Become a Member
Donate!

Tag: forests

  • The Ecological Importance of California’s Rim Fire

    The Eco­log­i­cal Impor­tance of California’s Rim Fire  - by Chad Han­son, John Muir Project  Pho­to: Doug Bevington Since the Rim fire began in the cen­tral Sier­ra Neva­da on August 17, there has been a steady stream of fear­ful, hyper­bol­ic, and mis­in­formed report­ing in much of the media. The fire, which is cur­rent­ly 188,000 acres in size and cov­ers por­tions…

  • USDA to Expand Taxpayer Handouts to Biomass Industry

    USDA Announces Ini­tia­tive to Expand U.S. Wood-to-Ener­gy Efforts - by Sue Ret­ka Schill, Sep­tem­ber 13, 2013. Source: Bio­mass Mag­a­zine  The USDA announced a part­ner­ship agree­ment to expand wood ener­gy use, which will help improve the safe­ty and health of U.S. forests. The new part­ner­ships include USDA, the Alliance for Green Heat, the Bio­mass Pow­er Asso­ci­a­tion, the Bio­mass…

  • E.U. Agroenergy Policy: A Foreseeable Disaster

    E.U. Agroen­er­gy Pol­i­cy: A Fore­see­able Disaster In a mis­guid­ed attempt to alleged­ly tack­le run­away cli­mate change, the Euro­pean Union (E.U.) is imple­ment­ing pol­i­cy that would increase car­bon diox­ide emis­sions, dis­place native peo­ples, threat­en pub­lic health, and degrade forests and watersheds. A new report, A Fore­see­able Dis­as­ter: The Euro­pean Union’s agroen­er­gy poli­cies and the glob­al land and water grab,…

  • Australia to Reverse Ban on Native Forest Incineration

    Aus­tralia to Reverse Ban on Native For­est Incineration - by Jen­ny Weber, Huon Val­ley Envi­ron­ment Centre  Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) state gov­ern­ment has announced plans to allow native forests to be logged and burnt for elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­a­tion. Remov­ing a ban on burn­ing native for­est wood for elec­tric­i­ty would give a green light for the con­struc­tion…

  • Timber Industry Distorts Information to Exploit Our Forests

    Tim­ber Indus­try Dis­torts Infor­ma­tion to Exploit Our Forests - by Saman­tha Chir­il­lo, July 11, 2013. Source: Register-Guard Swan­son sup­pos­ed­ly states just the facts regard­ing Ore­gon’s forests and indus­try, but instead dis­torts them. Swan­son is con­nect­ed to the Swan­son Group, a fam­i­ly that owns mills depen­dent on pub­lic timber. Her bias may be expect­ed, but her…

  • Biomass and Other Transition Fuels are a False Solution

    Bio­mass and Oth­er Tran­si­tion Fuels are a False Solution - by Karen Orr, Ener­gy Jus­tice Network Clean, tru­ly renew­able ener­gy could ful­ly pow­er a large elec­tric grid 99.9 per­cent of the time by 2030, accord­ing to recent research pub­lished by the Jour­nal of Pow­er Sources. This can be done eco­nom­i­cal­ly and with­out gov­ern­ment sub­si­dies if…

  • Biomass Industry Reveals Plans to Turn U.S. into European Resource Colony

    Bio­mass Indus­try Reveals Plans to Turn U.S. into Euro­pean Resource Colony Think the days of Europe exploit­ing the U.S. as a resource colony are behind us? Wel­come back to the 18th century.  A July Bio­mass Mag­a­zine and Pel­let Mill Mag­a­zine webi­nar series, “Sat­is­fy­ing Europe’s Grow­ing Appetite for Amer­i­can Wood Pel­lets,” lays out the bio­mass industry’s dis­turb­ing plans to con­vert North Amer­i­can…

  • Oregon Biomass Battleground

    Ore­gon: Bio­mass Battleground - by Saman­tha Chir­il­lo, Ener­gy Jus­tice Network Tim­ber Town Eugene, Ore­gon buzzes along near­ly obliv­i­ous to the for­est destruc­tion and her­bi­cide poi­son­ing around it. Much like a frog in a pot of water brought to a slow boil, the tim­ber indus­try relies on what anthro­pol­o­gist and author Jared Dia­mond referred to as…

  • Biofuels and Biomass Lose Favor: Investors Beware!

    Bio­fu­els and Bio­mass Lose Favor: Investors Beware! - by Rachel Smolk­er, Biofuelwatch Hav­ing spent the past eight years or so of my life fight­ing back against large-scale com­mer­cial and indus­tri­al bioen­er­gy, it feels good to final­ly see the tides turn­ing, albeit slow­ly, maybe not always for the right rea­sons, and per­haps too lit­tle too late.…

  • Amidst Opposition, a Conference and Industry in Crisis

    Amidst Oppo­si­tion, a Con­fer­ence and Indus­try in Crisis - by Will Ben­ning­ton, Glob­al Jus­tice Ecol­o­gy Project  (Pho­to: Orin Langelle/photolangelle.org) Hun­dreds of activists descend­ed upon Asheville, North Car­oli­na in May for a week of major protests at the inter­na­tion­al bi-annu­al Tree Biotech­nol­o­gy con­fer­ence. The con­fer­ence, host­ed by the Inter­na­tion­al Union of For­est Research Orga­ni­za­tions (IUFRO), is a major…