This influential group wants you to believe that wooden tables and chairs are better for climate than standing trees.
Is this email difficult to read? View in your web browser. ([link removed])
News of the world environment
NEWSLETTER | SEPTEMBER 12, 2025
([link removed])
([link removed])
([link removed])
Cutting Carbon
OVER THE PAST several decades, a large body of ecological research has confirmed what, to many, would seem common sense: Forests, especially mature forests, are best able to capture carbon dioxide when they are left standing instead of being cut down to make wood products. Trees naturally lock up carbon in their bodies, and even when they eventually topple, they can continue to sequester carbon for centuries as they slowly decay and eventually turn into soil.
In the State of Washington, however, the law claims something entirely different. In January 2020, major players in Washington’s powerful wood-products sector choreographed legislation that, with little more than the flourish of the legislative pen, wished away the timber industry’s significant carbon dioxide emissions.
The legislation — House Bill 2528 and a companion bill, Senate Bill 6355 — was, in many ways, an empty law. It did nothing to change the daily operations of the industry nor did it establish or modify any state forestry programs or impose any new standards on the state’s loggers or lumber mills. Its primary function was to realign state climate policies with the industry’s financial interests by establishing the forestry sector as a supposed climate savior. Relying on a mix of creative accounting and academic sleight-of-hand, the legislation asserted that the forestry sector “currently operates as a significant net sequesterer of carbon.”
The legislation sailed through the Washington legislature with little debate and overwhelming bipartisan support.
How, exactly, did it happen?
Journalists Paul Koberstein and Jessica Applegate investigate a pro-industry, quasi-academic nonprofit funding dubious science that portrays logging as a carbon-negative activity.
READ MORE ([link removed])
Photo by Chad Baxter ([link removed])
Let’s grow the movement! Share this email with an environmentally conscious friend or colleague (or copy this easy sign-up link ([link removed])).
SUGGESTED BROWSING ()
Pigeon Heist ([link removed])
For a century, pigeon racers were mostly Flemish farmers who spent more on the sport than they made from it. Then Chinese business tycoons discovered the sport and began spending millions on the birds. Then came the kidnappings. (The Washington Post ([link removed]), gift link)
Communities Against Clean Energy ([link removed])
Driven by ideological resentment about clean energy’s inclusion in the liberal agenda, many economically depressed Republican communities are pushing away clean energy projects despite the promise of good revenue. This South Dakota community is one of them. (The Guardian ([link removed]))
Learning from Dead Plants ([link removed])
Herbaria can help scientists study how herbivory — feeding on plants — has changed over time, gauge declines in pollination ecology, and understand how climate change impacts life on Earth. Yet, just as many plant species are under threat or going extinct, so are herbaria — albeit for different reasons. (The Revelator ([link removed]))
Riders in the Storm ([link removed])
As three generations of Wyomingites navigate in the Red Desert’s sagebrush sea, a mother wonders how she can explain to her young child that the political storms brewing on the horizon mean that these glorious vistas might not always belong to the people. (Sierra ([link removed]))
Did a thoughtful friend forward you our newsletter?
What a great friend! Sign up here. ([link removed])
([link removed])
Facebook ([link removed])
([link removed])
Bluesky ([link removed])
([link removed])
Instagram ([link removed])
Thanks for supporting Earth Island Journal, the independent media arm of the nonprofit Earth Island Institute. Reader donations to our Green Journalism Fund ([link removed]) help to cover the costs of our in-depth investigative reporting on environmental issues.
([link removed])
You are receiving this email newsletter because you signed up on our website.
No longer want to receive these emails? Update your preferences ([link removed]).
Make sure we land in your primary inbox: Add Earth Island Journal to your address book.
Our mailing address is:
Earth Island Journal
2150 Allston Way Ste 460
Berkeley, CA 94704-1375
Copyright © 2025 Earth Island Journal, All rights reserved.
