Quiz: What You Don't Know About Wood Energy Photograph from
Juergen Henkelmann Photography/Alamy You know that wood fires
fueled civilization’s advance from its earliest days, but how
much do you know about how wood is used for heating, cooking,
and electricity today? Quiz by Marianne Lavelle In what year did
coal surpass wood as the dominant energy source in the United
States? Fuel wood was the dominant source of energy from the
founding of the American colonies until about 1885. What
percentage of the world’s population today relies on wood and
other biomass for cooking and heating? - 10 percent - 20 percent
- 30 percent - 40 percent About 3 billion people, or more than
40 percent of the world’s people, rely on wood and other
biomass—charcoal, agricultural waste, and dung—for fuel. The
United Nations estimates emissions from inefficient wood
cookstoves cause 1.6 million premature deaths each year. In some
parts of Africa, women and children—the primary fuel
gatherers—must walk an average of 10 kilometers (6