LINKS
to 2013 news articles on Rainforest
destruction, BIOENERGY, palm oil, land-grabbing - collated by
Henry Adams
Also
see my page
of unsorted refs/links (all subjects mixed up but in approx
chronological order): http://www.dragonfly1.plus.com/UnsortedLINKS-2013.html
Global Forest Change MAPs Global Forest Change - University of Maryland
'Commodity
Crimes - Illicit land grabs, illegal palm oil, and endangered orangutans'
- FRIENDS
OF THE EARTH US, WALHI-FRIENDS OF THE EARTH INDONESIA, FOREST HEROES,
AND
SUMOFUS FOE_CommodityCrimes_MidRes.pdf nov2013
Map shows deforestation in Indonesia is world’s
fastest 16nov13 The Jakarta Post
BBC News - Biomass fuel subsidies to be capped says energy secretary -
Roger Harrabin 16jul13 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23334466
Carbon Offsets Could Create Loophole for Industry to Pollute as Usual
– EcoWatch Cutting Edge Environmental News Service http://ecowatch.com/2013/carbon-offsets-create-loophole-for-industry/
All about Biomass @allaboutbiomass https://twitter.com/allaboutbiomass
www.facebook.com/biomass.all
http://www.survivalinternational.org
* ** *** =
articles I thought well worth reading or on brief glance look
like I must read if I have time.
In approximate chronological order
(most recent
first); not fully comprehensive - just the selection I've spotted.
3.5 million ha of Indonesian and Malaysian forest
converted for palm oil in 20 years 12nov13
Ecuador - Yasuni - The Demise of Diversity — GIS (or G.I. Yes!)
— Medium 31oct13
Public Meeting A Burning Issue – biomass
and its impacts on forests and communities « biofuelwatch re
29oct13 mtg
Letters Time to take a tough stand on biofuels
Environment 21oct13 The Guardian
Brazil
tribe plagued by one of the highest suicide rates in the world
World news The Guardian 10oct13 e.g. Guarani due to
landgrabbing
In 'Chilling' Ruling, Chevron Granted Access to
Activists' Private Internet Data -
"Sweeping" subpoena
violates rights of those who spoke out against oil giant's devastating
actions
in Ecuador - Lauren McCauley, staff writer 11jul13 Common
Dreams
MEPs to vote on biofuels as study points to hunger, deforestation -
Arthur Neslen - EurActiv 10jul13 ILUC ethanol http://www.euractiv.com/energy/new-research-biofuels-automatica-news-529200?utm_source=EurActiv%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=df81cf6072-newsletter_daily_update&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bab5f0ea4e-df81cf6072-245659790
*** Repsol to drill for oil in
Amazon rainforest in Peru - David Hill 1jul13
Environment guardian.co.uk http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/andes-to-the-amazon/2013/jul/01/amazon-rainforest-peru-indigenous-tribes
Green Investment Bank publishes
Annual Report Green Investment Bank 25jun13 http://www.greeninvestmentbank.com/media-centre/press-releases/green-investment-bank-publishes-annual-report.html
GIB publishes their first
Annual Report Biofuels Digest 27jun13 http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2013/06/27/gib-publishes-their-first-annual-report/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
BBC News - Asia haze Behind
the palm oil clearance 25jun13 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23053028
*** Ecuador Selling Its Rainforest To
China - Business Insider
28mar13 http://www.businessinsider.com/ecuador-selling-its-rainforest-to-china-2013-3
** Our Forests Aren’t
Fuel New Campaign Against Burning
American Forests for Electricity – EcoWatch Cutting Edge
Environmental News Service http://ecowatch.com/2013/our-forests-arent-fuel-new-campaign-against-burning-american-forests-for-electricity/Natural Resources
Defense Council
Dogwood Alliance Southern forests are being burned for
electricity, and a new campaign announced today aims to put an end to
it. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Dogwood
Alliance have
launched Our
Forests Aren’t Fuel to
raise awareness of an alarming and rapidly-growing practice of logging
forests
and burning the trees as fuel to generate electricity.
** BBC News - Renewable
energy Burning US trees in UK power
stations Roger - Harrabin http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22630815
LibDem MP Nick Harvey tabled an amendment but ... Harrabin
concluded: "It
looks as though UK Government policy is being driven by the need to hit
mandatory targets and keep electrons flowing, rather than by a deep
desire to cut CO2 emissions right now."
HSBC reviews logging policy as Bill
Oddie film sparks petition -
Climate Change - Environment - The Independent 23may13 Ian Burrell http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/hsbc-reviews-logging-policy-as-bill-oddie-film-sparks-petition-8629889.html
** G8 under pressure to
rethink biofuel mandates EurActiv 8may13 http://www.euractiv.com/cap/g8-pressure-rethink-biofuel-mand-news-519583
RBS: The Royal Bank of
Scotland Greening Its Image with False Renewable Energy Projects.
