(I am in Hong Kong this week at the Pacific Rim Policy Exchange Conference. You can read about our discussions here: https://www.pacrimpolicyexchange.com/)

Does Mayor Nickels really care about climate change? The next few days will truly tell the tale.

Seattle Parks & Recreation has announced that they want to ban or limit bonfires on Alki Beach to combat global warming. According to the Seattle P-I, a memo from Parks & Rec argues that "Mayor Greg Nickels' plan to reduce climate-threatening pollutants 'begs the question of whether Seattle Parks is acting responsibly ... to systematically reduce controllable contributions to global warming..."

Bonfires, however, don't contribute to climate change. One reason the City of Seattle and other climate activists promote biofuels (which include "biomass" i.e. wood) is that the life-cycle carbon impact is zero. Wood and crops remove carbon from the atmosphere. The wood is then burned and the carbon is released back to the atmosphere. The next tree, however, pulls the carbon out of the atmosphere, and the cycle continues. The impact of this cycle on carbon in the atmosphere is zero.

In fact, Seattle touted this very process when it announced that Seattle Steam would use waste wood to generate energy for Seattle. In the City's "Green Ribbon" Commission report from 2006, they note that "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Guidelines generally state that there are zero net emissions from burning wood waste; in essence, because the natural cycle of vegetation is to absorb CO2 when growing and emit CO2 when decaying, burning vegetation only accelerates this process as opposed to being a source of CO2 emissions." Seattle Steam announced its plan to burn wood waste to generate energy and the City counts this as zero net emissions.

Instead of creating energy, bonfires create heat and entertainment. Is there any difference between burning wood for that purpose or for creating energy so I can watch the yule log on TV?

If the City does not shoot this nonsense down immediately, it will demonstrate that all of the climate activists' talk about science is meaningless and that climate change is merely an excuse used by the City and bureaucrats to increase their control over people.

Update: 4:20 pm

The PI is now reporting that "Seattle Parks and Recreation has backed off on considering restrictions on bonfires this year, and on possibly banning or charging fees for them at Alki and Golden Gardens beaches next year."

They did not do so, however, because their logic was flawed. A spokesman for Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher said that "He thinks things are working just fine" and so they didn't need new restrictions.

We should still get a straight answer from the Mayor and his staff about whether bonfires contribute to global warming and if this is the kind of science on which they are basing climate policy.