Thanks for this important post. Fire suppression in western forests has led to buildup in forests and destructive crown fires. Prescribed burns can mitigate this. Prescribed burns, however, should not be applied to chaparral, whose recurrence of fire is far less often than that of western forests.
The question is, was the change in forest management made will full understanding of the costs and benefits for "principle" or is it just a garden variety failure to use cost benefit analysis when making a decision. In other words, did being or not being "natural" have anything to do with the decision?
You can expect increased wildfires from rising CO2 levels causing a more rapid growth of vegetation. The problem can certainly be mitigated.
There are vast reserves of forest overgrowth that can be directly converted into methanol that dwarf agrofuel production to insignificance. Fermentation of biomass, most especially crops for fuel is quite literally insanity. It has a carbon efficiency of ~10%. Converting biomass to methanol via distillation can have 100% carbon efficiency and is far more economical. Maximizing what biomass does best, extract carbon from the atmosphere and putting that carbon where it is needed, into liquid fuels. There are no good liquid fuels that are not hydrocarbons.
This forest overgrowth leads to deadly and polluting forest fires that destroy $billions in property & infrastructure, cause power outages, kill wildlife and people, cause bad health effects while releasing vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Easy to convert that biomass to methanol in portable tractor-trailer sized factory units. There is enough biomass burned annually in wildfires to supply all of the Worlds liquid fuel needs. And tens of thousands of productive jobs, in harvesting forest overgrowth, that actually achieve something. Biggest problem is the PTB hate methanol almost as much as they despise nuclear energy. Knowing that it is the only viable substitute for their oil & gas hegemony.
And burning biomass directly for electricity is the pinnacle of stupidity. Biomass is a carbon based fuel. You need carbon based fuels because they are the only cost effective and practical way to make liquid fuels which of course are what we need for transportation fuel and portable fuel supply for heat and remote power generation. We can easily make all the electricity we need from the practical sources hydro, nuclear, gas & coal. For low carbon there is hydro & nuclear. It is idiotic to use biomass for that when it is the best material for manufacturing liquid fuels, especially carbon neutral liquid fuels.
Portable Methanol Production using Woody Waste, Wildfire forest fire waste biodiesel Daniel Vogt:
Some of the info at these links is dated but I am curious if it is contrary to the statements in the posting regarding increases in wildfires or possibly what is being measured is not the same, apples vs. oranges comparison?
Thanks for this important post. Fire suppression in western forests has led to buildup in forests and destructive crown fires. Prescribed burns can mitigate this. Prescribed burns, however, should not be applied to chaparral, whose recurrence of fire is far less often than that of western forests.
The question is, was the change in forest management made will full understanding of the costs and benefits for "principle" or is it just a garden variety failure to use cost benefit analysis when making a decision. In other words, did being or not being "natural" have anything to do with the decision?
You can expect increased wildfires from rising CO2 levels causing a more rapid growth of vegetation. The problem can certainly be mitigated.
There are vast reserves of forest overgrowth that can be directly converted into methanol that dwarf agrofuel production to insignificance. Fermentation of biomass, most especially crops for fuel is quite literally insanity. It has a carbon efficiency of ~10%. Converting biomass to methanol via distillation can have 100% carbon efficiency and is far more economical. Maximizing what biomass does best, extract carbon from the atmosphere and putting that carbon where it is needed, into liquid fuels. There are no good liquid fuels that are not hydrocarbons.
This forest overgrowth leads to deadly and polluting forest fires that destroy $billions in property & infrastructure, cause power outages, kill wildlife and people, cause bad health effects while releasing vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Easy to convert that biomass to methanol in portable tractor-trailer sized factory units. There is enough biomass burned annually in wildfires to supply all of the Worlds liquid fuel needs. And tens of thousands of productive jobs, in harvesting forest overgrowth, that actually achieve something. Biggest problem is the PTB hate methanol almost as much as they despise nuclear energy. Knowing that it is the only viable substitute for their oil & gas hegemony.
And burning biomass directly for electricity is the pinnacle of stupidity. Biomass is a carbon based fuel. You need carbon based fuels because they are the only cost effective and practical way to make liquid fuels which of course are what we need for transportation fuel and portable fuel supply for heat and remote power generation. We can easily make all the electricity we need from the practical sources hydro, nuclear, gas & coal. For low carbon there is hydro & nuclear. It is idiotic to use biomass for that when it is the best material for manufacturing liquid fuels, especially carbon neutral liquid fuels.
Portable Methanol Production using Woody Waste, Wildfire forest fire waste biodiesel Daniel Vogt:
https://deq.mt.gov/files/Energy/EnergizeMT/EnergySites/Documents/Biodiesel_Production_Educ_Presentations/KVogt_Pablo_NCAT_10_31_07.pdf
Some of the info at these links is dated but I am curious if it is contrary to the statements in the posting regarding increases in wildfires or possibly what is being measured is not the same, apples vs. oranges comparison?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/06/11/what-the-media-wont-tell-you-about-wildfires-roger-pielke-jr/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/06/11/good-climate-news-wildfire-trends-have-fallen-off-significantly-over-the-recent-decades/