As green policies cause energy prices to explode, deforestation in Europe accelerates – Are you up to speed with that?
Via P Gosselin
Soaring fossil fuel energy prices are driving deforestation in Europe as people try to keep warm
It is easy to argue that the “green” movement is doing more harm to the environment than good. High energy costs lead to poverty, which in turn leads to less investment in environmental protection and nature conservation.
Biodiversity-rich forests are being cleared to make way for wind parks, and people are increasingly burning wood for warmth as an alternative to natural gas and heating oil.
Blackout News here reports about how Romania’s forests have fallen victim to illegal logging as the energy crisis has rocketed demand for firewood and pellets. “In Romania, as a result, entire nature reserves are disappearing.”
“The strong demand for firewood, wood chips and pellets has also driven up the prices of these fuels, making them extremely lucrative for the illegal trade,” it wrote. power failure news. The lack of transparency and traceability is making the problem difficult to manage.
Blackout News cites a 2021 study by the European Commission that shows Europe’s timber industry lacks transparency and that demand for wood for heating has more than doubled in the past 20 years. Austria alone is said to have imported about 120,000 tonnes of pellets from Romania last year. Europe’s CO2 reduction through biomass burning is costing Europe’s habitat dearly. Very few people talk about this. What good will it do to achieve zero CO2 emissions if Europe’s forests are eventually sacrificed and barren?
Greenpeace Romania says illegal logging is particularly severe in Romania and that more than half of the wood that is pelleted there comes from illegal logging in the Natura 2000 regions. authorities record an annual harvest of 18 million cubic meters, “experts say another 20 million cubic meters of timber are illegally cut there every year and disappear without any proof.” .
One problem hindering the crackdown on illegal logging in Romania is rampant corruption in control agencies and government agencies. Penalties for importing illegally harvested timber are “amazingly low as well.”
As long as Europe continues its efforts to phase out fossil fuels and create energy shortages, prices will skyrocket and continue to drive demand for wood as an energy source.
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