« biofuelwatch re 14may13 http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2013/the-royal-bank-of-scotland-greening-its-image-with-false-renewable-energy-projects/
- RBS funds another way of destroying forests in North America
The BIOMASS MONITOR: Clean Energy
Doesn't Come Out of a Smokestack [May
2013] http://www.energyjustice.net/files/biomass/monitor/2013-05.html
*** BIOFUELS: CTA - Brussels
Office Weblog - UN Special Rapporteur EU must phase out
biofuel incentives 8may13 http://brussels.cta.int/index.php?option=com_k2&id=7678:un-special-rapporteur--eu-must-phase-out-biofuel-incentives&view=item&Itemid=54
"The
EU biofuels policy may have a negative impact on developing countries,
in terms of enjoyment of the right to food, the United Nations Special
Rapporteur on the Right to Food,Olivier
De Schutter,
wrote to the EU Member States and the European Commission on April 18th. De
Schutter considers that the available arable land in the EU is
insufficient to produce all the needed feedstocks for biofuels that
compliance with the Renewable
Energy Directive(from
the European Commission, 2009) would require. Consequently, the EU
Member States should outsource biofuels production to developing
countries in order to meet the targets set. However, he considers that
the impacts on these countries are overwhelmingly negative and are
alleged to infringe on the realization of the human right to adequate
food. ..."
**** PALM OIL: The Death of
‘Sustainability’ DeSmogBlog 6may13 http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/05/06/death-sustainability
Can
destroying a tropical rainforest be
“sustainable”? Well,
according to a decision taken yesterday by the Roundtable on
Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the major industry-NGO body, this greatest
of environmental crimes is now officially “green.”!!
Due to palm oil - Indonesia is the 3rd largest world carbon
emitter after China and USA
*** Biomass: should we
burn trees to generate electricity? Leo Hickman collects answers
& gives his verdict Environment guardian.co.uk
9may+ http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/may/09/biomass-burn-trees-generate-electricity?CMP=twt_gu
An industry view by Matthew Aylott
of the NNFCC The National Non-Food
Crops Centre: Briefing. Bioenergy A sustainable solution
for electricity generation in the UK — Dr
Matthew Aylott http://www.nnfcc.co.uk/publications/nnfcc-briefing.-bioenergy-a-sustainable-solution-to-delivering-heat-and-power-in-the-uk
11dec13NNFCC BIOMASS: ref: RSPB FoE Greenpeace
joint report: 'Dirtier than coal?
Why Government plans to subsidise burning trees are bad news for the
planet' http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/biomass_report_tcm9-326672.pdf
Flawed emission accounting: 1. carbon debt, 2. Indirect Subsitiution
Emissions. Implications. Recommendations.
The biomass industry should come
clean about its environmental
impact Harry Huyton -
RSPB's
head of climate and energy policy
3may13 http://m.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/may/03/biomass-industry-environmental-impact?CMP=twt_fd
'Warning over
‘reckless’ pursuit of burning wood' BUT
- in
The Times http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article3754046.ece
REA @REAssociation You
can see the
letter we sent to the NGOs calling for a constructive meeting to
discuss #biomass
here: http://bit.ly/YiTiVX
Henry Adams @henryadamsUK
@REAssociation
Your letter tho rightly wants fact-based
approach fba, it responds to NGO's fba, eg carbondebt with emotion not
fba,& no refs <<<<my 4may13 tweet
Response to REA by Friends of the
Earth: 'Biomass
sustainability - key issues explained' Kenneth Richter, Green Blog
3may13
REA 18mar13 letter to FoE, cc'd top
RSPB, Greenpeace http://www.backbiomass.co.uk/uploads/documents/130318%20Ltr%20to%20Andy%20Atkins%20FOE.pdf
Renewable energy firms accuse
activists of scaremongering over
biomass Environment The Guardian 2may13 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/may/02/renewable-energy-firms-activists-biomass?commentpage=1
My comment (though spoilt somewhat
by my faulty keyboard): http://discussion.guardian.co.uk/comment-permalink/23278498
Great comments by Brian Wilson
(though long): http://discussion.guardian.co.uk/comment-permalink/23248694
&
http://discussion.guardian.co.uk/comment-permalink/23267747
& all his comments: https://id.guardian.co.uk/profile/brian1w/public?returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk&authFailedReturnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk
A Dirty
Business - How a leading
RSPO palm oil producer is clearing peatland tiger habitat covered by
Indonesia's moratorium on deforestation Greenpeace International
25apr13 http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/publications/Campaign-reports/Forests-Reports/Dirty-Business/
Palm oil company violated RSPO standards, evicted from sustainability
body 13may13 http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0513-duta-palma-rspo.html
G8’s biofuel use contributing
to world hunger
ActionAid UK 29apr13 http://www.actionaid.org.uk/103585/g8s_biofuel_use_contributing_to_world_hunger.html
Amount of food crops burnt by richest nations
as biofuels could feed half the world’s hungriest people,
ActionAid says Monday
29th April 2013: Half the world’s
hungry - 441 million people - could eat for a year on the amount of
food that
G8 countries burn in their petrol tanks as biofuels, ActionAid said
today.
Environmentalists unhappy with new
palm oil standard 25apr13 re RSPO
http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0425-rspo-standards-prompt-complaints.html
Deforestation
in Sarawak Log tale The Economist 3nov12 A new investigation accuses
HSBC of
ignoring its own sustainability policies
http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21565622-new-investigation-accuses-hsbc-ignoring-its-own-sustainability-policies-log
HSBC
bank funding large-scale rainforest destruction and invasion of
indigenous
lands in Borneo, alleges report
2nov12
http://news.mongabay.com/2012/1102-hsbc-sarawak.html