Not a Lot of People Know That by By Paul Homewood h/t Robin Guenier
I have been covering the scandal of burning forests for power, only made possible by obscene subsidies and EU rules that class it as “zero carbonâ€.
I am pleased to see that several hundred scientists have now written to Biden von der Leyen and others, objecting to the practice on scientific rather than environmental grounds:
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-103.pngTheir basic argument is that the new biomass industry is not sustained by offcuttings, as claimed, but by wholly new harvesting. As I have been arguing, it could take decades for the carbon dioxide released from burning to be offset by regrowth. And that assumes that these forests will be replaced, an unlikely scenario.
In the meantime of course, more trees will be chopped down for burning, leaving a permanent “carbon debtâ€. As they point out, burning wood for power is far more carbon intensive than coal or gas, as it has a lower energy content.
Worse still, more than half of the wood is lost in harvesting and processing, long before it reaches the power station, adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere without even replacing fossil fuels. (They might also have mentioned the emissions resulting from processing and shipping).
More:
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2021/02/11/hundreds-of-scientists-write-to-biden-to-stop-dirty-biomass-industry/