/m3 for larger ones, so if Athens is actually at 150 milligrams, it's more than a thousand times worse.
http://www.epa.gov/airtrends/pm.html
Still, there are campaigns to make the US absolutely pristine, which will only cost us the entire GDP – but it will be worth it!
When politicians and activists disappear up their own backsides it always rebounds on the poor.
Well all, the future has come to a geographical region right here in the good ol’ US of A. Not so much of a tax, as a restriction of personal useage of fireplaces and wood stoves used to supplement heating systems in private residences. This is in the city of Tacoma in Pierce County, WA, USA. All well and good, as the county is listed as being an EPA “non-attainment” locale (for acheiving compliance with the EPA PM 2.5 requirements). The problem with this, is the city topography is very non-uniform (sea-level to over 450′ ASL) and the local Puget Sound Clean Air Agency (PSCAA) bases their declarations of “Burn Bans” for the city and county on a very limited number of air monitoring stations (in the City proper, it is one (1) monitoring station for a city that encompasses over 23 square miles!), as well as meteorilogical condtions (usually winter high-pressure, cold air conditions – just when you need to burn wood to supplement heat! – these conditions tend to trap particulates at ground level – thus the burn ban). But it gets better. What good is a burn ban without enforcement? PSCAA has newly hired nearly 75 (seventy-five) new burn ban enforcement personnel, equipped with infra-red equipment and tasked to drive around, shining these devices at (into?) citizens’ homes, looking for cold, impoverished (sorry, that would be scofflaw) citizens polluting the environment via a heat signature from chimneys. First offense comes with a $1,000.00 (US) fine. And you never see the enforcer – the fine comes in the mail. If you find this interesting, I’ll list the PSCAA web page and you can find out all about it…
http://www.pscleanair.org/airq/burnban/faqs.aspx#BBPenalty
I guess my point is that the reach of the EPA is moving to regulate the activities inside of your home……so the mechanisms are in-place to begin the regulation of wood burning devices, Tacoma is a bit ahead of the iron-fist…wood collection regulation is probably right around the corner…
Michael C. Roberts
CodeTech says:
January 2, 2013 at 2:07 pm
And as all Canadians should know, you can’t trust smoke that comes from BC…
Too funny Bud!
The shortsightedness of some so-called conservationists is mind boggling. This is hardly the first such instance. Remember when plastic grocery bags were going to save the planet by saving our trees?
GlynnMhor
January 2, 2013 at 12:33 pm
Greece doesn’t have the manpower to police all the homeowners who choose to pollute.
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How about “…choose to stay warm.”
Markw complains of “… blaming the victim.”
Well, when the blameworthy include the victims, then that’s what needs to be done.
Being a victim does not automatically absolve one of guilt.
MattN
January 2, 2013 at 3:26 pm
The shortsightedness of some so-called conservationists is mind boggling.
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The architects of this mess are neither shortsighted nor conservationist. They are Marxist out to destroy capitalism, and they know exactly what they are doing. Using the guise of solving a problem to do something evil is an ancient technique that is most useful if the problem never really goes away.
Bryan A says:
January 2, 2013 at 12:25 pm
So apparently Greece Fires cause smog
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LOL that was awesome 🙂
Living in the socialist republic of Los Angeles California I am not permitted to add a fireplace capable of burning wood to my house. That’s evil. If I freeze to death because I can’t pay the gas bill then I will have sequestered some co2 in my grave. That seems to be OK with the greenies.
Tax is the applicable word here. Revenue enhancement. Money for the government. The word ‘fuel’ is the excuse. The politicians could give a damn less about the environment. Gimme money is the deal.
Michael C. Roberts and others have put their finger on it. The catastrophists don’t care about this “unintended” consequence of increased fuel prices. They fully intend to tax or ban wood and every other means of cheap comfort in the winter. But snow-covered solar panels in cloudy areas will have healthy subsidies and you will get your 100W allotment of heat. Maybe some sort of heat pump blowing cold air at your body.
Reminds me of what happened in Mexico City a few years back. Someone had the great idea to only allow cars be driven on alternate days, using a digit on the license plate (even cars on one day, odd the next). Well, the people needed to get to work somehow so many purchased a second cheap car and got a license plate that would allow them to drive every day. Well, you know what happened, air pollution really ballooned.
Marinus says:
January 2, 2013 at 1:19 pm
The increase in fuel taxes has nothing to do with lowering air pollution but is one of the many measures to reduce the national debt of Greece.
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Um, how’s that working, given that folks are burning wood in order to use less taxable fuel? Guess they’ll have to raise the tax rates again to compensate for the lower consumption.
Where I live in Australia, people love their wood-burning stoves and fires for winter heating. Of course we are also told all the BS about this being the clean green way to heat.
Trouble is, the smell from a slow-combustion stove is terrible, and there are some winter nights when it is nearly impossible to walk outside because of the thick smoke and stink.
Reverse cycle heating has a typical efficiency of about 350% to 400% because of how heat pumps work, yet try explaining this to some idiot who thinks burning wood is both more efficient, and cleaner, and greener, and cheaper. They are all nuts.
@Michael
Nothing new.
What about banning wood burners or making the process of getting one so convoluted and expensive you might as well ban them.
http://www.ccc.govt.nz/homeliving/buildingplanning/fireheating/index.aspx