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Hundreds of students joined forces with
community members and environmental organizations to talk about...
Over the weekend I had the
opportunity to sit on a panel with colleagues at the Southeast Student
Renewable Energy Conference in Valdosta,
GA. Hundreds of students joined forces with
community members and environmental organizations to talk about a sustainable
energy future in the South. One major
point to take home from the weekend is that forests in the Southern
US are globally important as storehouses of carbon, and they play
a critical role in regulating the earth's climate.
The value in protecting and
restoring Southern forests is immense--slowing global climate change,
protecting the incredible diversity of trees and plants and animals, and preserving
our cultural heritage. The Packaging Campaign addresses all of these
issues and it was great to be at this conference with students and other
organizations from all over the country to build the growing excitement about
the packaging campaign.
When I talked about the packaging
campaign, the overwhelming response was first, "Are you kidding me, our
forests are being cut down for paper packaging for fast food companies?"
And second,” The strategy to challenge the fast food companies directly for
their impacts is rocking! How do I get
involved?" I'm not kidding. It was great.
I also had the opportunity to bring
up another growing threat in the region... Trees for fuel! A cellulosic ethanol plant is being
constructed in Soperton, Georgia between Atlanta
and Savannah. Cellulosic ethanol can be made from a number
of fiber sources but this company in particular, Range Fuels, plans to use
trees for fuel production. Trees to fuel
our cars? That is not the solution to
global climate change.
In fact, the Governor of Georgia
wants the state to be the next Saudi
Arabia of fuel production. They claim that there are enough trees in the
state to supply the Soperton plant indefinitely, and they hope to be able to
make 1 billion gallons of ethanol a year!
Recent research has shown that it takes 5 gallons of water to make 1
gallon of ethanol. Last I checked, Georgia
was in an exceptional drought, along with much of the rest of the region.
Thankfully there are real
scientists studying the issue of biofuels.
Two studies in the most recent issue of the journal Science, one
focusing on corn based ethanol and the other looking at land use changes due to
ethanol production from a number of different crops – including trees, have
found significant increases in CO2 emissions compared to using
gasoline or other fossil fuels. Let’s
repeat that for full effect; producing biofuels to replace gasoline actually
increases emissions of CO2!
Kind of defeats the purpose doesn’t it?
We have a good strategy in place to
transform the paper industry and industrial forestry practices. The good news is that it's working. Adding another industry that plans to cut our
forests at an industrial scale into the mix is detrimental and should not be
taken lightly. We know one thing; trees
for fuel is not the solution to global climate change. Southern forest protection, using less
energy, and increasing the use of other energy efficient technologies like
solar and wind--now that is where a sustainable future lies.
Check out the factsheet about
Southern forests and biofuels here.
Here's a photo from the SSREC. I'm on a panel with Scott from Rainforest Action Network and Mary Olsen from Nuclear Information & Resource Services. 
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