Atmospheric chemistry: Burning domestic issues

Almost a quarter-century ago, Paul Crutzen and colleagues published pioneering work showing how the burning of biomass produces emission of a whole variety of trace gases. Since then there has been a growing realization of the environmental significance of this source of gases, and of associated particulate material, and the effects range from the local through the regional to the global. Biomass burning also influences the biogeochemical cycling of carbon and nitrogen compounds from the soil to the atmosphere. Although most such burning occurs during human-initiated land clearance and changes in land use, a large component is due to the use of biomass fuels for domestic activities. That component has not previously been quantified. As they describe in the Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry, however, Ludwig and colleagues have now provided some estimates, and the figures concerned are substantial.