Is it better to use wood as an energy source rather than fossil fuels?
Both energy sources have significant– if different–environmental impacts. Extraction and use of fossil fuels for energy depletes a non-renewable resource and releases air pollutants and greenhouse gases. But there are analogous impacts associated with extracting and using wood for energy. First, growing and harvesting trees can deplete a non-renewable resource–natural forests. As noted above, intensive management practices used to grow trees for paper– including both the part of those trees that goes into the paper itself and the part that is burned for energy–can adversely affect water quality, biodiversity, habitat for endangered plants and animals, and the integrity of natural forest ecosystems. Thus, while intensive management can arguably regenerate the quantity of wood, it cannot renew many of the ecological values of natural forests. Second, burning wood for energy creates air pollution just as burning fossil fuels does. On a lifecycle basis, when all energy sources are consider
