Turn
to any content or news source – be it newspapers, magazines, TV, cable, radio
or online outlets – and you’re bound to come across the term “Climate Change.”
For
those of you living under a rock for the last 50 years or maybe in a hyper
barrack chamber somewhere, we have some breaking news for you… climate change is occurring, and it is a hot-button issue in the world today
- especially in the United States. So
what is climate change? What causes it? What does climate change have to do with US
policy? And what effect does US and the
EU’s policies have on the international “climate change” stage? In order to answer these questions, we need
to understand what is climate and how does climate change. Climate is
defined as “ the long-term average of conditions in the atmosphere, ocean,
and ice sheets and sea ice described by statistics, such as means and extremes”
(NOAA 2009: 16). Climate change refers to “any
significant change in measures of climate (such as temperature or
precipitation) lasting for an extended period (decades or longer)” (EPA 2012:
3). The Environmental protection agency
also states that climate change can be caused by natural or human factors (EPA
2012: 3). Human activities such as the
burning of coal to generate electricity or the use of fossil fuels can contribute
to climate change. Changes in climate can
affect us in many ways in our daily lives. For example, climate change can impact the
volume of rainfall and also influence agriculture crop yield (EPA 2012: 3),
leading to concerns of drought or flooding.
A main cause of climate change is the Greenhouse Effect. The Greenhouse Effect is described as the increased
emission of greenhouse gases that causes the atmosphere to retain more heat,
which in turn leads to global warming (EPA 2014). Greenhouse gases like carbon
dioxide (CO2) are emitted by human activities such as burning of
fossil fuels such as in coal-powered industrial plants or even driving a car
with gasoline or diesel as its fuel source.
Since the United States is one of the world’s leading emitters of
greenhouse gases, we decided to concentrate on carbon emissions within the
realm of US “green” energy technology, specifically biomass production and its use
as an energy source.
According to UK’s Biomass Energy
Centre, biomass is defined as “biological material derived from living, or
recently living organisms. In the
context of biomass for energy this is often used to mean plant based material”
(Biomass 2011). For our purposes, we
chose to focus on wood pellets, which are made through a process that turns
waste from wood manufacturing (for flooring, construction and other purposes)
into tiny compressed pieces. These small
pieces, or pellets, are then, in turn, burned as fuel to create energy (either
heat or electricity).
At
first glance, this seems like a win-win situation – turning waste from one type
of natural product into a viable product that is seen as environmentally
“friendly” to use for fuel. There is,
however, potential for wood manufacturing and pellet productions companies to
take advantage of the rising market of opportunity. In the US, the industry essentially at the
present monitors itself. The problem
arises when it’s not just wood waste
that is being used for this purpose, but whole
trees as well. This could lead to trees being
harvested en masse to feed the growing pellet business. Live trees effectively remove carbon dioxide
from the air by the process of photosynthesis (Friedland et al 2012: 524). They act like atmospheric “filters.” So it follows that less trees means less
carbon dioxide is being filtered from the atmosphere. This could have the exact opposite effect on
Climate Change. Or to put it another
way, it could have the same big picture effect as burning coal. In the United States, 87% of the forests in
the southern states are privately owned, which means owners could decide to
clear-cut their land for profit. There
are currently no federal (or individual state) policies to prevent that from
happening. “The forests are coming down”
(Sausman 2013).
With many nations searching for new
methods of mitigating the effects of climate change while simultaneously
searching for efficient, economically viable replacements for fossil fuel,
there is a race to find the next best green alternative. Biomass is often viewed as a “carbon neutral”
fuel source, meaning it neither increases nor decreases the carbon input in the
environment. Biomass production can be
economical, requiring minimal processing.
Burning of wood pellets is considered more efficient that coal (Ball
2008).
Its
not just the effects on the environment and global climate change that are at
stake. Policies (or lack thereof in some
cases) are having an impact, and will continue to affect the global economy. Through legislation and incentives, the EU has
recently been encouraging its member states to increase its use of renewable energy
like wind, solar, and other high-tech and expensive methods of creating
energy. Despite the money pored into new
technology and government incentives, about half of Europe's energy consumption
is produced by biomass. In Poland, biomass makes up 80% of energy
consumption (Wood 2013). The EU has
turned to the US and Canada to fill its need for biomass in the form of wood
pellets. Wood pellet manufacturers are
springing up all over the southern US and areas of Eastern Canada. At present, the southern states are
fulfilling the vast majority of what the EU needs in terms of biomass. This means that the pellets have to be
produced, delivered to ports, shipped across the Atlantic Ocean before they
reach their final destination for consumption (Wood 2013). Suddenly, it doesn’t seem like such a great idea.
Considering the environmental aspect as
relates to climate change, the policies of the US and the EU along with the economic
impact… is biomass (in this particular case wood pellets) is the new Green Gold? As we shall explore, the proof is in the pine pudding.
Sources:
Ball, J. (30 December 2008). Green goal of ‘carbon neutrality’ hits limit. Wall Street
Journal.
US News. Retrieved from
Biomass Energy
Center. (2011). What is biomass? Biomass Energy Center. Retrieved
from
The Economist. (6
April 2013). Wood, the fuel of the future. The
Economist. Business.
Retrieved
from
EPA. (2014).
Causes of climate change. United States
Environmental Protection Agency.
Retrieved
from
EPA. (2012). US climate
change indicators. United States Environmental
Protection
Agency.
Retrieved from
Friedland, A.,
Courard-Hauri, D. & Relyea, R. (2012). Environmental
science:
Foundations and applications. New York, NY: W. H. Freeman and
Company.
Galbraith, K. (1
May 2012). Wood makes a comeback as a fuel. The
New York Times. Green Column.
Retrieved from
Hausman, S. (16
December 2013). Hardwood forests: Wood pellets & sustainability. WVTF
Public
Radio. Retrieved from
NOAA. (2009). Climate
literacy: The essential principles of climate sciences; A guide for
Individuals
and communities. NOAA. Retrieved from
Williamson, L. (5 May 2011). Why is the UK backing biomass
power? The Guardian.
Environment. Retrieved from
No comments:
Post a Comment