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Tag: climate

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Speak Up On “National Bioenergy Truth Day” – Thursday, October 17

    Speak Up On “Nation­al Bioen­er­gy Truth Day” – Thurs­day, Octo­ber 17  Please take 5 min­utes of your time on Thurs­day, Octo­ber 17 to make phone calls to select mem­bers of the U.S. Sen­ate Com­mit­tee on Ener­gy and Nat­ur­al Resources (list­ed below with talk­ing points) to voice your oppo­si­tion to the lat­est piece of leg­is­la­tion that would open the…

  • European Biofuels Vote Delivers ‘Desperately Weak Compromise’

    Euro­pean Bio­fu­els Vote Deliv­ers ‘Des­per­ate­ly Weak Compromise’ - by Karl Math­iesen, Sep­tem­ber 11, 2013. Source: The Guardian The Euro­pean par­lia­ment has deliv­ered a “des­per­ate­ly weak com­pro­mise” on the future of bio­fu­els in Europe that indus­try says will “cur­tail jobs and investment”. In a tight vote on the use of bio­fu­els in trans­port fuel, the par­lia­ment approved a 6% cap on the…

  • Biofuels Project Pushing Thousands of People into Hunger in Africa

    Bio­fu­els Project Push­ing Thou­sands of Peo­ple into Hunger in Africa - Sep­tem­ber 4, 2013. Source: ActionAid A bio­fu­els project praised by the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion as envi­ron­men­tal­ly and social­ly respon­si­ble is push­ing thou­sands of peo­ple into pover­ty in one of the poor­est coun­tries in the world, a new Action­Aid report said today. The report comes as MEPs pre­pare to…

  • Florida Forest Service Report on Forest Sustainability Challenged

    Flori­da For­est Ser­vice Report on For­est Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Challenged - by Bruce Ritchie, Sep­tem­ber 6, 2013. Source: The Flori­da Current A Flori­da For­est Ser­vice report required by 2012 leg­is­la­tion found that the state’s forests over­all are sus­tain­able but there are some coun­ties where some types of trees are being har­vest­ed faster than they are being grown. The report was required by HB…

  • Dirty Air for Power We Don’t Need

    Dirty Air for Pow­er We Don’t Need - by Dick Stokes, Sep­tem­ber 19, 2013. Source: Gainesville-Sun The “big lie” method involves mak­ing a claim so pre­pos­ter­ous peo­ple assume it must be true. Gainesville Region­al Util­i­ties made the pre­pos­ter­ous claim that the air will be clean­er after the bio­mass incin­er­a­tor (the Gainesville Renew­able Ener­gy Cen­ter) starts burn­ing tons of wood…

  • Biomass Energy Never Carbon Neutral

    Bio­mass Ener­gy Nev­er Car­bon Neutral -by Karen Orr, Ener­gy Jus­tice Network Bio­mass ener­gy is not car­bon neu­tral and nev­er will be. For years sci­en­tif­ic stud­ies have shown that bio­mass ener­gy isn’t car­bon neu­tral in any use­ful time frame. A 2012 study from Nor­way demon­strates that log­ging forests for bio-ener­gy leads to a per­ma­nent increase in atmos­pher­ic car­bon diox­ide.…

  • Biomass Industry Fans Flames of Wildfire Hysteria

    Bio­mass Indus­try Fans Flames of Wild­fire Hysteria  California’s Rim fire, expect­ed to be ful­ly “con­tained” by Octo­ber after ignit­ing in Yosemite Nation­al Park on August 17, will ulti­mate­ly ben­e­fit the forests it has passed through. While media accounts sen­sa­tion­al­ize such large wild­fires as “cat­a­stroph­ic” and “dis­as­trous,” sci­ence demon­strates that, to the con­trary, fire is a vital com­po­nent of…