On 6/9/07, Peter Halasz email@pengo.org wrote:
To reply to a few random bits, while trying to avoid another rant on why we should try to reach zero-emissions:
Nuclear power is not a renewable energy source.
Neither is anything else unless you are going to rewrite the laws of thermodynamics. Nuclear reactors using fast breeder technology will last long enough.
I know it was said in jest, but to correct a misconception, and have a bit of an off topic rant: paper production actually releases a surprising amount of carbon. Especially when the woodchip for the pulpmill was from an old growth forest that will take hundreds of years to regain its previous level of carbon storage in the trees and soil. A large part of the carbon of a forest is found in the soil, and this is often burnt after the wood is harvested, releasing massive amounts of carbon (at least from what I understand of the situation around here in Australia. Probably different elsewhere). A large percentage of the wood does not end up in paper or wood products either (I've heard numbers upwards of 90%, but I don't know where they were pulled from). I understand there are some papers coming out about this soon. A huge amount of carbon dioxide emissions can be saved simply by not cutting down trees and unfortunately the value of not logging forests was left out of the Kyoto protocol. (plantations are a different matter). </rant>
I live in the UK. Between about the end of ww2 and the 1960s we planted rather a lot of pine forests. Now harvesting the stupid things. Got to do something with them.