Guest essay by H. Sterling Burnett
I have detailed in previous Climate Change Weekly posts various harmful environmental impacts the development of large industrial wind facilities imposes wherever they are erected. These include the amount of wilderness and viewsheds disrupted, massive bird and bat kills, the shedding of tons of composite materials from blade-edge erosion, ocean disruptions, the toxins released in mining for rare earths, and the mountains of waste generated. A recent investigative report from The Daily Sceptic exposed an additional environmental harm the wind industry is contributing to: Amazon deforestation.
Balsa wood is a key component of wind turbines, a near-perfect material for them. The wood is used primarily as a core material within a sandwich structure, thanks to its unique combination of being extremely lightweight yet remarkably strong and rigid. Its cellular structure provides excellent structural integrity, stiffness, and fatigue resistance, essential for massive, long-lasting blades that flex in high winds.
The problem is parts of the Amazonian rain forest are being denuded to supply the growing demand for balsa wood. Aside from the impact on the Amazonian ecosystem and the biodiversity therein, the net impact on carbon dioxide levels (if one is worried about that) may be a push: balsa trees, a carbon sink, are being cut down to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by shifting to “nonpolluting” wind power in energy use, a disputed proposition at best, all things considered.
Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic’s environmental editor, found,
Over half a million balsa hardwood trees are being illegally logged in the Amazon rainforest every year to feed the massive demand for wind turbines in many parts of the world. Balsa is a lightweight but strong wood that is commonly used in the core of giant turbine blades. It can make up around 7% of the blade and each set of three can use up to 40 trees.
Most of the balsa wood is logged illegally and unsustainably, Morrison found, meaning the trees are not replanted in consistent fashion. The logging is of the slash, burn, and move on variety.
“Most commercial balsa is exported by Ecuador, and it has produced approximately 500,000 cubic meters annually in recent years, or about 80,000 metric tons,” reports Morrison. “Around 55% of production is thought to end up in wind turbines … [b]ut since the turn of the decade, this sustainable harvest cannot keep up with demand.
“In a damning survey, the Environment[al] Investigation Agency (EIA) found that exports were boosted by up to 50% following illegal logging in virgin rainforest,” Morrison writes. “The areas under attack were noted to be some of the last intact forest landscapes in the country. They were said to be unique protected areas and emblematic indigenous territories.”
Due to criticism of the ecological impact of deforestation for wind turbines, blade manufacturers are trying out replacements for balsa wood, such as synthetic polymer foam substitutes. However, hybrid designs still incorporate tons of balsa because of its nearly unmatched strength-to-weight ratio, especially in areas experiencing high shear and consistently high wind speeds, where balsa maintains an advantage of stiffness and flexibility. It bends but doesn’t break
My experience of climate alarmists is that they don’t really care about the environment at all. All they care about is the “Climate Emergency” and they will support anything, no matter how destructive, to further their aims. They are quite prepared to destroy the planet in order to “save” the world.
UN officials have clearly stated in multiple times over the past couple of decades that the goal has nothing to do with the environment, but only to reshape the world’s economy (derivative: social order).
I would amend your last sentence to: “They are already destroying the planet in order to “save” the world.”
Green logic is … we need to cut down more trees to save the forest ( & make a tidy profit ).
*
[“still incorporate tons of balsa because of its nearly unmatched strength-to-weight ratio, especially in areas experiencing high shear and consistently high wind speeds, where balsa maintains an advantage of stiffness and flexibility. It bends but doesn’t break“]
For everything man has achieved, nature has done it many times before – better, more effectively, cheaper & more ‘sustainably’; yet man is so arrogant & full of self-importance he even thinks he can control global climate.
It bends but doesn’t break.
That is not the combination of assets that Greens show.
They both bend and break the truth.
All the time. As cops say, it is the Green M.O. (Modus operandi).
Geoff S
Or weather. Given climate is a 30 year average of weather.
Stolen from micro climate: 30 year average of weather in a particular region or locale.
What global climate? The is one? Sahara has the same climate as Antarctica?
I don’t think I’ve ever been confronted by 2 such absurd notional concepts more removed from reality as –
global climate
and
global average temperature
Who conjures up this b.s.?
“Climate Scientists”
Cui buono..?
So not only are 3rd world countries denied the benefits of cheap, reliable coal fueled electricity, their natural resources are being raided to profit the wind industry players, mainly China.
The hypocrisy of the net zero cabal is disgusting.
Balsa is also used in fibreglass & carbon fibre hulled yachts as a modulus spacer.
There are plenty of synthetic modulus spacer materials available.
But..
They’re more expensive than balsa.
And are made from fossil fuels.
Quo Vadis ?
Quo Vadis ?
The same way as Bombay Duck?
The ‘cause‘ is just and the ends justify the means.
