One of the largest timber companies in the world isclaimingto “ put up to mood change solution , ” despite the fact that it ’s planning to increase lumber product over the next pair of age . As the Wall Street Journalreportedon Monday , logging gargantuan Weyerhaeuser has made a pivot man in recent year to promoting its timber activities as sustainable and greenish , a move that follows the campaign toward creating profitable carbon offsets from forests — despite the muzzy math in drama .
The keystone to Weyerhaeuser ’s environmental title is in its forest . Weyerhaeuser currently owns 10.6 million acres of forest in the U.S.—land which can absorb a mickle of carbon . wood like the ones thecompany owns across the U.S. and Canadaare crucial carbon sinks .
The company is cultivating a dark-green image and bluster about its “ sustainable forests ” on its website . “ We use trees to make intersection people need while take care of forest for next generation , ” the front pageboy copy reads .
Photo: Andrew Burton (Getty Images)
As the Wall Street Journal reported , this focus on clime is go along with the market signal : Some big companies are now spend billions on woodland with plans to also practice the timber for carbon sequestration . In a bid to attract investors , a new “ rude mood resolution ” part at the company , the WSJ report , is design to help other company discover way to offset their emissions .
“ For turgid timberland leverage , carbon copy is an constitutional part of rating , just as timber is , ” Anton Pil , promontory of globular choice for J.P. Morgan Asset Management , secernate the WSJ .
If you ’re thinking it ’s eldritch that Weyerhaeuser gets to take all those atomic number 6 credit when the company is just be after to chop those trees down , you ’re not alone . There ’s some pretty sticky math call for with justifying labeling for - profit forestry as mood - friendly . ( Earther reached out to Weyerhaeuser for gossip on the WSJ clause and will update this man if we discover back . )
On the one deal , Weyerhaeuser and other companies say that , because they replant Tree after they cut them down , they are helping to asseverate and raise that carbon paper cesspool . And a tabular array made out of a tree diagram , the party claims , computer memory carbon more effectively than that same tree would if it fell to the forest floor .
“ When we cut and convince trees into Mrs. Henry Wood product , that carbon remains stored for the living of the product , ” a Weyerhaeuserpamphlet answer frequently asked questions read . “ And when we replant our forests , those trees start removing more CO2 from the atmosphere . ”
While these arguments may attend good on paper , there are some serious coherent fallacies with how this actually works in material aliveness . One of the key take here is timberland regrowth . Trees , obviously , take sentence to regrow and get back up to full segregation strength — Weyerhaeuser ca n’t just roll out full - sizing Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree to replace the ones it chop down for piece of furniture or Home Depot planks . We do n’t have ten to wait for seedlings to regrow and bulge sequestering carbon , and sketch show that log forests can go along to utter carbon foryears after they ’re cleared . ( Weyerhaeuser recite the WSJ it has produce raw breeds of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree that will grow faster and sequester more atomic number 6 than the ones sheer down . )
“ You never really capture up to what was left in the old maturation woodland , ” Dominick DellaSala , a scientist with environmental nonprofit Earth Island Institute , told reporterslast November about these companies ’ maths . “ The carbon debt is transferred to the atmosphere . ”
total in sell carbon credit to outside companies , as Weyerhaeuser has started to do , create another layer of complication . Essentially , usurp that the mere existence of forest is a nett positive creates a scenario of ask companies to pay Weyerhaeuser to treat an area of forest precisely as it would commonly — with those paying companies now get to indite off their own emissions . While some buyers importune on wood owners actually reducing logging , the WSJ reported , that is n’t always the case .
“ Most people game the system , ” William Sonnenfeld , a forestry consultant , tell the WSJ .
And timber are n’t math equation . Trees are complex living organisms , and the actual ability of a forest to store carbon depends on a lot of factors — and can change over metre . Aninvestigation into California ’s carbon offset programpublished by ProPublica and MIT Technology Review in 2021 line up that almost 30 % of the offset printing in the program are overvalued , thanks to squishy maths and tricks of accounting that do n’t take timberland unevenness into account .
Weyerhaeuser ’s bleary math does n’t just extend to carbon sequestration . Weyerhaeuser has also heavily hawk the role of biomass — the process of burning woodchips for fuel — as a carbon root . On the company ’s website , biomass isdescribedas “ a humble - carbon energy solution that also support business in rural biotic community , keeps forest healthy by protecting them from louse , disease and wildfire , and encourages future sustainable forestry . ”
Climate advocatesdecry biomass ’s classificationin some countries as carbon - free or green Energy Department : much of the world ’s biomass energy is used in Europe , which means wood chips harvested from the U.S. undergo a carbon - intensive ocean trip to reach their oddment finish .
It ’s not just Weyerhaeuser that is gaming the forestry organization . Astudypublished last calendar month in the diary Frontiers in Forests and Global Change that looked at 300 forest carbon copy offset projects around the world constitute that many of these task are “ significant[ly ] over - crediting ” the carbon paper actually offset by their action mechanism .
Despite the mounting evidence about how carbon accountancy can be misused , over - trust on forests remains a popular choice for defiler who want to keep on pollutin ’ . Alaska ’s governor is presently pushing a bill that would incentivize the commonwealth to create a carbon management program for its forests , which the regulator has say could fetch in “ billion ” in gross . As Politicoreported on Tuesday , some of the large driver of interest in programs like these are oil company including ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips .
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