Representation by Julie Williamson
- Date submitted
- 4 September 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
burning trees for energy, in the short term, emits more carbon dioxide than coal or gas. It is adding to the climate emergency, which many politicians are choosing to ignore, as they continue to put profits before people. Replacing trees is not the answer to destroying mature trees. As we have seen recently in Pakistan, despite specific projects at tree replanting, it has been too late to stop the flooding, infrastructure destruction plus human suffering and death to specific areas. Areas that have recognised the issues and attempted to solve them too late for any significant impact. Estimations that 79%of EU forests that should be protected are threatened by on-going culling of OLD woodland with its diversity and carbon retaining actions, among many other eco-benefits needed to maintain clean air, amongst so many other things. We have seen the impact of continued de-forestation, there are plenty of scientific papers that are evidence based, not to mention the impact on human health, the loss of so many plant, wildlife and animal species, which are irreversible. The processing used at Drax is emitting more CO2 emissions than coal, we need to create more renewable green energy in a way that is not, literally, destroying the planet. The place we call home.