Firewood is not an alternative. How long does it takes for a tree to grow on a hight of 3-4 store house ? 50 years? It takes several days to burn all those logs. And as you say - dust is created after burning logs, and the amount of trees decreases each day, to clean air. That is a a path to nowhere.
The alternative is anything that can help you warm up during the winter, or to cook something to eat if you have no other source of heat. There is a type of tree that grows very fast and I know it has spread a lot in Europe in the last 10-15 years - and it takes about 3-4 years to grow a tree for cultivation. The ash produced by burning wood is a good fertilizer, and it can also be used as a protection against snails if it is sprinkled around the plant. Today, it is also possible to buy smoke filters that significantly reduce pollution - so everything is not as black as many think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PaulowniaCultivation for firewood
It is planted at a distance of about 2×3 m. After 3-4 years, we get a tree with a diameter of about 20 cm and 0.25 m2. A household that annually consumes about 15 m2 of wood can plant a plantation with 200-250 trees on an area of 1000-1500 m2. After 3 years, he can start logging and cover all heating costs for the next 30 years. This is because after cutting, a new tree sprouts again from the existing root.