Green Energy - Fiction and Reality

The term ``Green Energy'' has been popularized to refer to energy sources that do not depend on fossil fuels. The oldest truly ``green'' energy source is wood fuel derived by photosynthesis for thermal comfort in the cold season. Thermal energy from the combustion of wood for personal heating in our 41 million fireplaces has greatly declined, due to an ``Anti-fireplace Hoax'' (1) that fireplaces are ``energy counterproductive.'' Physicists have a special obligation to address the problem that our major true source of ``Green Energy'' is widely misrepresented and neglected. 1. L. Cranberg, The Physics Teacher, Letter, January,l989