SOS! National Day of Action to Save Our Southern Forests

-By Emi­ly Zucchi­no, Octo­ber 28, 2014, Dog­wood Alliance

Today’s biggest threat to South­ern forests is the grow­ing bio­mass indus­try. The wood pel­let indus­try is expand­ing at a rate that is impos­si­ble for South­ern forests to sus­tain. Our beau­ti­ful forests are being clear-cut, processed into pel­lets and then shipped to Europe to be burned for electricity.

We know that our forests aren’t fuel, and that’s why we’re send­ing an SOS to EU pol­i­cy­mak­ers to Save Our South­ern forests.

On Novem­ber 13th, as the wood prod­ucts indus­try meets in Chesa­peake, VA to cel­e­brate the destruc­tion and export of our incred­i­ble forests, peo­ple from across the US are com­ing togeth­er for a Nation­al Day of Action to send an SOS to Save Our South­ern forests. With 20 exist­ing wood pel­let facil­i­ties and 33 pro­posed, it’s cru­cial that we show EU pol­i­cy­mak­ers that the bio­mass indus­try is bad for our envi­ron­ment, our com­mu­ni­ties and our econ­o­my. Join us in send­ing an SOS of more than 10,000 mes­sages to EU policymakers.

Join us on Novem­ber 13th to send an SOS to Save Our South­ern forests.

PLEDGE TO TAKE ACTION NOW!

The increased demand for wood as a fuel source in the EU and par­tic­u­lar­ly in the Unit­ed King­dom is dri­ving the expan­sion of wood pel­let man­u­fac­tur­ing and export in the South­ern US. We call on pol­i­cy­mak­ers in the EU to hear our SOS and take action to stop the destruc­tion of these forests.

The large-scale burn­ing of wood pel­lets is not a solu­tion to cli­mate change or a fea­si­ble alter­na­tive to coal.

Mount­ing sci­en­tif­ic research shows that burn­ing wood pel­lets man­u­fac­tured from trees will increase near-term car­bon emis­sions and accel­er­ate cli­mate change. A recent report released by the UK Depart­ment of Ener­gy and Cli­mate Change con­firms that all sce­nar­ios in which whole trees or coarse woody resid­u­als are used for wood pel­lets pro­duce a result that is not car­bon beneficial.

Addi­tion­al­ly, our liv­ing forests pro­vide many benefits.

Stand­ing forests are our best defense against cli­mate change through gath­er­ing and stor­ing carbon.

Forests pro­vide our com­mu­ni­ties with clean air to breathe, water to drink, and nat­ur­al pro­tec­tion from flood­ing and hur­ri­canes. They are home to count­less species of plants and ani­mals found nowhere else on Earth. Cut­ting them down as a solu­tion to the cli­mate cri­sis is bad pol­i­cy and makes no sense. We can no longer invest in for­est destruc­tion; we need to focus on for­est conservation.

Pro­tect our bot­tom­land wet­land forests!

Join us on Novem­ber 13th to send an SOS to EU policymakers.

Help us reach our goal of 10,000 messages!