Biomass, or bioenergy, creates energy by burning living materials like plants and trees. The wood pellet industry uses trees to make wood pellets. It then ships them to Europe and Asia where they’re burned in power plants to create electricity. Wood pellet plants are as dirty and problematic as coal plants. Burning trees (via burning […]
The Southern US contains about 2% of the world’s forests but produces over a fifth of the world’s timber products. Therefore, we have a particularly important charge to protect the forests & communities that depend on them from industrial forest practices. Earlier this month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report on […]
This op-ed originally appeared in The Charlotte Observer. Authors: Norman L. Christensen, Ph.D. & William H. Schlesinger, Ph.D. *** Today we joined over 100 scientists to send a letter to Governor Roy Cooper, urging him to address the threats posed by the wood pellet industry and to protect North Carolina’s forests. These threats include emissions of […]
I attended the Innovation Forum’s Washington, DC conference on “How businesses can tackle deforestation.” In the midst of all the great discussions, I noticed the deforestation associated with industrial forestry in the Southern US, our own backyard, didn’t get the air time it deserves.
