6 | SUMMER 2019 ADVANTAGE STEEL Ed Whalen, P.Eng. ewhalen@cisc-icca.ca Living Trees Sequester CO2 Not Lumber Materials, Study Shows THERE IS AN OLD saying that if you torture your data long and hard enough you can get it to say anything. Add in a bit of alternate facts, untruth truths, repeat messages on social media and government(s) to the mix, and you have a recipe for disaster. Which brings me to the debate on climate change. While governments around the world are developing all sorts of policies to try to reduce greenhouse gases, the wood industry claims it can save the planet. In general, we can all agree that something has to be done, but it is how it is done that burns many. Enter the wood industry, the knight in shining armour, with a solution to make all the greenhouse gas problems go away. Their solution is to increase the area forested annually, grow lots of trees, cut them all down, grow more trees, cut them all down and repeat and repeat as fast as possible. They believe that all that wood will soak up all the CO2 and sequester it for all eternity in a house or building. An idea so beautiful and so simple — why wasn’t this thought of before? Add this to their claims that wood doesn’t burn, it only chars (tell that to the millions of campers around the world — how would we cook our s’mores!); wood is renewable; and the wood industry employs many Canadians. You can see why governments are lining up to drink the KoolAid… or should we call it WoodAid. But let’s stop and take a closer look at just some of the realities and the little know facts that are hidden in the closet. If we were to use more wood in construction in Canada, we would need access to more Canadian forests. I hope they are not going to import wood! Or are they? Will this move truly benefit Canadian companies and Canadian jobs? The wood industry (if they have their way) will replace the current steel, concrete and brick construction, as well as the jobs within each industry, and turn more of Canada’s forests into timberland. Existing logging is already having a profound impact on forest ecosystems and biodiversity; just imagine the ramifications when they ramp it up! But governments aren’t measuring ecosystems and biodiversity. They care only about greenhouse gas emissions at the moment. I would love to see a debate with the David Suzuki Foundation and the wood industry on this one. Increased logging will also affect the world’s carbon cycle, since old-growth forests are currently responsible for sequestering billions of tons of carbon every year and can continue to do so until they are 800 years old.1 These impacts mean that increasing the use of wood, and therefore the amount of timberland, will have a considerable effect on the world’s ecosystems and climate and should be considered carefully. In fact, reducing the amount of timber harvested in some areas can have tremendous environmental benefits. A study by researchers at the University of Washington on the management of Oregon’s forests found that reducing the amount of forest land which is logged and lengthening the harvest cycles in the remaining timberland could increase the amount of carbon stored in the forests by more than 50%. The study also showed that this change would store carbon much more effectively than wood products because forests can retain the carbon for much longer, and that the reforestation would be accompanied by many other benefits, such as increased water availability and biodiversity. Since that study also found that the wood industry is the single biggest source of carbon emissions in Oregon, such changes could have a profound impact.2 Wow! You will never hear the wood industry reference that study. So, how much of the tree is actually transformed into wood products? As little as 20 per cent of the original tree end up in primary and secondary construction products. The balance, mainly stumps and branches, are left to decompose, are combusted or end up in short-lived products. After 100 years, as little as 1% of a tree’s carbon remains in construction products that are still in use.3 Interesting: when wood decomposes it releases CO2 and methane (28 times more potent than CO2). So, after 100 years, 99% of the tree is gone, out of use, burned, rotted or rotting. It has released all the CO2 back into the environment, and even worse, has produced methane. You call this a good solution? Add to this the mountain pine beetle which has killed or is in the process of wiping out most of the logging forests in British Columbia and Alberta and FROM THE PRESIDENT CHAIRMAN Paul Mikolich, Gerdau MANAGING EDITOR Amanda Charlebois, CISC Advantage Steel and the French- language edition Avantage Acier are published by the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction (CISC) on behalf of its members and associates. CISC is not responsible for the opinions expressed in this publication by those contributing articles. Connect with us: Tel: (905) 604-3231 info@cisc-icca.ca • cisc-icca.ca @CISC_ICCA linkedin.com/company/ciscicca facebook.com/389982921529947 @cisc_icca CANADIAN INSTITUTE OF STEEL CONSTRUCTION