First the god news: de-forestation is down by two-thirds since 1980:
In the past decade, the yearly reduction in forest area was 0.12 percent – down from 0.19 percent in the 1990s and 0.35 percent in the 1980s. In other words, out of 100 hectares of forested area in 2010, 98.85 hectares still green the world today. Emphatically, we are not running out of forests.
This is from the latest UN report on the subject, found via a link from Chris Lynch.
Now the bad news: ancient forest is being clear cut for wind farms:
Lately we’ve been reporting on what many people are calling one of the greatest environmental felonies in Europe: the deforestation of the 1000-year old Reinhardswald, known as the “fairy tale forest”, in order to make way for largescale industrial wind parks to produce “green” energy. Proponents claim the wind parks will save our environment and climate. Clearing the forests has already commenced.
I guess that "sustainable electricity" comes from cutting down thousand year old forest. Good to know.
Unknown whether the report talks about how deforestation is up in Scandinavia because the forests are being cut down to make wood pellet fuel. What a weird "environmentalism" that burns the forest in order to save it.
Remember when we thought keeping the old-growth forests was better for the environment than clear cutting for windmills? Good times...
ReplyDeleteI feel so old to remember that.
Plus, don't leave out that the forest is a thousand years old and wind turbines will have to be thrown out in no more than 20 years, and more like a decade, with no known way to recycle those blades. In a hundred years it'll be a bad memory with a scar on the land to show for it.
Also is the widespread deforestation to provide fuel for 'green material' powerplants.
ReplyDeleteYes, you read that right.
Get rid of your evil fossil fuel powerplant and replace it with a bio-fuel plant.
Bio-fuel in this case being... trees. Because trees are Renewable, of course.
Not kidding. This is what the Greens are doing.
Got a bunch of those 400ft turbines near here. Of course on the most scenic route through here. There's also an unsightly pile of dead blades because they don't know what to do with. No worries, Libs have all the answers. Just put solar panels in viable farm fields. Land owners love it for the tax relief but neighbors are starting to fight it.
ReplyDelete