Community Resistance: Standing against Biomass Destruction and Inequality on Blog Action Day

The biomass industry is one more instance of the corporate greed that concentrates wealth in the top 1% of our society, increasing inequality while ravaging the resources of and giving little in return to the communities that bear the consequences. On Blog Action Day 2014, Dogwood Alliance highlights and applauds the community power and resistance that is growing in opposition to biomass and calls on policy makers and biomass corporate executives to stop destroying our forests and our communities. We call on Enviva to halt destructive practices and invest in solutions that work in partnership with communities and the environment.

Dogwood Represents Southern Forests at People’s Climate March

The diversity of people and backgrounds that mobilized on Sunday reiterated the message that the climate crisis is a global one that, while impacting some sooner and stronger than others, will eventually affect us all. The variety of signs, ranging from calls for food justice to Dogwood’s own Our Forests Aren’t Fuel banner underscored the fact that environmental irresponsibility has devastating consequences for nearly every aspect of our lives.

The Campaign Takes it to the Field in Virginia

On Wednesday afternoon, we went up to Chesapeake to get a closer look at the Enviva export facility. The southern part of the Elizabeth River runs through Portsmouth and Chesapeake and is lined with industrial centers on both sides. From the Jordan Bridge crossing the river, it is easy to spot the two enormous white silos that store up to 100,000 metric tons of wood pellets. We paddled our kayaks through Paradise Creek, which runs right next to the domes. The structures are massive. It’s alarming to realize the amount of forests that must be cleared to stock these domes, and the impact of this huge loss on our environment and communities.