Germans will have to burn wood to stay warm this winter, warns Deutsche Bank

[Emily]

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/oth...ion-hits-40-year-high-live-updates/ar-AAZvXl7
Germans will have to burn wood to stay warm this winter, warns Deutsche Bank

James Warrington, Giulia Bottaro
13/07/2022


Some German households will be forced to heat their homes with wood instead of gas as Russia turns off the taps, according to dire warnings from analysts.

Global shortages of gas worsened by Russia’s war on Ukraine have sent prices soaring, with many consumers cutting usage in response...

 

[Emily]

https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/27/3/446.short

Shedding new light on wood smoke: a risk factor for respiratory health

C. Boman, B. Forsberg, T. Sandström
European Respiratory Journal 2006 27: 446-447; DOI: 10.1183/09031936.06.00000806

• Article
• Info & Metrics
• PDF

The burning of wood is probably our oldest source for heating and cooking, and has been used by man for tens of thousands of years. Combustion of biomass, such as wood, animal dung and crop residues, is still used for cooking and heating by a large proportion of the global population, especially in less developed countries. In the industrialised world, and in countries with a cold winter climate, wood and other biomasses are widely used for heat production in residential wood log boilers, stoves and fireplaces. With the recognition of the limitations in amounts and durability of petroleum-based products, as well as an increasing concern regarding the issue of global warming, the interest in wood and other biomasses as alternative, sustainable and CO[SUB]2[/SUB]-neutral energy sources for fuel production and heating has emerged.
In the present issue of the European Respiratory Journal, Orozco-Levi et al. 1 studied wood-smoke exposure and the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Spain. This contradicts the common assumption that “natural and biological materials” are generally friendly and harmless, as they have been in use since ancient times. Concerning the emissions from domestic wood and charcoal combustion, there is clearly a background of a large number of organic and inorganic components that may be associated with adverse biological events. The potential health effects of by-products, such as volatile organic …

 

[Emily]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-germanys-largest-russian-gas-importer-uniper

Kate Connolly in Berlin
Fri 22 Jul 2022 11.04 EDT
Olaf Scholz announces bailout for Germany’s largest Russian gas importer

Chancellor unveils government plan to take 30% stake in Uniper, as country struggles to cope with drastic cut in supplies

Germany has forged a plan to save its largest importer of Russian gas from bankruptcy amid huge energy price increases, the government has confirmed.

The chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said the government would take a 30% stake in the energy firm Uniper and also vowed more help would be offered to ordinary people who were struggling to cover soaring energy bills, adopting a crisis slogan addressed to the public: “You’ll never walk alone.”

Scholz admitted the scale of the crisis that Germany found itself in as it struggled to cope with a drastic reduction in Russian gas supplies at the same time as trying to rapidly diversify its energy provision and decrease its dependency on Moscow. Since the start of the Ukraine invasion it has cut its reliance on Russian gas from 55% to 26%, according to the economy ministry...