Transition Ashtead Working towards a sustainable Ashtead
Bio-fools? Burning biomass is a The effects of deforestation sustainable renewable form of energy, right? We should be using ethanol made from maize to make the fuel we use in our cars more "green" shouldn't we? Well, let's think about that for a moment... Burning trees to fuel power stations, for example, sounds renewable after all, trees are growing all the time and they take up CO2 from the atmosphere in the process. So far, so green. But in the UK, we don't have enough land area to grow the trees for the industrial quantities of biomass fuel we need, so if current predictions are correct, we will have to ship in 90 million tonnes of wood from Canada, USA and Eastern Europe. In the future it's likely to come from South America and Africa. Growing biomass to feed our power stations will be competing in these places with land needed for growing food; habitats and biodiversity will be lost; indigenous people will loose their livelihoods. And the emissions from the power stations could be worse than that from fossil fuel-powered installations. Globally, large scale bio-energy production is expanding rapidly with the support of policies and mandates for renewable energy in many countries. The UK is at the forefront of this drive to green-up the energy supply. But looking at the whole picture, we have to ask questions about whether it is a long-term answer to the problem of electricity production, even as part of the "mix" of new technologies, given that it can exact such a high price on the countries where the wood is sourced. Ethanol is used as a component of liquid fuel in vehicles. It is produced from very common crops such as sugar cane, potato, cassava and corn. It sounds green enough but these things are also food stuffs and using them to produce ethanol affects the world prices in these commodities, which can have a devastating effect on the poorest people who buy these crops to eat. Making the best decisions about fuelling our society is not easy, there are so many things to take into consideration. My feeling is that using biomass feels green on a small scale but just isn't sustainable on an industrial scale. Chris Ellis
Our October meeting (7.30 pm Thursday 9th October) follows on from this article. Peter Deane from Biofuelwatch will be speaking. Please come along. For more information about Transition Ashtead or to join any of our Action Groups, see our website at www.TransitionAshtead.org.uk Contact our Secretary Caroline on 07768 806201 or email info@transitionashtead.org.uk 82