Situation: You heat your home with electric heat. You wish to reduce your
electric bills, so you have decided to burn wood in a wood furnace.
Answer the following:
1. What are the ENVIRONMENTAL advantages and disadvantages of doing this?
2. What other steps could you take to conserve electricity?

1. The environmental advantages are:

A. Burning trees results in the same or lesser amounts of carbon dioxide emission as that tree converted to oxygen in its lifetime (Compared to fossil fuels)

B.  Burning plants will not create any type of toxic material or carcinogen, which makes it very easy to dispose of the remains quickly and safely.

2. Some disadvantages are:

A. Power plants are much more efficient at converting fuel into electricity than homemade alternatives(Many coal burning powerplants cost over 2 Billion to assemble), hence they are able to release less total greenhouse gasses for more total electricity.

B. If you cut down a tree for the sole purpose of burning it, it's likely that you have just destroyed the home or habitat of an animal, such as a fox. This is detrimental to the environment for obvious reasons.

2. Steps you can take to conserve electricity could be:

A. Turn off lights when you are not in the room

B. Make sure your house is sealed from the outside to prevent loss of heat during the winter, or loss of air conditioning resources during the summer.

C. Install facilities that generate clean electricity like solar panels around or on your house (Though the environmental impact of their production by some companies has been questioned through the creation of silicon byproducts and improper disposal).

Explanation: