Burning wood will add to global warming — even if the wood replaces coal or natural gas, as scientific organizations and hundreds of scientists have long argued. For decades, the wood industry has generated electricity and heat by burning wood wastes from harvesting and turning wood into paper and timber. In recent years, however, there has been a bizarre but dangerous push to retrofit power plants and factories to burn wood. AdvertisementBut the process of burning wood results in more carbon being released into the atmosphere than burning coal. The origins of this bizarre way of thinking about burning wood for power generation lies in a misinterpretation of scientific guidance about how to count emissions.

Source: Los Angeles Times December 28, 2020 11:18 UTC