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– How ‘green’ electricity from wood harms the planet — and people
By Melba Newsome, Nature News Briefing.Aug 20, 2024: ”Many nations have embraced burning wood pellets to produce electricity — under the assumption that it is carbon neutral. But research shows this approach can boost greenhouse-gas emissions and threaten the health of local communities. ”
How a Japanese Earthquake Shook BC’s Forest Future
Ben Parfitt 24 Apr 2024The Tyee Tip of the Hay to Bev W for this one. “In the land of the rising sun, the light of a setting sun glints so brightly on the shiny metal piping of Renova’s Ishinomaki Hibarino power plant that you have to shield your eyes. Located north of the city of Sendai, the new thermal electricity plant is one of several in Japan that burns biomass to generate electricity, in this case enough to supply 17,000 homes. Renova’s biomass comes in one of two forms: wood pellets made from felled trees, and palm kernel shells, the waste left over after processing palm oil…Similar scenes are playing out up and down Japan’s coast at thermal electricity plants that have sprung up with eye-popping speed following the sudden and profound energy crisis thrust upon the country on March 11, 2011. An earthquake-induced energy crisis That day, one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded triggered a tsunami that devastated large swaths of Japan’s low-lying Pacific Coast, killing 20,000 people and destroying or badly damaging critical infrastructure including roads, bridges, rail lines, homes, businesses and power facilities, most notably nuclear reactors like those at Fukushima, also near Sendai…”