Text of article in today’s (friday) Ex…
Is wood the way of the future?
With carbon pollution contributing to the global environmental issue of climate change it is good to know that one of Tasmania’s most important industries is playing a vital role in the fight against climate change.
The Australian Government of Climate Change recognises forestry as the only Australian industry sector that is carbon positive. There is credible evidence that production forests not only help the forestry industry offset carbon emissions through the creation of carbon sinks but also offset emissions from other sectors as well.
Forestry helps combat climate change through the storage of carbon in growing forests.
Furthermore, through the harvesting of forests, carbon is stored in the wood products made from those forests. And by choosing to use wood products, individual Tasmanians can all do their part to help tackle climate change.
The Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting has found that wood products, including those used in building materials and furniture, store carbon for decades or sometimes centuries and even paper found in landfill and waste dumps can store carbon for up to 20 years before it fully decays.
By substituting wood for energy hungry products such as aluminium or concrete, emissions that would be released through use of those products are avoided. Another way that forestry can assist in mitigating the impacts of climate change is by using woody biomass as a source of energy through a wood fired power plant.
Modern, efficient technologies result in biomass being utilised as a source of clean energy that could potentially replace coal and other fossil fuels. Biomass is derived from biological organisms, such as trees and crops, which, through the process of photosynthesis, use carbon dioxide to convert solar energy to carbohydrates.
The energy stored in these carbohydrates can be released through a variety of processes to generate electricity.
When biomass is derived from sustainably managed resources, such as Tasmania’s state forests, the energy produced is renewable because the trees and plants are regrown after harvest. It’s also carbon neutral because the carbon dioxide captured by this regrowth offsets that released in electricity generation.
Biomass energy has been embraced in many highly developed countries around the world as a means of reducing carbon emissions and the Tasmanian Climate Change Office has also acknowledged the potential value of biomass to greenhouse gas abatement strategies.
– Forestry Tasmania
Forestry Tasmania, The Examiner, via Woodworker
