Which Causes More Pollution?

[tractchores]

It's easy to forget that Nature is not here to serve us. Nor is it our job to "balance" things. We just happen to be here for a breif period and have made massive changes in that period. Its very possible that we will also be replaced by something else when either our own actions or some external force makes humans extinct. Our goal with things like pollution or even natural cycles (think ice age) is to try to minimize them enough so that the narrow parameters we need to live are maintained.

In terms of pecan orchards is there a market for the chips? There's a 100 acre apple orchard next to me and when they trim the trees every year they pile them up on trailers and bring them to a chipper then seem to sell the chips. I'm not sure if they're going to some kind of wood burning plant (there's a few around) or maybe for mulch or something else...

 

[/pine]

In terms of pecan orchards is there a market for the chips? There's a 100 acre apple orchard next to me and when they trim the trees every year they pile them up on trailers and bring them to a chipper then seem to sell the chips. I'm not sure if they're going to some kind of wood burning plant (there's a few around) or maybe for mulch or something else...

Check wally world or the box stores BBQ section...a 2# bag of hickory, pecan (which is in the hickory family), mesquite, cherry chips etc. etc...goes for about $4...

 

[Utopia Texas]

It's easy to forget that Nature is not here to serve us. Nor is it our job to "balance" things. We just happen to be here for a breif period and have made massive changes in that period. Its very possible that we will also be replaced by something else when either our own actions or some external force makes humans extinct. Our goal with things like pollution or even natural cycles (think ice age) is to try to minimize them enough so that the narrow parameters we need to live are maintained.

In terms of pecan orchards is there a market for the chips? There's a 100 acre apple orchard next to me and when they trim the trees every year they pile them up on trailers and bring them to a chipper then seem to sell the chips. I'm not sure if they're going to some kind of wood burning plant (there's a few around) or maybe for mulch or something else...

I suppose there is a market for pecan wood chips for BBQ but in my area of S.E. Texas (Houston) there are so many native pecans on ranches that drop limbs every year that most get their BBQ wood for free. Same goes for Mesquite which grows in this area also. At the turn of 1900 mesquite was limited to Texas right at the Mexican border 250 miles S.W. Of my location. Little by little it has creeped North and East and is now growing in S.E. Texas. To our East a few miles is the Westen boundary of the Southern pine forest that goes from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia to N. Florida. Unfortunately the State of Texas has given permits to electrical generating plants in East Texas to burn pulp pine wood and pine bark.

 

[Utopia Texas]

It's easy to forget that Nature is not here to serve us. Nor is it our job to "balance" things. We just happen to be here for a breif period and have made massive changes in that period. Its very possible that we will also be replaced by something else when either our own actions or some external force makes humans extinct. Our goal with things like pollution or even natural cycles (think ice age) is to try to minimize them enough so that the narrow parameters we need to live are maintained.

In terms of pecan orchards is there a market for the chips? There's a 100 acre apple orchard next to me and when they trim the trees every year they pile them up on trailers and bring them to a chipper then seem to sell the chips. I'm not sure if they're going to some kind of wood burning plant (there's a few around) or maybe for mulch or something else...

I suppose there is a market for pecan wood chips for BBQ but in my area of S.E. Texas (Houston) there are so many native pecans on ranches that drop limbs every year that most get their BBQ wood for free. Same goes for Mesquite which grows in this area also. At the turn of 1900 mesquite was limited to Texas right at the Mexican border 250 miles S.W. Of my location. Little by little it has creeped North and East and is now growing in S.E. Texas. To our East a few miles is the Westen boundary of the Southern pine forest that goes from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia to N. Florida. Unfortunately the State of Texas has given permits to electrical generating plants in East Texas to burn pulp pine wood and pine bark.

 

[Utopia Texas]

Check wally world or the box stores BBQ section...a 2# bag of hickory, pecan (which is in the hickory family), mesquite, cherry chips etc. etc...goes for about $4...

I would bet that a huge percentage of the cost of the BBQ wood chips is labor to grind the wood up and transportation. Unlike the lumber industry that has huge areas growing trees and has mountains of bark and chips left as a by product, pecans and cherry and have to be collected and processed from smaller orchards etc. Though mesquite is plentiful mostly in West Texas the distances to ship are great. Thus the excess cost....

 

[RaydaKub]

I still have a hard time swallowing an EPA / SCoUS ruling that CO2 is a pollutant when every green plant on earth needs it to survive and increasing CO2 concentrations encourages more plant growth, which of course produces more O2.

 

[oldpilgrim]

I wish your logic worked in all cases. I have friends who live in Tennessee coal country and they have told me of coal veins from deep caves that run up near the surface that have been burning/smoldering for hundreds if not thousands of years supposedly started by lightening. So is the coal burning by a act of nature not pollution because it is part of the natural order of things, and coal burned by man at electrical generating plants pollution? :confused3:

If nature did it,then it's part of the natural order of things, no matter how much or how long.

It's a natural thing and that type of situation has happened since the beginning of time and will continue until the end of time.

Anything we do, even if it gives the same result, is still pollution, because it was caused artificially and not part of the natural scheme of things. We are affecting nature.

Using the strictest scientific definition, I believe I'm correct.

 

[hutchman]

Burn it (it helps trees grow faster!) and then plant a tree:

Carbon dioxide emissions help tropical rainforests grow faster: Study shows trees absorb more greenhouse gas than expected | Daily Mail Online

 

[john_bud]

The chipping produces more "pollution", if you are thinking co2 is pollution. The chips will break down and oxidize over a long time putting out (eventually) the same amount of co2 as burning. BUT, all the exhaust from the chipper engine is added to that total. But it is less per year, so it looks better.

Practically there is no real difference, do either.

 

[MossRoad]

The chipping produces more "pollution", if you are thinking co2 is pollution. The chips will break down and oxidize over a long time putting out (eventually) the same amount of co2 as burning. BUT, all the exhaust from the chipper engine is added to that total. But it is less per year, so it looks better.

Practically there is no real difference, do either.

Percentage wise, there's a huge difference... did you read the part about how many hours it was going to take to chip them?