Whales, birds, bats etc etc, never mind the trees in Belem, are acceptable collateral damage for the greater goal – saving the planet itself. Even better, the alarmists will tell you that even in the unlikely event they have got it all wildly wrong – and they most definitely have – so-called cleaner energy is still a more than laudable and desirable goal. h/t MUNR. All that animal mortality is quite out of sight and kept out of mind.
Take a rather rare visitor to the British isles…
An enthusiast who travelled to the Western Isles to view a rare bird has told of his “dismay” after watching it fly into a wind turbine and die.
The white-throated needletail, which breeds in Asia and winters in Australasia, was spotted on Harris. About 30 birdwatchers travelled to the island to see the unusual visitor, which has only been recorded five times in the UK since 1950.
However, they then saw it die after colliding with the wind turbine. Birdwatcher David Campbell, from Surrey, told the BBC Scotland news website that the incident took place late on Wednesday afternoon. Mr Campbell, who is now making his way home to south east England, said: “We just watched the whole thing with dismay.” – BBC
No fuss, no outrage, a stiff upper lip… these things happen.
I didn’t know that about the white-throated needletail.
They do make a great main ingredient for a tasty Bengal curry, but I’ll stop shooting them now, and just stick to hunting boring old wood ducks.
And the occasional hummingbird.
There’s not much outdoors fun left in today’s world.
Massive, bankrupting fines on the end users of this illegally taken lumber.
Fines would require at least some accounting regarding where the money goes or how it is used.
BRIBES, on the other hand, allow “authorities” to pocket the money for themselves, while declaring outrage publicly about the illegal activity.
Who ever produces the wind turbine blades, no matter what their names, are the ones to target.
What about blame for those who get rid of used and broken blades by burying them in large landfills.
Is this a decent method? Who knows? Will such waste one day become coal?
(For the younger set, coal is that black or brown buried substance, high carbon content, that our ancients use to relish as the fuel that made the Industrial Revolution possible). Geoff S
Same gang of a$$holes.
We need an “Exxon Knew” legal campaign against all wind turbine manufacturers.
Suspect that if you could follow the money, you’d find that the ‘harvesters’ already are paying the required tolls to local, state and national ‘representatives’ to ensure they can maintain an appropriate lifestyle.
By which means they expedite transport & shipping from international ports, avoid any pesky inspections (assumes without evidence that they exist for ‘protecting indigenous’ inhabitants if not the environment), and bypass any and all those other customs, taxes, prison sentences, etc., that anyone exporting illegal goods would otherwise be expected to pay.
So you are claiming they are not illegally timbering in spite of the fact Brazil is prosecuting them for illegally timbering trees in areas they have designated protected. Okely dokely.
Not sure how you derive that from my comment, but that’s on you.
My point was that illegal operations don’t guarantee prosecution when those who are supposed to enforce laws ignore the breaking of them. We have strong parallels in how different states prosecute looting (think “Antifa peaceful protests”). The fact (as quoted in the article, accepted as fact due to the source) that “Most of the balsa wood is logged illegally and unsustainably,” indicates that Ecuador – the country identified in the article as the primary exporter, not Brazil – is not enforcing laws in that country. The fact that Brazil IS enforcing their laws does not affect whether Ecuador is or is not doing so.
So, you are saying since criminals in Ecuadorian government are not enforcing laws the illegally timbered trees are in fact not illegally timbered because criminals in the Ecuadorian government are not enforcing their laws and therefore the end-users are also innocent. That about some up your spinning class for the day?
IIRC Balsa wood was used in WW2 as a filler between the inner and outer plywood skins in the manufacture of the Mosquito ‘Wooden Wonder’ fighter bomber. The lobster shell construction had incredible strength.
I also remember using it in the 1950s to make model planes. The kits had the shapes to cut out printed on the balsa wood sheets and the covering on the plane was doped tissue paper.
I don’t know whether one can get the dope now as it had a strongly smelling organic solvent.
Still, it was good fun and very satisfying, especially if the, mostly gliders, flew well.
They didn’t survive a crash very well but, like the Mosquito, were easy to repair.
The gliders used to have that small metal weight for the nose. I myself preferred Airfix kits. The Lancaster was a favourite.
Also their motor torpedo boat
Correct re balsa in Mosquito aircraft. I watched an old one being remade. Geoff S
They now use heat shrink plastic in lieu of tissue or silk skins.
We used solder as the nose balance weight.
Ahh reminds me of my youth. The Polydi (48 inch span) flew for five minutes plus on elastic. And there was a six foot glider that cd be catapulted.
Back in the ’50s I was building flying models, both free flight and control line. RC was a bit expensive for my budget. I normally flew ’em until they took an unrepairable crash, usually the first time I flew ’em. My parents always wondered how I could spend most afternoons in my room with the windows and doors closed, and playing with balsa wood and model airplane glue :<)
I made a model plane out of a balsa kit with my grandson only a couple of years ago. Rubber bands drove a wind-up propellor.
