By Emily Zucchino, 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.
Today, 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.
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. Merchants Mill
