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Sunday 1st March, 41F, heavy overcast, very windy with showers forecast. February, in Denmark, has recently become far warmer and wetter than previously. 1.5 degrees C and 12mm extra rainfall, to be exact.Walked to the marsh pond to check for water birds. Two geese soon left. Leaving the pond bleak, bare and bereft of visible wildlife.
I watched through my binoculars as a gorgeous, Red kite worked its way upwind from the village church. Rising, falling and twitching to manage fierce gusts. Probably looking for breakfast on the partially flooded fields below. The marsh pond was higher than I have ever seen it. With large areas of the marsh under grey water. Climbing the hill out of the village, into the wind, was a real struggle! At least it remained dry.
It seems the politicooze have been reading my blog again. Biomass: i.e. The clearing of endangered, Amazon Rain Forest, to bring tropical hardwoods half way around the world. To burn in district heating plants in wealthy, "climate friendly" Denmark. Is to be investigated.
In theory, the entire Amazon Rain Forest could be bulldozed and burnt in Danish power stations and it would still remain "climate neutral!" Presently, the lack of external financial pressures makes biomass a highly profitable, low cost, dirty, energy source. This is despite the destruction, loss of animal and human habitat and the long and dirty sea transport involved.
All of which undermines the economic basis for expanding Danish wind and solar. Worse, it makes geothermal and the rapid development of large scale, heat pump systems uneconomical. More biomass plants are still being built here. While the cleared areas of Amazon forests become deserts. Or are used, short term, to grow dirt cheap, feed crops for factory farm pigs in Denmark. The forest soil cannot sustain long term agriculture and leads to a massive rise in CO2.
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