Dartmouth Biomass Project: Impacts on Climate and the Community
Dartmouth College is planning to switch to burning biomass and biodiesel to heat the campus. Biomass is bad for our health and bad for the climate and we’re calling on Dartmouth to stop this plan.
Biomass (especially from wood) has devastating effects. Incineration releases more carbon at a time when we need to be doing everything we can to prevent the worst effects of climate change. And people who live near these polluters are at a higher risk for asthma, heart disease and cancer just from breathing the air.
It’s time to transition to clean, local, renewable energy instead of fossil fuels and polluting energy like biomass. Sign the petition to demand that Dartmouth College stops their biomass plan!
Learn More:
Resources:
- Eight public health, medical and nursing organizations have signed on to a letter urging our elected officials to oppose policies that would encourage biomass. Read more.
- Partnership for Policy Integrity provides many useful resources on biomass.
- VIDEO: TEDx Talk by Danna Smith on U.S. Forests and the Climate Emergency.
- “Don’t Burn Trees to Fight Climate Change – Let Them Grow,” by Bill McKibben, The New Yorker, August 15, 2019.
- Public Policy Position on Energy by the American Lung Association.
- Example of permit, Canaan NH, July 2019.
- Letter from 800 scientists to the EU Parliament opposing large scale biomass burning, January of 2018.
- Map of the Dartmouth Woodshed, from which Dartmouth plans to cut and burn 40,000-50,000 tons of wood every year.
