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Tag: forests

  • Tree plantations and bioenergy with carbon capture: far from “safe” geoengineering

    Tree plan­ta­tions and bioen­er­gy with car­bon cap­ture: far from “safe” geo­engi­neer­ing J June 11, 2013. Source: Almuth Ern­st­ing, Hands Off Moth­er Earth.  Amongst geo­engi­neer­ing meth­ods, ‘afforesta­tion’, Bioen­er­gy with Car­bon Cap­ture and Stor­age (BECCS) and biochar are com­mon­ly pro­mot­ed as ‘safe’, benign’ or ‘soft’ options – unlike, say, shoot­ing sul­phur par­ti­cles into the stratosphere. Accord­ing to a 2011…

  • A Biomassacre Down Under

    A Bio­mas­sacre Down Under  A new report out of Aus­tralia, Bio­mas­sacre: How Log­ging Australia’s Native Forests for Bioen­er­gy Harms the Cli­mate, Wildlife and Peo­ple, by Mar­kets for Change, high­lights the harm to forests, cli­mate, wildlife and human health from log­ging native forests for indus­tri­al-scale bioenergy. Instead of being a clean, green solu­tion to wean Aus­tralia off of fos­sil…

  • Biomass Incinerator is Vermont’s Biggest Polluter

    Fac­ing cli­mate change: Vermont’s biggest polluters May 29, 2013. Source: Audrey Clark, VT Digger Vermont’s rep­u­ta­tion as a green state was upheld this year when the U.S. Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency (EPA) released an inter­ac­tive map of the biggest point sources of green­house gas­es in the coun­try. In spite of, or thanks to, these facil­i­ties, Ver­mont has…

  • Report: Tree Plantations in the South to Generate Energy in the North

    Report: Tree Plan­ta­tions in the South to Gen­er­ate Ener­gy in the North -by Rachel Smolker It is always help­ful to hear the per­spec­tive of peo­ple in the “glob­al south,” espe­cial­ly when it is their land in the trop­ics that is so often tar­get­ed as a source of bio­mass ener­gy for the “north.” World Rain­for­est Move­ment (WRM) has been…

  • Biomass Energy: Dirty and Unsustainable

    Bio­mass Ener­gy: Dirty and Unsustainable - by Ron Zeller Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s con­tin­u­ing “all-out, all-in, all-of-the-above” ener­gy strat­e­gy still sup­ports bio­mass ener­gy devel­op­ment despite its increas­ing­ly obvi­ous prob­lems, numer­ous aban­doned facil­i­ties, and pub­lic rejection.  An assert­ed need to reduce Amer­i­ca’s reliance on import­ed oil is fre­quent­ly cit­ed in argu­ments made for fund­ing projects which are oth­er­wise…

  • Cellulosic Ethanol: A Bio-Fool’s Errand?

    Cel­lu­losic Ethanol: A Bio-Fool’s Errand? The good news is that the cel­lu­losic ethanol industry—turning trees and woody plants into liq­uid fuels—has yet to take off. And with­out an end­less stream of tax­pay­er hand­outs to devel­op this pol­lut­ing and envi­ron­men­tal­ly destruc­tive ener­gy source, it prob­a­bly nev­er will. Under the guise of tak­ing action on cli­mate change, the US…

  • Genetically Engineered Trees for Bioenergy Pose Major Threat to Southern Forests

    Genet­i­cal­ly Engi­neered Trees for Bioen­er­gy Pose Major Threat to South­ern Forests -by Glob­al Jus­tice Ecol­o­gy Project In response to indus­try plans to devel­op euca­lyp­tus plan­ta­tions across the US South, envi­ron­men­tal groups are rais­ing seri­ous con­cerns about the impacts of euca­lyp­tus plan­ta­tions on forests, rur­al com­mu­ni­ties, wildlife and the cli­mate, espe­cial­ly if those trees are genet­i­cal­ly engineered.…

  • The Ohio Biomess

    - by Nathan John­son, Buck­eye For­est Council News broke on Jan­u­ary 30th that Todd Snitch­ler, chair­man of the Ohio Pub­lic Util­i­ties Com­mis­sion (PUCO) was a keynote speak­er at the Amer­i­can Leg­isla­tive Exchange Council’s (ALEC) task-force meet­ing in April 2011. As many read­ers know, ALEC has been aggres­sive­ly push­ing for the repeal of renew­able ener­gy stan­dards at state leg­is­la­tures across the…

  • Study: Permanent Increase in Atmospheric CO2 from Biomass Energy

    A new study out of Nor­way demon­strates what oppo­nents of bio­mass ener­gy have been say­ing for years: log­ging forests for bioen­er­gy leads to a per­ma­nent increase in atmos­pher­ic car­bon dioxide. Bjart Holtsmark’s study, “The out­come is in the assump­tions: ana­lyz­ing the effects on atmos­pher­ic CO2 lev­els of increased use of bioen­er­gy from for­est bio­mass,” pub­lished…

  • Photos Show Whole Trees Burned for Biomass Power

    Pho­tos Show Whole Trees Burned for Bio­mass Power New evi­dence has emerged once again prov­ing that bio­mass pow­er incin­er­a­tors burn whole trees—not just wood “residues”—for fuel. The pho­tographs below (tak­en in Decem­ber 2012) show thou­sands of trees stacked and await­ing the chip­per at Hemphill Pow­er and Light, a 14-megawatt bio­mass pow­er incin­er­a­tor in Sul­li­van Coun­ty, New Hamp­shire. Click here for…