BIOMASS HUB

Robert Bryce, author of ‘Power Hungry: The Myths of ‘Green Energy’ and the Real Fuels of the Future,’ argues that the use of biomass resources in rural communities around the world not only leads to increased deforestation, but is also linked to premature deaths among woman and children.

Bryce explains:

People living in rural poverty have no choice but to cook their food with locally available fuels. For tens of millions of these people, the only choice is wood, which often results in the destruction of forests needed to sustain endangered species.

He adds:

Increased use of clean-burning refined oil products would not only preserve forests, it would also provide immediate health benefits to impoverished people who are sickened, or die prematurely, from indoor air pollution caused by the burning of biomass. World-wide, as many as 1.6 million people per year, the majority of them women, are dying premature deaths due to this type of pollution. Indoor air pollution hits women and girls particularly hard because they spend more time indoors, cooking over open fires, than their male counterparts.

More on Bryce’s take on green energy versus real fuels.