Nitrogen Dioxide

Hmmm...

First, Covid. About 80% of the adult population has been vaccinated and the older and less healthy population are overrepresented in this group. Most of the unvaccinated population has had Covid at least once so also has developed some immunity. Also it is well understood that immunity declines over time after either vaccination or infection. And, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is mutating rapidly so there are new variants all the time which limit both the effectivness of the vaccines and of immunity after infection. And uptake of the booster shots has been much lower than the original vaccine. Given all the above, of course more vaccinated people are dying from Covid now than unvaccinated people. For myself, I have a depressed immune system so anything that reduces my risk of contracting it is good  I will continue to take every Covid booster shot that is available to me. 

Re burning natural gas, while the CO2 induced greenhouse effect was first identified in 1859 and anthropogenic climate change was first predicted in the 1890's, no one identified that it was actually occuring until the 1930s. So that is whats different now from the 1880s. Things change and our scientific understanding improves over time.

Take lead pipes as an example. They were always a problem, we just didn't understand it way  back in the day. We don't gripe about not being allowed  to use lead in our pipes anymore do we? Even though that was normal back in the 1800s? Of course not. We know it's dangerous and anyhow we've developed better alternative materials. Bet the lead industry bitched about it at the time though. 

The same thing will occur in our view of fossil fuel use in the future. For many folks whose homes are powered by solar or drive EVs that day has already arrived. My current house is 100% electric. . I dont miss having natural gas at all. 

As long as there is ventilation when cooking the "potential" issue is addressed.  Personally i dislike having the government dictate what we can and cannot do as our Founding Fathers intended that we make our own personal choices.  The latest fiasco was shown by the whole covid ordeal.  Here in northern Michigan the covid floors are inhabited by those who have had both jabs and are fully boosted, it is a rarity for one who hasn't had the jab to be admitted.

Close to 40% of U.S. households use natural gas for cooking and propane is used in nearly 12 million homes (myself included) as well.  States with large urban populations have a higher percentage with those who cook with natural gas (CA, NY, NJ, FL and such).  Funny how we haven't read about this being an issue until now as it became a commercial success in the 1880's in Britain and became widely used in the U.S. in the mid 20th century.  We will have to wait and see how this all plays out.

For me, I need my 1500 watts of solar for air conditioning in summer so I'm going to stick with my propane stove and turn on the range hood. 

Also the propane  stove I have works and I learned long ago that life goes much more smoothly for me when I stick to the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" approach.