FutureMetrics releases critical review of Climate Central report
December 3, 2015
By FutureMetrics
December 3, 2015 - FutureMetrics has released a critical review of Climate Central's recent "Pulp Fiction" report. A few non-governmental organizations have used flawed analysis regarding the sustainability and carbon benefits of using wood pellets for power generation.
The analysis leads to claims that fall into two basic categories: (1) Forests are being decimated to produce wood pellets, and (2) combustion of wood pellets creates pollution that is worse than coal.
These claims form the foundation for a recent three part “special report” by Climate Central’s writer, John Upton titled “Pulp Fiction”. Throughout the well-produced report, the author again and again references so-called scientific consensus. But in fact, the author relies on deeply flawed logic and factual misrepresentations to produce a highly biased report. The report may satisfy those with an aversion to ever cutting a tree for any reason. There are certainly many trees that should not ever be cut. But the U.S. and Canada contain vast “working forests ” whose purpose is to grow the wood fibre that becomes lumber, paper, packaging, and many other engineered products including wood pellets.
This brief paper discusses why the Climate Central report is a biased and inaccurate characterization of how the forest products sector operates and why the report fails to properly describe the carbon benefits of using sustainably sourced biomass for energy.
The paper can be downloaded from the FutureMetrics website.
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