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InfiniteDuckling t1_j5uec03 wrote

It's a bad implication though.

Wood burning causes CO2. As does burning coal, which occurred in individual homes, not just factories. Low income people had access to fires long before industrialization. Obviously that's not reflected in the graph - likely because it's hard to track that - so the data is suspect.

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PurpleCounter1358 t1_j5xamfx wrote

No, wood burning only releases the CO2 that the tree absorbed from the air during its lifetime, which was mostly going back into the air anyway if it rots. It's the carbon cycle, whereas if you dig up coal that's carbon captured by plants that got buried long ago, so it adds to the carbon in the atmosphere now. If you want trees to sequester more carbon you can cut them down and build stuff that will last a long time, and that leaves room for a new tree and carbon stored in a useful form.

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