On Second Thought? No Way. *

How ironic that after #1 I finally get a fireplace after longing for one all of my conscious days and #2 blogging about enjoying the fire, I get a Sierra Club email in my inbox warning of how polluting outdated fireplaces are.

My first inclination is to proclaim that my fireplace is not outdated. If it is original to the house which is circa 1974, it probably is. Since I have no intention of jumping on this environmental bandwagon, my next inclination is to get indignant.

I try really hard to reduce, reuse, and recycle as much as I can. My friend Tashmica cracks jokes about me saving the little yogurt cups (but I mostly buy the yogurt in the big carton, honestly!) For most of my married life we had one car and either biked, walked or used public transportation when needed. I still try to combine trips and not drive more than I have to, in my partial zero emissions vehicle. I avoid disposable water bottles almost always and we drink water from our Siggs. I bought a used house, not a brand new one. In Michigan I shopped consignment shops for my clothes. My water heater is wrapped in insulation, we have it turned low, and I often time my showers. I wash in cold water when possible and use laundry detergent and dish detergent that supposedly won't harm the environment. My "tupperware" is all plastic containers above 2. I make as much of our food from scratch as possible. I garden and buy from local farmers in the summer. I buy a whole chicken and pick every scrap of meat off, then boil the carcass for broth. I carried a ham bone from Ohio to New York to save it from wastefulness. Even my dog is secondhand. Listen environmental fanatics - you will not take this one from me. I keep my heat at 59 degrees at night - the least you can do is let me build a little fire in my fireplace. Oh - and what's all this chatter on the board about only building fires when it rains? Where do you live, Environmental Police? Building fires when it rains? You mean you don't wait until there's 2 feet of snow on the ground and the windchill is howling below zero? Clearly you must live somewhere where it doesn't go below 32 degrees, and therefore, perhaps you really have no excuse to build a fire. But I am going to enjoy such a luxury after shoveling snow or sledding with my kids.

People have been burning wood for thousands of years. Maybe millions. I don't think the ozone started getting holes from woodsmoke. I would bet money that all of our coal and gas use is far more hazardous to the climate.

Even if people's home fires are singlehandedly bringing about climate change, when California falls into the Pacific and it rains in Syracuse in January instead of snows, I will still build fires in my fireplace. So please leave me alone.

Rant over. I will now retrieve my homemade granola bars from the oven and ask Jeff to build a fire.