WHAT BIOMASS CAN GIVE

There are, of course, cases when burning wood for energy makes eminent sense: If, for example, it is wood wastes that are to be burned in power plants, or fermented into alcohol, or processed into fuel by other means, no one will object. Southern Pacific Land Co., Weyerhauser, and many others are not only doing that, but doing it profitably.

However, biomass in its own right as a major energy source is something else. Apart from the limitations above, there are those imposed by land use and by availability of fertilizers. ("We will run out of phosphates at least 100 years before we run out of fossil fuels," says Povich, see reference below).

But if biomass is not a major energy source, it can provide other things for mankind. Such as death, injuries, diseases, and world-wide environmental impact.

And in the US? A marked increase in the number of injuries, incurred in cutting and hauling wood, particularly by chain saws, and more cases of poison ivy and poison oak dermatitis. There are more fires, air pollution and other threats to health, according to reports including one by the DoE (not published, to our knowledge, by Cartel's Open Administration; we got a copy through the back door). Toxic chemicals, emissions, carbon monoxide suffocation, particulates... "Benzpyrene emissions (a known carcinogen) were estimated 50 times greater from wood combustion compared to oil combustion... The largest sources [of it] are the inefficient combustion of coal in hand-fired residential furnaces and wood in the US."

It's not the path that is soft, but the heads that want to take it.

[ M.J. Povich, "Some limitations of fuel farming," AIChE Symposium Series, vol. 72, no. 158; deaths in India: Mensch & Energie (W. Germany), no. 2, 1980, p.36; shrinking forest area: G.M. Woodwell, "The Carbon Dioxide Question," Scientif. American, Jan. 1978, see also literature quoted in AtE Apr. 78; health hazards: Testimony by Dr Huffman, Energy & Biomass, House Comm. on Science & Technol., June 1980, pp. 69-85; $4 from GPO, Washington, DC 20402, stock no. 052-070-05329-1; "Health effects of residential wood combustion," US DoE, Asst. Sefr. f. Environment, Office of Technology Impacts, Technol. Assessm. Div.; Dr G.J. D'Alessio, Project Manager; draft issued in January 1980.]