#oldgrowthforests — Public Fediverse posts

Devastating Community Health Study on #Drax #WoodPellet Plant

Written by Naya Black, August 7th, 2024

"#GlosterMississippi is a small, rural, mostly Black community in Amite County, Mississippi. It spans 1.8 square miles with around 900 residents. Residents are facing the harsh reality of a median income below $15,000 in 2021.
Introduction of the #AmiteBioEnergy Pellet Plant

"In 2015, Amite BioEnergy, a part of the UK’s #DraxGroup, started making #WoodPellets pellets in Gloster. Industry markets wood pellets as #ecofriendly . They get big subsidies from the #EU to supposedly fight climate change. Drax has a permit to emit up to 25 tons of harmful #AirPollutants and 249 tons of volatile organic compounds (#VOCs) per year. But since 2016, Drax has consistently gone over these limits. Drax even paid a $2.5 million fine for it.

What Types of Pollutants Do Wood Pellet Plants Produce?

"#WoodPelletPlants emit many #AirPollutants , including:

nitrogen oxides (#NOx)
#GreenhouseGas like carbon dioxide, methane, and sulfur dioxide
volatile organic compounds (#VOCs)
particulate matter (#PM) 2.5

"Sleep is critical to health, so 24/7 #NoisePollution is also a concern.

What Are the Short-term Effects of This Air Pollution?

"These air pollutants are harmful to residents breathing them in. They can cause:

coughing
trouble breathing
skin rashes
severe allergic reactions

What Are the Long-term Effects of This Air Pollution?

"The long-term effects of air pollution are #chronic. They’re also much worse than the short-term effects. Some are even life-threatening. Added to the short-term effects, the long-term effects can be:

shortness of breath
nausea
headaches
cardiovascular disease
lung disease
heart attack
stroke"

Read more:
https://dogwoodalliance.org/2024/08/devastating-community-health-study-on-drax-wood-pellet-plant/

#EnvironmentalRacism #AirPollution #ProfitOverPeople
#CorporateColonialism
#SaveCanadianForests #SaveUKForests #SaveCaliforniaForests #SaveTheForest
#OldGrowthForests #Greenwashing #EnvironmentalActivism
#BigForest #DraxPowerStation

"The increasing severity of #wildfires and #drought highlights that reforming #ForestStewardship – taking better care of the forests, including safeguarding #OldGrowthForests – is one of our best hopes to protect communities across B.C.

Harmful #forestry practices like #clearcutting and #unsustainable #IndustrialLogging make extreme heat and wildfires worse. #Clearcuts are #tinderboxes, more prone to creating embers because dead trees and branches dry out in the hot sun and become more #flammable. Tree plantations and improperly tended young forests also increase wildfire risk: Younger trees have thinner bark and low-hanging branches that can act as ladder fuels, and the trees are often planted too close together, making it easy for fire to spread.

Fortunately, intact and properly managed #forests are more resilient to the worsening wildfires and heatwaves. For example, #OldGrowth #rainforests have dense canopies which provide cooling shade that resists fire. They are cooler and wetter than young forests, acting as giant sponges. Old-growth trees in the drier interior have thick bark, high branches and are widely spaced which all reduce #WildfireRisk.

#SierraClubBC #BCpoli #StopEcocide #BritishColumbia #Environmental #SaveOldGrowth #ClimateCrisis #BCNDP #BanCorporateLobbyists #Wildfires #floods #ClimateEmergency #BCwildfires #BCfloods #NaturalDisasters #ClimateMitigation #StopDeforestation #JustStopOil #DoTheRightThing #OneEarth #BCForestryReform