Book Burning in Wales

Due to a shortage of fuel and lower temperatures, people in Wales are buying cheap books at second hand stores and burning them for fuel. Am I a bad proto-librarian if I'm more concerned about the toxic fumes from the books and their covers than the actual burning of the books themselves? I consider second hand stores (not used book stores) the last stop for books. Is it really going to hurt if some people burn a bunch of Maeve Binchy books? Okay, maybe some. Burning books does nothing to help literacy. The article provides some alternative fuels. What about old encyclopedias, though? Are they really going to get another use other than rotting in some landfill later on? Is burning for fuel to survive a better use for them?