Chainsaws are impatient and are cutting down without letting up. They are pairing up with wood shredders that reduce fallen trees into fuel. Nothing comes through alive; hundred year old, notable, or isolated trees, tree-lined avenues, and forests. Any excuse will do; they block the sun, they obstruct the view, they are sick, they interfere with the train, they accumulate starlings, are dangerous for road safety, and even hedges are not safe. France is burning since the government, ADEME (Environmental Agency and Energy Control) and environmentalists have promoted forests to the level of renewable energy and the collective and individual heating using wood is spreading like an epidemic. Right-minded people and smooth talkers are busy forming their energy packages, offering it to voters while looking elsewhere; Amazon, Indonesia, and the island of Borneo with insincere crocodile tears.
The Elysée (Official residence of the French President) is considering burning wood, AREVA (Multinational Industrial Conglomerate) foresees opening a wood-fired boiler to power its nuclear factory near La Hague, and Montreuil wants to open its green pool heated with wood. It’s unanimous. Everyone is in agreement behind the trees backs.
And it is only the beginning, ONF (National Forest Office) capitalizes on woods chips, granules, and logs. Its major project is to move from the collection to standardization of predations. In its September 2010 report to the President of the Republic, Hervé Gaymard, president of the Council Administration of ONF praises wood-energy, “This renewable energy through modern excellence is available in large quantity and is distributed throughout the country.”
They cannot both promote the use of biomass and protection of biodiversity. An adult oak tree that falls is an ecosystem that falls apart and displaces thirty species of birds, caterpillars, beetles, mushrooms, lichens, and bats.
Robin des Bois calls for the abandonment of the promotion of wood as an energy source. If there is an area where the combination of ecology and economy is impossible, it is forestry.
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