Where There is Smoke, There Is Fire

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I find it astounding that such a large part of renewable energy comes from burning wood (see the underline text in the second quote below).

Europe’s forests have for centuries been cut for household fuel and, in the past century, for local heating plants. But what is happening now is on a very different scale. The change has been fueled by new technology that converts timber into wood pellets that have been heated to remove moisture and compressed, which makes long-distance transportation practical and economic.

Roughly half the cut wood in the EU is now being burned to generate electricity or for heating. And there is growing evidence that the logging is damaging forests and reducing their ability to store carbon.

Read more at the source. 

I am particulary interested in the claim made (with no supporting reference) in the above article:

While most of the good-news headlines have been about the rise of wind and solar, most of the new “green” power [in the 28 nations of the European Union] has actually come from burning wood in converted coal power stations.

Now confront this with this urgent warning by Paul Homewood [who believes increasing CO2 concentrations pose a serious threat]:

The European Union is moving to enact a directive to double Europe’s current renewable energy by 2030. This is admirable, but a critical flaw in the present version would accelerate climate change, allowing countries, power plants and factories to claim that cutting down trees and burning them for energy fully qualifies as renewable energy. 

Make sure to read the full text at the source, where Homewood explains that burining wood is ecologically detrimental and apt to increase C02 levels substantially, and thus, in his view, a contributor to catastrophic anthropogenic global warming.

If both sources above are making accurate statements, we have yet another case in point before us showing the ecological-industrial complex (green profiteers) is making huge money by false labelling, exploiting  the common man's foible to support anything that comes with the tag "renewable", even if it is in fact damaging to man and his environment and runs counter to the CO2-saving purpose of switching to renewables.

By having turned environmentalism into a verbiage-based religion any environmental abomination may nowadays be perpetrated in the name of environmentalism. 

See also here.

Deutsche Zusammenfassung: 

Die oben zitierten Quellen geben an, dass das Gros der von erneuerbaren Energieträgern gelieferten Energie in den 28 Mitgliedsstaaten der Europäischen Union nicht von Solar und Wind, sondern aus der Verbrennung von Holz stammt. Eine neue Direktive der EU, die die Verdoppelung des Anteils der erneuerbaren Energieträger am gesamten Energieaufkommen bis ins Jahr 2030 zum Ziel hat, deklariert Holz ohne Einschränkungen zur erneuerbaren Energiequelle. Der aktuelle und der erweiterte künftige Einsatz von Holz zur Energieerzeugung stößt allerdings auf Widerspruch, da sich daraus Gefahren für die Waldbestände ergeben ebenso wie Auswirkungen (Nettobeitrag zum CO2-Ausstoß), die den Klimawandel verstärken. 

Während die Hysterie um das Waldsterben auf Lügen beruhte, für die bis heute niemand zur Verantwortung gezogen worden ist, schickt sich der ökologisch-industrielle Komplex an, sein ganz eigenes, profitables Waldsterben zu veranstalten. 

Nachdem es gelungen ist, den Umweltschutz in eine Religion zu verwandeln, die von nachgebeteten Floskeln lebt, ist es heutzutage möglich, jeden erdenklichen Angriff auf die Umwelt als ökologisch wertvolle Maßnahme zu verkaufen.