One of the catalysts that empowered me try to get involved with the city workings is the air quality, for those of us who are long time residents have experienced the air quality getting much worse over the years, and believe me, the air was nothing to brag about back in the 70's and 80's.
Though in the last ten years air quality is so bad with particulates, people are trapped inside, not able to go outside and play with our children because it usually means a trip to the emergency room to use a ventilator.
There is nothing more scary to a parent than a child gasping for air, having to be rushed to the hospital at 2am. The national average of children being born with asthma in Canada is 15%, (way to many) yet for Kamloops 1 in 5 kids, (35%) suffer from some form of respitory problems, my son being one of them.
The major contributors to poor air quality is the mills who pollute 24/7/365 days a year, and our own Ministry Of Environment who give their stamp of approval. MOE add insult to injury, burning deadfall in the spring, winter, and fall so much that it creates a thick blue haze through out the province.
Our trusty mayor and council are also to blame, year after year extending the mills permit to pollute as much as they want. Mission flats which is in the heart of the city, is a cesspool of ignorance, new polluting companies opening up each year.
One of the culprits was a railway tie grinding facility that has since late 09 has moved , sending up dust and particulates into the airshed that blocks out the mountains regularly. As councilor Pat Wallace puts it, "jobs are important", thus the need to disregard peoples health, thus the need to disregard science that proves polluting pricks are making people sick.
There is technology that will clean up slash burning pollution but MOE who is responsible for our environment is afraid it might cause hardship, it costs money, and GOD Forbid we can't charge a corporation ....so Gordon Camble charges the tax payer with "carbon tax". Not that it will make the air any cleaner, or force corporations to reduce their emissions of either CO2 or particulates...no it just drains the citizens of more tax dollars to pay for the Olympics, making it look like progress.
Below are incinerators that burn five times faster than slashpiles, produce zero emissions, and can be burnt 24/7/365 days a year. Instead MOE and city morons in power refuse to use them, instead the dickheads push the it into big piles, wait till the wood soaks up water like a dish rag, then in the dead of winter try to burn billions of tons of wood. What ends up happened is the wood smolders because of the low tempatures, because the wood has a high moisture content, because these guys are a bunch of selfserving, moronic assholes who could care less about any one but themselves, simply going through the motions, spending the allotted amounted so next year the budget will increase. you don't need a PHD to see the thick blue air on the horizon.
I have been in the wood business for 18 years, cleaning, repairing, installing EPA appliances, so I have some experience with proper combustion. I know what causes particulates, creosote or carbon. I figured the city would like to learn about these machines called "airburners", and perhaps lease one for ten grand for a couple of months. I did a presentation to council but mighty Mc Dorkle insisted we couldn't afford one....no instead smoking the hell out of the community is just fine for him.
Three months later Mc Dorkle spends $350 000 grand on a wood chipper and operator that will chip 6" twigs.
That being shot down, I again went before council asking for an "airshed" program be instigated. Airshed program is where citizens, health officials and corporations get together to reduce pollution in the air, most other communities have them. Terry Lake, then mayor, insisted "we can't control air" and "I'm sick and tired of provincial passing responsibility to municipalities". Uh Terry, if you had any clue you would know its about limiting what goes into the air, not which direction it flows.
Now Terry is our MLA, and low and behold he is saying, there's not enough air pollution, lets invite a railway tie incinerator into our city. Hey it creates jobs, what's a few people dyeing from cancer, or a few kids being born with asthma, no big deal....hey China is doing it!
Wood stoves are given a bad rap by those who have clue what wood is all about, these are the same people who install natural gas like it was going out of style. They "think" that just because there is no smoke from natural gas that is must be clean. Actually natural gas is just as polluting as vehicles contributing to global warming. Natural gas produces 7Xs more CO2 and 350Xs more methane gas which is worse than CO2 for trapping heat in the ozone. Besides that every year hundreds of people are killed and injured from gas poisoning or explosions.
Wood on the other hand is carbon neutral, yes it called " bio fuel" because it is above ground, and it produces the same amount of CO2 rotting that it does burning. There can be particulate pollution as well if it is not burnt properly. wood needs to be dry, (no moisture) warm,(when was the last time u saw a forest fire in winter?) and proper amounts of oxygen to combust cleanly.
(pushed into big piles with dirt does not allow enough air to properly combust).
In the old days wood stoves would smoke the hell out of the valley for a couple of months a year with particulates. Our moronic government has taken this one step further, 9 out of ten mills in BC smoke 24/7/365, MOE slash burning 24/7 for 9-10 months out of the year, then the bastards have the gaul to blame residential wood stoves. To much of anything is bad, and thick blue smoke year round due to mills and slashburning is causing health problems for many.
In the last ten years technology has improved to a point woodstoves have a secondary burn system so they reburn the smoke before it enters the chimney. Thus there's practically no smoke, no chimney fires, as a result woodstoves use half as much wood so it is very practical and sought after, especially since the high costs of natural gas due to politicians selling out to private corporations. Wood is free energy, will never be banned, will save your ass in a power or gas outages, can be put anywhere in an existing home, (even if you don't have a fireplace), looks and feels beautiful.
PINE BEETLE BATTLE :<(