Air Pollution in the “Urban Ecosystem”

The lone pioneer who set the pattern of America’s fuel economy had no need to worry about waste disposal. He used some of his fireplace residues to make fertilizer and soap. The rest he carted some convenient distance from his cabin for free venting to the forest ecosystem. Gaseous effluents and light particulates went up the flue with lost heat, as the very physics of energy conversion performed an ostensibly free clean-up service.