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Not when the wood is coming from non-renewable sources. I've read much is sourced from the US, and is not from quickly-growing softwood but long established sl
by rleigh 10y ago
Not when the wood is coming from non-renewable sources. I've read much is sourced from the US, and is not from quickly-growing softwood but long established slow-growing hardwood which burns better in power plants. When the end goal is to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere, destroying carbon sinks and burning them is one of the most counterproductive activities you could engage in.
There's a reason we stopped burning wood as our primary fuel source several hundred years ago. There's not enough to burn, and it doesn't renew fast enough to satisfy demand. Coal met that demand. Returning to wood makes zero sense, unless you want to satisfy a short-term legal/policy goalpost at the expense of missing the bigger picture.
Personally, I think that while reducing coal is a laudable medium-term goal, this is not better for the climate. Whether you burn wood or coal, both are producing CO2, but when you burn wood your are also reducing the size of an important carbon sink.