To the editor: What could possibly be the holy messiah of fresh power and wildfire prevention? In response to Noah Haggerty’s article, our savior appears to be biomass power (“California wants biomass power to satisfy its wildfire targets. Its tasks preserve going south,” Sept. 30). However this text doesn’t point out the mountains of analysis that warn in opposition to the harms of carbon seize and storage to the environment, ecosystems and the individuals whom such practices are supposed to serve.
Crucially, the mere processing of biomass materials — through clearing forests, chopping timber into wooden chips and transporting supplies over lengthy distances — emits alarming portions of carbon into the environment. Together with the high-energy combustion and gasification of the biomass, the “carbon-neutral” or “carbon-negative” claims lose their floor because the internet atmospheric carbon emissions trump people who they suggest to sequester.
As an alternative, public funding ought to prioritize research-backed renewable power sources like photo voltaic and wind to resolve emissions and public well being crises.
Jojo Pak, Berkeley
