Skyrocketing fossil fuel energy prices are are driving the deforestation of Europe as citizens try to keep warm
It’s easy to argue that the “green” movement is causing much more environmental harm than good. High energy costs are leading to poverty, which in turn leads to less investment in environmental protection and nature conservation.
Biodiversity-rich forests are being cleared away to make room for wind parks and people are increasingly burning wood to stay warm as an alternative to natural gas and heating oil.
Deforestation being driven by high fossil fuel energy prices. Symbol photo by NASA.
Blackout News here reports on how forests in Romania have been falling victim to illegal logging as the energy crisis has propelled the demand for firewood and pellets to rocket speed. “In Romania, entire nature reserves are disappearing as a result.”
“The sharp increase in demand for firewood, wood chips and pellets has also caused prices for these fuels to rise sharply, making them extremely lucrative for the illegal trade,” writes Blackout News. A lack of transparency and traceability are making the problem impossible to manage.
Blackout News cites a 2021 European Commission study showing Europe’s wood industry lacks transparency and that the demand for wood for heating has more than doubled in the past twenty years. Austria alone is reported to have imported approximately 120,000 tons of pellets from Romania last year. Europe’s CO2 reductions through the burning of biomass are costing its biotope dearly. Few are talking about this. What good will reaching zero CO2 emissions be if Europe’s forests end up being sacrificed and barren?
Greenpeace Romania says illegal logging is particularly bad in Romania and that more than half of the wood processed into pellets there comes from illegal logging in Natura 2000 areas. While authorities record an annual logging volume of 18 million cubic meters, “experts assume that another 20 million cubic meters of wood are illegally felled there each year and disappear without any evidence.”
One problem hindering the crackdown on illegal logging in Romania is rampant corruption in control bodies and government agencies. Penalties for the import of illegally logged timber “are also shockingly low”.
As long as Europe continues its efforts to eliminate fossil fuels and create energy shortages, prices will skyrocket and keep boosting the demand for wood as a source of energy.
Coal saved the forests during the industrial revolution. Green mania now threatens them during the new ‘enlightenment.
True; and before oil we had beig fat rendered whale carcasses. And before plastics we cut down what was left of the forests and killed the critters living in them for their fur. So-called fossil fuels have been the greatest boon to the natural environment; Mother Nature’s old rubbish dumped in a hole in the ground. Their use is the ultimate recycling.
Newspapers and cardboard can be rolled into “logs” and used for heat and cooking.
The United States: The total generation of paper and paperboard was estimated to be 67.4 million tons in 2018. Some of this is not usable for reuse and goes to landfills. Still maybe 2/3 could be made available. This would take and effort similar to that of WWII.
Start a campaign: **Save The Trees**
We have to destroy the Earth in order to save it.
“We have to destroy the Earth in order to save it.”
Excellent summary, thanks
Who would have thought it?
Sounds like Europe is becoming the 21st century Easter Island. Great job, greens.
“You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing….. after they’ve tried everything else.” Winston Churchill
It seems the Romanians are just sticking with the worst bad idea.
Nowhere is nature safe when Greenies are operating.
The great green con in all its glory. Clean energy? No such thing.
Plundering Romania’s forests is just a speck on the iceberg’s tip. For decades, Europe’s watermelons (tyrants masquerading as environmentalists) have plundered North American & South American forests to fuel Drax (England’s largest electricity generator) and other “sustainable” technologies.
Denuding forests to reduce fossil fuel-linked CO2 is folly. Doing so slashes the #2 NATURAL carbon sink. Doing so also adversely affects erosion + watershed quality.
Cutting, processing, and hauling wood products to American ports then shipping them across the Atlantic via residual fuel oil-burning boats is folly. The energy consumed per kWh generated is many times that associated with fossil-fuel fired generators. Ditto emissions for the entire the supply chain.
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