Flames

Some consider fire the greatest invention ever. Maybe domestication of fire is a better term, but someone did us a monumental favor in discovering how to control and use it. After millennia, the human race is addicted to flames.

A campfire creates an ideal setting for telling stories, shooting the bull, enjoying life. A fireplace remains an asset despite it's questionable reliability in heating a home. We love to look at flames and contemplate life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

We depend on fire to heat our homes, to create electricity for running our gadgets, even to move our cars down the road. Most of that fire is fueled by oil, gas, and coal, the remains of ancient living things. Now existing life is paying a price. The world, once all snug by the fire, is beginning to overheat under an ever thicker blanket. And we don't know how to throw off the covers.

There is a lot of talk about our carbon footprint, and for good reason. It's a well-documented problem with potentially catastrophic consequences. Nearly every fire produces carbon, and carbon covers the earth. Some say, not to worry; the Lord is returning soon, so let's keep emulating hell while we're here. I think loving thy neighbor might involve more than regular church attendance, an occasional hot meal, and a promise of heaven where there is sure to be unlimited air-conditioning. It might include caring for our shared home here.

But I also wonder about a smaller problem than the growing blanket of carbon. While all those fires generate carbon, they also create heat. Have you ever looked at a freeway full of cars (especially in summer) and considered all the heat they are leaving in their wake? Nearly all the power plants and all the factories that use the power generate heat. I suspect the dissipated heat is a minor problem compared to the carbon blanket and heat from the sun. But a little oil lamp warms an igloo. Even a candle can make a small space uncomfortable if it's already warm enough. While the blanket gets thicker, the heater keeps running.

I recently renovated a home and replaced the furnace with heat pumps. In chilly weather, the outdoor compressor unit blows out cold air. It's impressive, and somewhat baffling. Somehow this newfangled refrigerator squeezes heat out of cold air to warm my home and dispenses even colder air in return. Of course, eventually the warmth seeps out of my house and the process repeats. There's a net loss of energy, mind you, but it's not quite the same as just heating everything up with fire. And of course, the electricity to run the heat pumps mostly comes from flame-powered generators. So, until we offset that power with solar panels, our carbon use is still greater than ideal. Adding to that, flames in a wood-burning fireplace will help heat us during cold snaps.

Lately, some researchers have found that unvented fires, even the controlled ones, inside a house can be detrimental to our health. Some have suggested eventually banning the sale of gas stoves and ovens. Predictably, this has been construed as a grave conspiracy from the Left to strip us of our God-given right to bare flames.

An induction stove is a fine replacement for a gas stove. But I'll miss the flames, just as I do when I use an electric-coil stove. Our ancestors have been friends with fire for hundreds of thousands of years. I guess you can expect some nostalgia, and some resistance to putting out the fire.