Bought it online.
Flew great, got banged up by numerous “tree landings”, but the youngster still has the plane as one of his displays.
I’m glad that you can still get balsa wood models, they give the young something constructive to do as an alternative to exercising their thumbs on a smartphone screen, as well as giving a bonding opportunity with their grandparents. A good opportunity for them to hear what life was like before all the current nonsense.
How many bird-lives would be saved by replacing a few fields-of-windmills with one safe, clean and reliable nuclear power plant?
Story tip: Recently, OpenAI cancelled a multi-billion data centre project in Britain…
Tech Secretary Liz Kendall has announced that the government intends to develop a “hardware plan” to facilitate AI investment
“the government will develop a UK AI hardware plan to secure Britain’s capability in chips and the semiconductor technologies that underpin the full AI hardware stack.”
https://order-order.com/2026/04/28/labour-to-develop-ai-hardware-plan-after-openai-cancels-multi-billion-pound-flagship-data-centre-deal/
Too late.
The micro electronics market has a skilled and capable leader already, Taiwan.
Way ahead of the pack and lovely folk to trade with. Geoff S
The Taiwanese party that proposed shutting down all their nukes has become much more pragmatic. This is in stark contrast to the UK Labor Party, which appears to grow more insane every day.
They will need coal and natural gas to produce those chips.
News just in…
United Arab Emirates Leaves OPEC Oil Cartel
Effective from May 1st
Very interesting. I wonder what next in the Middle East?
It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if there was a touch of Trump planning involved as there is always a hidden angle…
They panic because the high prices lead to permanent demand destruction.
Because other countries, like Australia, are deciding to use their own oil..
Even talk of building a new refinery.
Many countries are doing the same..
And of cause, there is American and Venezuela oil production.. rapidly climbing
Oil and gas will ALWAYS be needed and will always be the backbone of energy for any civilised society.. even the one you live in.
There will be an increase in demand, not a decrease.
It just won’t all come from the same region.
ps.. Understand that UAE was part of OPEC and under its control, having to limit production as required by OPEC.
UAE has a LOT of spare capacity, and wants to be able to PRODUCE MORE, without OPEC constraint..
So this move is exactly the opposite of what MUNT tried to insinuate.
Quelle surpris
Exactly, they panic because the high prices lead to permanent demand destruction (as I wrote), so they want to produce more to bring prices down. You figured that out alright 😀
Demand destruction.
Thanks. I needed a good belly laugh.
Wouldn’t surprise me if UAE run a large pipeline to somewhere like Fujairah on Gulf on Oman, to bypass the Hormuz Strait completely.
Why would they want to stay attached to production restraints put on by OPEC!
Once again we have to destroy the planet to save it.
“We have to destroy the rainforest in order to save it”.
Don’t ever forget that ideology trumps truth every time for the left. It’s an article of faith that wind and solar are the Holy Grail and there are literally no limits to what they will do to attain it. So what if we decimate forests and trees and wildlife, so what if cropland is destroyed for a solar “farm” and so what if eagles and other birds are killed? It’s worth it to get rid of “fossil fuels” whose only claim to fame is that they have lifted billions out of poverty and given them a higher standard of living and a longer life…much better that everyone live as peasants and only the climate elites live as kings, instead of everyone enjoying freedom and prosperity…
From Balsa Wood to Polymer Foam in Wind Turbine Blades
This is from 2022, so more recent harvest data are needed to fill the gap.
2020 was a big outlier. China up, USA down. Worldwide, production has leveled as demand slowed.
I wouldn’t give up a toothpick for wind power.
I am not a proponent of wind power except for limited off-grid applications and as minor grid add-ons, but to prove the point that this article is balsa propoganda I consulted the all knowing Google AI. It indicated 1), a million balsa trees can be grown on 1250 to 2500 acres; and 2), Balsa trees are among the fastest growing trees on Earth and reach harvest size (90 feet tall, 12-45 dbh) in 7-10 years. Ergo a million trees a year can comfortably be sustainably grown on 25,000 acres with ten year rotating cycles. Canada, to take one country, devotes almost 300 million acres to timber production. Surely the amazon can handle 25,000 acres devoted to Balsa for wind blades. The other thing about balsa as a wind blade core material is that its eventual entombment in landfills sequesters CO2, although perhaps not as efficiently as just burying them in the first place.
The problem is, they are cutting trees and not planting new ones.
The problem is, they are raiding nature preserves, violating indigenous peoples rights in the process.
Yes, the rates you state can be sustained, but it requires effort to sustain them that is not being applied.
When the balsa decays, it emits all that sequestered CO2.
This is not propoganda.