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Tag: forests

  • $10 Million Taxpayer Money to Convert Beetle-Killed Trees to Biofuel

    $10 Mil­lion Tax­pay­er Mon­ey to Con­vert Bee­tle-Killed Trees to Biofuel - by Ash­ley Sanchez, Novem­ber 6, 2013, Source: ABC Fox Montana The Uni­ver­si­ty of Mon­tana is award­ed part of a $10 mil­lion grant to find ways to turn bee­tle-killed trees into biofuel. Pine bee­tle infes­ta­tions have impact­ed more than 42 mil­lion acres of U.S. forests for more…

  • Wood – An Imperfect Biomass

    Wood – An Imper­fect Biomass - by Jack Dini, Novem­ber 12, 2013, Source: Cana­da Free Press The largest, so-called renew­able fuel used in Europe is not solar pow­er or wind pow­er, but wood. As The Econ­o­mist reports, “In its var­i­ous forms, from sticks to pel­lets to saw­dust, wood (or to use its fash­ion­able name, bio­mass) accounts for about half…

  • Forests Could Face Threat from Biomass Power “Gold Rush”

    Forests Could Face Threat from Bio­mass Pow­er “Gold Rush” - by Jamie Doward, The Observ­er Britain’s new gen­er­a­tion of bio­mass pow­er sta­tions will have to source mil­lions of tonnes of wood from thou­sands of miles away if they are to oper­ate near to their full capac­i­ty, rais­ing ques­tions about the claims made for the sus­tain­abil­i­ty of the…

  • Outsourcing Forests Costs Thousands of Jobs

    Out­sourc­ing Forests Costs Thou­sands of Jobs - by Roy Keene Log and chip exports, con­sti­tut­ing a third of Oregon’s annu­al tim­ber har­vest, are out­sourc­ing over a bil­lion board feet of wood and thou­sands of domes­tic man­u­fac­tur­ing jobs. Yet Bar­num fails to even men­tion exports, let alone account for the loss­es. As direc­tor of the Ore­gon For­est Resources…

  • Typhoons, Climate Negotiations and a Reality Check

    Typhoons, Cli­mate Nego­ti­a­tions and a Real­i­ty Check - by Rachel Smolk­er, Biofuelwatch The lat­est round of cli­mate nego­ti­a­tions are open­ing just as we are hear­ing the sto­ries and view­ing images on the news cov­er­age of the dev­as­ta­tion wrought on the Philip­pines by Typhoon Haiyan (aka Yolan­da).  Coin­ci­den­tal­ly, the last round of cli­mate nego­ti­a­tions, COP 18 in…

  • False Solutions for Forests: Biomass Energy, Sustainable Timber, and Carbon Markets

    False Solu­tions for Forests: Bio­mass Ener­gy, Sus­tain­able Tim­ber, and Car­bon Markets - by Jeff Conant, Friends of the Earth In the land­scape of glob­al defor­esta­tion, a ten­sion exists between poli­cies and prac­tices aimed at draw­ing a sharp halt to the exploita­tion of forests and for­est peo­ples and those designed to stim­u­late a vague­ly promised mar­ket shift toward…

  • Yosemite’s Burned Areas Are Alive

    Yosemite’s Burned Areas Are Alive - by Chad Han­son, Octo­ber 3, 2013. Source: Los Ange­les Times It was entire­ly pre­dictable. Even before the ash­es have cooled on the 257,000-acre Rim fire in and around Yosemite this year, the tim­ber indus­try and its allies in Con­gress were using the fire as an excuse for sus­pend­ing envi­ron­men­tal laws and expand­ing log­ging oper­a­tions on fed­er­al land. “The Yosemite Rim…

  • Anti‑G.E. Trees Group Censored by University of Florida

    Envi­ron­men­tal group kicked off UF campus - by Jeff Schweers, Octo­ber 28, 2013. Source: Gainesville Sun An envi­ron­men­tal group that was sched­uled to make a pre­sen­ta­tion on Mon­day at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Flori­da on genet­i­cal­ly engi­neered trees was kicked off cam­pus over the week­end and its mem­bers threat­ened with arrest and banned for three years. Orga­niz­ers with the Glob­al…

  • (October 2013) ANTI-BIOMASS CAMPAIGN CALL RECORDING & NOTES: “Debunking Wildfire Myths”

    Anti-Bio­mass Incin­er­a­tion Cam­paign — Nation­al Con­fer­ence Call  Thurs­day, Octo­ber 3, 2013 at 6pm EST TOPIC: “Debunk­ing Wild­fire Myths” RECORDING: Debunk­ing Wild­fire Myths — Octo­ber 2013 We dis­cuss how we can improve our advo­ca­cy about wild­fire and for­est prac­tices and how those top­ics are insep­a­ra­ble from bio­mass incineration.  What’s chang­ing with our West­ern U.S. for­est ecosys­tems, pub­lic bud­gets, and wood…

  • October 2013) ANTI-BIOMASS CAMPAIGN CALL RECORDING & NOTES: “Debunking Wildfire Myths”

    Anti-Bio­mass Incin­er­a­tion Cam­paign — Nation­al Con­fer­ence Call  Thurs­day, Octo­ber 3, 2013 at 6pm EST TOPIC: “Debunk­ing Wild­fire Myths” RECORDING: Debunk­ing Wild­fire Myths — Octo­ber 2013 We dis­cuss how we can improve our advo­ca­cy about wild­fire and for­est prac­tices and how those top­ics are insep­a­ra­ble from bio­mass incineration.  What’s chang­ing with our West­ern U.S. for­est ecosys­tems, pub­lic bud­gets, and wood…