Foul beasts

There are some policy measures that you just know are going to be introduced, but the question is how long interest groups can delay the inevitable.

CO₂tax for businesses, toll charges on motorways and a ban on using wood-burning stoves.

It was only recently that I became really aware of the necessity of this latter measure after reading about a study by the British Air Quality Group. The study made a comparison between a 40-ton lorry and a wood-burning stove, both of which complied with the latest environmental standards. The figures showed that the wood-burning stove actually produces six times as many particulates in one hour as a diesel lorry.

But let me be quite open: I actually own a wood-burning stove myself and it always gave me a warm feeling. Put a log in and simply stare at the flickering flames. There was something wonderfully nostalgic about it all: our ancestors would have done exactly the same when life was relatively simple.

So what am I thinking about when I look at that fireplace now? Six stinking diesel lorries churning out their smoke fumes into the neighbourhood through my chimney.

I recently interviewed an asthma patient for de Volkskrantnewspaper whose symptoms were so severe that she actually left her husband and child to go and live alone in a Spanish mountain village. Mountain air is particularly beneficial for asthma patients because house mites cannot survive at higher altitudes, resulting in fewer allergic reactions. But less air pollution also helps these sufferers.

The Dutch Longfonds has been campaigning against wood-burning stoves for some time now. The organisation points out that these stoves cause problems for lung patients, who are unable to protect themselves against other people’s smoke entering their homes. Perhaps there are owners of such stoves who think: ‘Well, that is their problem. I want to enjoy my fire.’ And perhaps there are others who convince themselves: ‘I always make sure I use dry wood and my hypermodern stove produces less pollution.’ What I actually ask myself now is whether my small amount of pleasure is really worth causing so much suffering to someone else down the road? Moreover, it is also quite unnecessary, because I also have central heating.

The theme of this issue of Delft Outlook is ‘the city’: about urban problems and their solutions. The planet is currently home to more than 7.5 billion people and by 2050 this is expected to rise to 10 billion. More than half the planet’s inhabitants currently live in cities and the UN expects this number will rise to two-thirds by 2050.

In short, cities will become ever more crowded. And this means that all those chimneys churning out smoke like diesel lorries are simply untenable. So my stove will not be burning another log and it is high time we banned these foul beasts.

Tonie Mudde (born 1978) is science editor at de Volkskrantnewspaper and studied aerospace engineering at TU Delft.