Comments on Mark Brinkley (aka House 2.0): More on the biomass debate

I appreciate what you are saying, that the CO2 goe...

2010-10-02T15:14:01.600+01:00

I appreciate what you are saying, that the CO2 goes into the trees but it doesn't disappear. I guess what should have said was if you want less carbon in the atmosphere we need to encourage tree growing combined with either less trees cut down or alternatively all trees that are cut down being replaced. In the rainforest afaik great swathes of forest have been cut down but not replaced,

"Somewhere like Brazil obviously consumes mor...

2010-09-24T12:51:29.108+01:00

"Somewhere like Brazil obviously consumes more CO2 with the rainforests than say Hong Kong."

Forest are carbon neutral, they only act as sinks if the amount of forest is growing, or the timber being taken from them is used permanently, something that does not apply to Brazil.

Really enjoyed reading that letter. I'm going ...

2010-09-21T21:47:14.130+01:00

Really enjoyed reading that letter. I'm going to tell you about a thing I have had a big issue with for a long time. All these governments have been harping on about emissions targets and I think these are a load of nonsense and very misleading. The most important thing is the net amount of emissions i.e. the amount produced against the amount consumed. Somewhere like Brazil obviously

http://www.greenwisebusiness.co.uk/news/biomass-pl...

2010-09-16T14:56:54.901+01:00

http://www.greenwisebusiness.co.uk/news/biomass-plants-threaten-uk-wood-panel-industry-campaign-says-1578.aspx

it'c causing market distortions.

Hi Mark, I wonder if you'd be interested to ...

2010-09-16T11:38:30.254+01:00

Hi Mark,

I wonder if you'd be interested to talking to me briefly about self-builds? I am a freelance journalist writing a piece for a website about building your own house and I need a case study. Can you help?!
If so, could you please email me at sarahwarwick(at)gmail(dot)com

Many thanks

Sarah

I'm not expert on wood farming, but it seems t...

2010-09-16T11:33:59.643+01:00

I'm not expert on wood farming, but it seems to me that this argument against burning biomass leans heavily on the assumption that there is a free choice between growing biomass to burn and growing building lumber in excess of that which is currently grown.

Is that actually true ? I suspect that (a) biomass for burning is a rather different kind of farming, on different land and (b

Peter I am sorry but I really didn't mean to b...

2010-09-15T21:32:35.215+01:00

Peter I am sorry but I really didn't mean to be patronising it's just a several people have admitted to only reading about the paper but have not read the actual paper.

The reason I wondered is that we do discuss the potential resource. Supply and demand may work for the imaginary widget as we could just make more and supply matches demand but biomass needs land, water and

Hi Nick, 'Did you read the paper that Mark i...

2010-09-15T16:19:02.608+01:00

Hi Nick,

'Did you read the paper that Mark is referring to?'

Gosh effortlessly denigrating, i am impressed.
Did you read Mark's post and mine?
In which case why do we not discuss what he said and i said, rather than whether we read it or not?

Peter

Hi Nick, have you read what Mark wrote and what I...

2010-09-15T16:11:57.571+01:00

Hi Nick,

have you read what Mark wrote and what I wrote?

In which case, why do we not discuss that instead of whether we read it or not?

Peter

Thanks Mark Really appreciate your clarity, but o...

2010-09-15T15:59:34.243+01:00

Thanks Mark

Really appreciate your clarity, but only when i agree with you!

I did think for a moment that someone had found a flaw in the argument. As I said on the AECB forum, I am hoping there is a flaw and that biomass really is low carbon as it would make my job easier when faced with a hard to insulate property such as a church that is to be converted to an office but

Hi Mark, 'People will hunt out biomass to bu...

2010-09-15T13:43:10.819+01:00

Hi Mark,

'People will hunt out biomass to burn without any guarantee that what they harvest will be replaced. And the more the craze for biomass grows, the bigger this pressure will become.'

But, the bigger will be the economic pressure to replace the burnt wood by growing more. You are ignoring basic supply and demand?

We have to have a huge demand and

Anyway, burning biomass isn't even theoretical...

2010-09-15T13:15:32.050+01:00

Anyway, burning biomass isn't even theoretically CO2 neutral over whatever timescale, once the CO2 costs of extracting, processing and distributing said biofuel is taken into the calc, let alone the embodied/lifetime resource calc on the equipment needed to burn it and heat things with it. In a basic peasant society, at most horse- (or slave-)powered, harvesting and burning biomass in basic