[TheForge] Charcoal

[wmullett at bright.net]

I don't believe sustainable is the best rule to measure by.  It only looks at supply.  

The problem is that all carbon fuel sources were / are created from living matter.  When you cut down the tree to make charcoal, you remove the ability of converting CO2 to carbon.  Seems like it would be smarter to eat the cake before we burn the paper plate.
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From: "Andy Gladish" <gladish at cablerocket.com>
Date: Wed Sep 17, 1:06 PM
To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Charcoal

On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 08:56:24 -0700, Saint Phlip <phlip at 99main.com> wrote:

> Andy, charcoal is actually quite a sustainable resource, unlike coal
> which will be gone when it's gone.

Yes, you're right- I was responding to his "now talk me out of this"  
comment by saying that there's a downside to anything. Most of the  
charcoal in stores comes from areas of Mexico and the American southwest  
that are more or less strip mined for wood.
Sure it comes back, theoretically, but the habitat destruction is  
significant, even though most of us don't have to look at it. If you make  
your own, a charcoal burner almost by definition produces a large amount  
of particulate matter and wastes much of the potential heat energy of the  
wood.

There are ways around this, and I personally think that charcoal produced  
with all this in mind is the best possible forge fuel.
We either pay the price by making it ourselves in a responsible way, or we  
all pay in the long run because we treated our planet unkindly.
Now to walk my talk and make charcoal in the winter, using the burnoff to  
heat my shop!

Andy G.
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