Biomass as a fuel for generating electricity was considered “renewable” at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and sustained under the 1997 Kyoto Agreement. Climate science has come a very long way since then, and we know that biomass is not only not renewable, it is worse than the fossil fuels we’re trying to replace.
Burning biomass to generate electricity poses two very serious problems. First, it contributes twice as much greenhouse gases to the atmosphere as coal and is an immediate health hazard to surrounding communities. Atmospheric pollution is causing mega-wildfires, worse and more frequent storms, prolonged droughts, sea level rise, an accelerating extinction of plants and animals world-wide, and threatening new plagues as well.
The global scientific effort to combat climate change is shouting “code red” to reduce emissions as fast as possible — we are not just behind schedule, but actually losing ground.
Second, the very idea of biomass being “renewable” has the problem absolutely backwards. Growing biomass is how to draw atmospheric pollutants out of the air. Burning biomass immediately stops drawdown and pours twice as much pollutants into the atmosphere. Waiting for biomass to begin drawing down again takes one or two whole human generations. It gets worse: atmospheric warming reduces the ability of plant leaves to absorb atmospheric gases under the increasing heat stress. Every plant we can grow now must be left in place to absorb carbon as fast as possible. We cannot afford to burn any of it.
Emitting greenhouse gases for energy is not “sustainable”; it accelerates climate change. The only sources that can sustain our survival on this planet do not cause emissions — water, wind and solar power.
The legitimate concern of decision- makers for “firm” power also misunderstands the problem. What they actually want is redundant power, which is much cheaper with constantly advancing sun-wind-battery technologies. Pretending that wind-solar-batteries are not “firm” power is simply false, an argument concocted by petroleum interests to undermine sun-wind-batteries, now proven to be both more reliable and increasingly cheaper. Redundant, reliable “firm” power comes from providing cheaper wind-solar-batteries — an easy, familiar strategy. Decision-makers funded by polluters need to get out of the way.
An additional way to contain the problem is to stop wasting nearly 30% of everything, much of it irreplaceable and nonsubstitutable. We are speeding past Earth’s material limits, something technology cannot replenish, so everything is getting more expensive. We can greatly improve efficiency, and improve our wasteful living habits, so that consuming so much is not necessary.
What is really needed is to tune out fossil fuel propaganda, unblock supply chain issues, return manufacturing to our own shores, and move “solar farms” over the urban zone. The needed technologies are multiplying every day, being rolled out increasingly quickly. Investors know it, decision-makers need to learn it, and citizens need to require it.
Charley Ice, a retired civil-service hydrologist and planner, is active on environmental issues.
