More scaremongering by the Scottish government this time....

[xdcx]

How the hell would they police it?

Semi related is that I requested from the council in my area info on where and what exactly is a "smoke free zone".... it has been 26 working days and they've still not sent me anything because they dont even know that! 

[BowlandStoves]

Hi @xdcx

 

Dont hold your breath! Politicians and councils talk the talk but walking the walk, we shall see

[Alycidon]

I read recently that the emissions for one Russian coal fired power station was more than the entire UK,  and they have hundreds of them as do the Chinese.  Thats where a large proportion of the world wide emissions problems start.

 

Top 5 most polluting countries

WWW.ACTIVESUSTAINABILITY.COM

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Discover which nations pump most carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere

List of countries by greenhouse gas emissions - Wikipedia

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

 

Edited February 14, 2020 by Alycidon

[neiln]

Or doesn't help when articles or discussions mix greenhouse gas emissions with particulate emissions, these are two different issues.

[Capetown]

Excellent Links Alycidon, it would be interesting to see the figures per capita and also the UK's emissions.

[BowlandStoves]

While nobody is saying that the UK is perfect in any way, I think we are a lot lot better than many countries out there. Grouping different combustion processes together under one umbrella gives a very unfair impression for things like wood burning/multifuel stoves.

 

One irony in Scotland is the building of the super duper Queensferry Crossing which is a stunning bridge. It was built to reduce congestion and traffic numbers - since it was built both congestion and traffic numbers have gone up by 3.9% (I think this was the figure). I think governments sometimes need to get their own house in order before they start throwing accussations at others

Edited February 20, 2020 by BowlandStoves

[Steven P]

12 hours ago, BowlandStoves said:

While nobody is saying that the UK is perfect in any way, I think we are a lot lot better than many countries out there. Grouping different combustion processes together under one umbrella gives a very unfair impression for things like wood burning/multifuel stoves.

 

One irony in Scotland is the building of the super duper Queensferry Crossing which is a stunning bridge. It was built to reduce congestion and traffic numbers - since it was built both congestion and traffic numbers have gone up by 3.9% (I think this was the figure). I think governments sometimes need to get their own house in order before they start throwing accussations at others

I read once that increaseing road capacity doesn't make things better in the long term, just they take a while to fill up again - so the crossing is no suprise hat more cars use it

[openspaceman]

13 hours ago, Steven P said:

I read once that increaseing road capacity doesn't make things better in the long term, just they take a while to fill up again - so the crossing is no suprise hat more cars use it

it's a variation of Parkinson's law which says work expands to fill the time available, in the same way if you fit a bigger bookshelf you will buy more books.

 

I saw this when I started driving, many folk still had no cars and the local factory workers mostly bussed, walked or cycled to work. Once cars were common people would compete for work further than 5 miles or so, then the M25 was built and it became feasible to commute a few towns away, so my schoolmate took a job in East Grinstead which had been a 2 hour trek but was now 55 minutes and it was his time (and higher pay) which were the considerations rather than fuel consumption.

 

 

[xdcx]

On 13/02/2020 at 14:13, BowlandStoves said:

Hi @xdcx

 

Dont hold your breath! Politicians and councils talk the talk but walking the walk, we shall see

So it has taken the council over 2 months to reply to a FOI which they are meant to reply to within 20 working days... Anyways, after 2 months, they have confirmed that there are NO smoke control zones in the Highlands of Scotland at all. 

[daltontrees]

Good point, and well done for dragging the inof out of the Council.

 

If there's no SCZs, there would be an initial preference for introducing them before considering banning the sale of pollutiong fuels. And surely a ban should be based on population density or measured existing pollution?

 

The government currently does exactly nothing to police the suitability of wood burning stoves in SCZs. A list is published every now and again of makes and models that comply with the higher standard for stoves in SCZs. If you waited for it to be updated you'd never buy a stove; models have been known to go out of production before they make it onto the scottish list. Instead pretty much anyone who cares just buys a DEFRA approved stove (english standards), which mostly eventually make it on to the scottish list.

 

Again, requiring compliance with stove spec is something that could be done long before banning wood. There's also the possibility of phasing out non-compliant stoves even in non SCZs.

 

It'll be interesting to see how th english regs are to work. Will it be illegal to give away wood? WiIl it be illegal to possess it? To transport it? To burn it? Are they going to pull the burning log out of the fire and check its humidity as evidence?