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CNN: Green economy facade in Europe built on American pollution

TheOriginalHappyGoat

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Oct 4, 2010
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CNN just posted an interesting read about biomass burning. Lauded as a "green" energy, biomass is essentially the burning of wood pellets instead of coal. In theory, the pellets are made from waste product from paper and furniture production, allowing energy producers to use the wood waste to substitute the burning of fossil fuels. Sounds like a good plan at first glance. Only, there are several problems.

First, burning wood still creates emissions. It's even less efficient than burning coal, in fact. But, because some paper-pusher long ago decided that biomass emissions should be counted at the wood's source, not at it's burning location (???), European energy producers can reduce their carbon footprint on paper (and on paper only) by importing wood from America.

Second, the regulation was written in such a way as to not limit it to waste wood, but to allow the harvesting of trees for the primary purpose of creating pellets. According to the article, 164 acres of trees are cut down in North Carolina (the state that is the focus of the article) each day just to create these biomass pellets.

Third, production of the pellets themselves creates a ton of pollution. Like most unsightly things in the age of NIMBY, these production plants in North Carolina have found themselves in poor (and black) counties, creating health problems for the residents.

So, in short, American trees are being cut down, causing harm to the American environment, and to the health of American citizens, so that the wood can be shipped to Europe, where it is inefficiently burned, contributing to climate change - all because the regulations are written in such a way that the European energy producers don't have the claim the carbon as their own.

 
That is sad all the way around. It has been over 120 in British Columbia, North of Arctic Circle in Siberia has reached 118. And some of the people claiming to be working to stop this are playing games.
 
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So much for the Paris Treaty huh.
CNN just posted an interesting read about biomass burning. Lauded as a "green" energy, biomass is essentially the burning of wood pellets instead of coal. In theory, the pellets are made from waste product from paper and furniture production, allowing energy producers to use the wood waste to substitute the burning of fossil fuels. Sounds like a good plan at first glance. Only, there are several problems.

First, burning wood still creates emissions. It's even less efficient than burning coal, in fact. But, because some paper-pusher long ago decided that biomass emissions should be counted at the wood's source, not at it's burning location (???), European energy producers can reduce their carbon footprint on paper (and on paper only) by importing wood from America.

Second, the regulation was written in such a way as to not limit it to waste wood, but to allow the harvesting of trees for the primary purpose of creating pellets. According to the article, 164 acres of trees are cut down in North Carolina (the state that is the focus of the article) each day just to create these biomass pellets.

Third, production of the pellets themselves creates a ton of pollution. Like most unsightly things in the age of NIMBY, these production plants in North Carolina have found themselves in poor (and black) counties, creating health problems for the residents.

So, in short, American trees are being cut down, causing harm to the American environment, and to the health of American citizens, so that the wood can be shipped to Europe, where it is inefficiently burned, contributing to climate change - all because the regulations are written in such a way that the European energy producers don't have the claim the carbon as their own.

That’s s fair analysis. I think you should do a similar one for making a lithium ion battery for vehicles. I’d be interested in the Chinese exploitation of Black Africans in rare earth production and the human rights abuses in Chinese ore prosessing plants. All of that so we can feel smug about electric cars. Similar to European smuggary about biomass.

BTW, I have a pellet stove at my cabin, the pellets are much more efficient than cord wood, but you are right, it’s still combustion.
 
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That is sad all the way around. It has been over 120 in British Columbia, North of Arctic Circle in Siberia has reached 118. And some of the people claiming to be working to stop this are playing games.
Well, the science is so h-a-a-a-r-d.

You have to add up all these temperatures from really old records and use sixth-grade long division to figure how the average/mean temperature is changing. If dumbasses can't do the arithmetic, they obviously think they're justified in calling it a hoax.

There may, maybe, be grounds to wonder about the cause. I don't think there is any rational reason to doubt the average temps are going up. (Those old mercury thermometers calibrated to one-tenth of a degree from 100 years ago were not inaccurate, just not as fancy.)
 
That’s s fair analysis. I think you should do a similar one for making a lithium ion battery for vehicles. I’d be interested in the Chinese exploitation of Black Africans in rare earth production and the human rights abuses in Chinese ore prosessing plants. All of that so we can feel smug about electric cars. Similar to European smuggary about biomass.

BTW, I have a pellet stove at my cabin, the pellets are much more efficient than cord wood, but you are right, it’s still combustion.
I may be wrong, but I think I read that China itself has many mines within its own borders, supplying rare ores needed for the horde of new batteries being used today.

So, maybe China will just keep exploiting its own minorities instead of Africans (China is good at exploiting everybody, though).
 
That’s s fair analysis. I think you should do a similar one for making a lithium ion battery for vehicles. I’d be interested in the Chinese exploitation of Black Africans in rare earth production and the human rights abuses in Chinese ore prosessing plants. All of that so we can feel smug about electric cars. Similar to European smuggary about biomass.

BTW, I have a pellet stove at my cabin, the pellets are much more efficient than cord wood, but you are right, it’s still combustion.
I don't know much about lithium mining, but many of these green technologies are going to have trades. Lithium recycling technology is currently in its infancy, and it will need to be perfected for electric cars to be ubiquitous.

But the smugness isn't the same. Unlike biomass burning, electric cars actually do have the ability to lower overall emissions.

That said, I think when it comes to truly green and sustainable energy, this is one of those areas that you and I are actually in agreement, if I recall. The only long-term solution is solar energy beamed to earth in the form of microwaves, and the smartest - and greenest - bridge technology to get us there is nuclear power.
 
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I don't know much about lithium mining, but many of these green technologies are going to have trades. Lithium recycling technology is currently in its infancy, and it will need to be perfected for electric cars to be ubiquitous.

But the smugness isn't the same. Unlike biomass burning, electric cars actually do have the ability to lower overall emissions.

That said, I think when it comes to truly green and sustainable energy, this is one of those areas that you and I are actually in agreement, if I recall. The only long-term solution is solar energy beamed to earth in the form of microwaves, and the smartest - and greenest - bridge technology to get us there is nuclear power.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c4/a1/c1/c4a1c1f71df394cf98286b6f05a8ddb1.jpg
 
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