Alliance Receives $10 Million To Research The Viability Of Using Beetles-Killed Trees As Biofuel

The Bioenergy Alliance Network of the Rockies (BANR)– a consortium of academic, industry, and government organizations led by Colorado State University – has been awarded $10 million by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to research the viability of using beetle-killed trees in the Rockies as a sustainable source for creating biofuels.

Beetle damage in West Elk Mountains, Colorado. Photo by Jimmy Gekas.

Among the benefits of this plan would be the culling infested forests. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said earlier this month that, “Infestation of pine and spruce bark beetles have impacted over 42 million acres of U.S. forests since 1996, and a changing climate threatens to expand the threat from the bark beetle on our forest lands .”

This isn’t a new concern, and warming winters over the last several seasons have greatly exacerbated the growth of beetle populations and forest destruction.

In 2009, Matt Skoglund, director of the Natural Resource Defense Council’s (NRDC) Northern Rockies office , talked about “the tragic demise of whitebark pine trees in the Northern Rockies, primarily caused by the mountain pine beetles,” which he added were “thriving with a warmer climate.”

Skoglund continued that “the destructive paths of both the spruce  beetle in the boreal forests of Canada  and the mountain pine beetle in the Rockies, both of which, thanks to warming temperatures [were] wreaking havoc on coniferous forests and leaving millions of acres of dead trees in their wake.”

Skoglund also added that the worst case scenario was already unfolding, saying that warmer temperatures were “enabling beetles to survive at ever higher elevations” and that as a result, the whitebark pines without natural defenses, were “being slaughtered by beetles across the Northern Rockies.”

Colorado State University explained the role of extreme cold in controlling beetle populations, saying, “For winter mortality to be a significant factor, a severe freeze is necessary while the insect is in its most vulnerable stage, i.e., in the fall before the larvae have metabolized glycerols, or in late spring when the insect is molting into the pupal stage.

“For freezing temperatures to affect a large number of larvae during the middle of winter, temperatures of at least 30 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit) must be sustained for at least five days.”

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Asia Pulp & Paper Vows Commitment To Stop Clear Cutting Natural Rainforests In Indonesia

The often embattled Asia Pulp & Paper Group, Indonesia’s largest pulp and paper producer – ranking fourth largest in the world – says it has decided to put “an end to the clearing of natural forests across its entire supply chain in Indonesia.”

Asia Pulp & Paper logging truck passing through the degraded lands in Indonesia. Photo by David Gilbert, and provided by the Rainforest Action Network.

APP says that all of its suppliers have suspended natural forest clearance while an independent assessment takes place to identify areas of high conservation value that will be protected through a long-term management program.

APP has been repeatedly attack over the years from environmental groups (including Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, the Rainforest Action Network, and the environmental coalition Eyes on the Forest) with allegations that it has indiscriminately clear cut many of Indonesia’s  most pristine natural rainforests, including sanctuaries for endangered species including the Sumatran tigers, orangutans, and elephants.  

A Greenpeace’s report called How Sinar Mas Is Pulping The Planet took an investigative look at the practices of APP’s parent company in two vital rainforest areas in Sumatra – the Bukit Tigapuluh Forest Landscape in Central Sumatra, which is one of the last refuges for the Sumatran tiger; and the Kerumutan Peat Swamp forest, which is another important tiger habitat and carbon rich peatland.

Greenpeace said that it “documented Sinar Mas in the act of clearing rainforests and destroying peatland in these areas.”

In addition, Eyes on the Forest published a report called APP: default on environmental covenant, which accused the company of converting parts of the Senepis Tiger Sanctuary in Sumatra into pulpwood plantations.

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BP Signs Settlement To Limit Air Pollutants From Its New Whiting, Indiana Refinery Expansion

BP signed a settlement agreement last week with the state of Indiana, federal agencies, and environmental and community groups that will reduce the amount of air pollution emitted from the company’s expansion of its Whiting, Ind. oil refinery.

Canadian tar sands oil extraction. Image courtesy of the Sierra Club’s Wisconsin John Muir Chapter.

Local communities in Northwest Indiana as well as Chicago residents would be the most immediately effected by any pollution coming from the refinery.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) said that “BP’s air permits did not accurately reflect the pollution realities of the Whiting refinery’s expansion” in including tar sands.

“Tar sands are a nasty source of oil that threaten our climate and they also emit dangerous pollution into the communities where they are refined,” said Ann Alexander, NRDC lead attorney for the community and environmental groups fighting the permits.

The settlement agreement calls for millions of dollars in added pollution controls and monitoring equipment to address increased emissions associated with the facility’s use of tar sands oil.

The NRDC estimates that the controls will eliminate about 4,000 tons of regulated pollutants annually, including volatile organic compounds such as sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides.

BP will also be required to put air monitors in place that will help increase information about emissions from refineries processing heavy oil.

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Sumatran Elephants Status Now At Critically Endangered On List Of Threatened Species

The Sumatran elephant has just moved up in status from ‘endangered’ to ‘critically endangered’ on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Red List of Threatened Species.

Sumatran Elephant. Photo from World Wildlife Fund-Indonesia/Samsul Komar.

“Nearly 70 percent of its habitat and half of its population have been lost in one generation,” said the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), adding that a major contributing factor has been “the clearing of forests for conversion to plantations.”

The elephant is an Asian subspecies called Elephas maximux and is only found in Sumatra, Indonesia. The WWF estimates that there are currently about 2,600 elephants left in the wild, which is about have the population of 30 years ago.

On an even more localized scale, the WWF said that in the province of Riau – located in the center of Sumatra, along the Strait of Malacca – “elephant numbers have declined by a staggering 80 percent in less than 25 year, confining some of the herds to small forest patches.”

The conservation group attributes much of the blame for the habitat destruction on the pulp and paper industries that make their fortunes by clear-cutting forests and replacing them with pulpwood plantations.

These plantations are composed of trees such as aspen, hemlock, pine, or spruce which are used in making pulp for paper.

The WWF is calling on the Indonesian government to “prohibit all forest conversion in elephant habitats until there is a conservation strategy to save the species.”

Also under threat to deforestation are the Sumatran tigers, which currently number about 400 in the wild.

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The Amazon Rainforest – Earth’s Brazilian Lung Being Burned Down For Profit

Tropical rainforests are the lungs of the planet. Photosynthesis makes them massive carbon absorbers, regulating global climate. These rainforests generate most of the world’s rainfall and form a cooling band around the equator, acting as the Earth’s thermostat.

Amazon deforestation through burning. Photo courtesy Chris Neill/Marine Biological Laboratory.Cutting down forests causes two major problems - removing the planet’s natural carbon absorber, and adding more carbon into the atmosphere because many trees are cleared by burning. Too much carbon dioxide heats up the atmosphere, which then causes erratic global weather patterns.

Today in Brazil it’s still a lot cheaper to clearcut into the virgin Amazon rainforest to open up new pastures for grazing cattle than it is to rehabilitate existing pastures, says a new report from Brighter Green, a public policy action group.

“The most severe deforestation is occurring in South America, particularly in the Brazilian Amazon,” says a United Nations report. The information comes through the use of over 200 satellite images, maps, and graphs that highlight the most pervasive environmental issues in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Brazil is dealing with the conflicting goals of conserving its rainforest and continuing to be an export leader in agricultural commodities – most extensively beef and soybean.

Nearly 100 countries import fresh and frozen beef from Brazil, including Russia, Iran, China, (through Hong Kong), Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon, and Venezuela. In 2009, these exports were valued at $6.3 billion. Brazil’s cattle population - numbering about 190 million - is the world’s second largest behind India.

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