Why We Still Need Scientists

This past week....the EPA came out with a full report (207 pages) and new rules over wood-burning stoves.

Yeah, wood-burning stoves.

Yeah, actual real wood-burning stoves.

I would strongly recommend that you click above and go through the first dozen pages and note the various graphic charts, statistical analysis, and expert opinion over wood-burning stoves.

For roughly 240 years....America survived without any regulation or such....on wood-burning stoves.  Now?  Roughly 300 pages of new regulations will come into play.

Who produced the full report (207 pages) on wood stoves?  Well, that's an odd thing....there's no names attached to it. No professors, no engineers, no doctors, no PhD folks, and no science folks.

The end of the document does have a number of pages to cite where they gathered their data, which seems to be legit.

Where do you get experts on wood stoves?  If I asked my brother, he'd likely lead me over to Sand Mountain or some remote area of Tennessee where folks have a long and distinguished career in wood stoves.  They'd cite the best wood to burn....the way to ensure your stove lasts for decades....and how to properly clean it.  Respiratory talk?  Well....they'd ask how you vented it and if the chimney was properly cleared once a year.  Respiratory talk from this report?  Oh, there's fancy graphical charts and various talk about bad things that could occur....if you were stupid about hooking it up.

The general problem here?  Whoever wrote this.....probably won't appear in public.....nor appear on CNN or the Today Show.  It's probably a college professor from California, who has never been in a house with a wood stove in his or her life.

The necessity of government involvement in wood stove management?  Why limit it to just this.....why not include out-houses, or home-gardens as well?

Forty years ago.....if you'd been hired by some governmental agency and told to write such a report.....you would have just laughed and walked out of the room.  The truth is....we have way too many scientists now standing around with no real job or anything to do, and the government answer is to produce reports like this.