The trendy wood pellet stoves that are bad for the planet

TRENDY wood pellet stoves are bad for the environment, according to a forester who thinks trees feel pain and talk to each other.

Peter Wohlleben said forests can easily combat the effects of climate change by consuming water – cooling the surrounding temperature by around three degrees.

But companies selling wood pellets as fuel, which are thought to be good for the environment because they release less carbon dioxide, are making the problem worse by chopping down trees that could temper the problem.

Wood pellets are a compressed form of wood used in stoves as an eco-friendly alternative to fossil fuels. Mr Wohlleben, a published author, said the pellets from southeastern US factories did not reduce carbon dioxide and the idea behind this was ‘nonsense’.

He also criticised the supposedly ecofriendly policy of power stations replacing coal with wood pellets. He said: ‘We destroy forests to prevent climate change but we should leave forests because if it is one, two, three degrees warmer in future, that is not a problem for forests.’

Mr Wohlleben has studied trees and believes they raise ‘children’, sweat, feel pain and communicate with each other.

In a wide-ranging talk at the Hay Festival, he said: ‘Trees sweat together to cool down – as we do. A big beech tree can consume up to 500 litres of water a day.

‘An unmanaged beech forest can cool down an average of three degrees more than a managed beech forest. So they create their own climate.

‘An untouched forest in Europe won’t have a problem with climate change.’ Mr Wohlleben also said trees shed their leaves in the autumn because snow will make the branches break, causing them pain.

Just like humans, trees also need to sleep at night and street trees are dying earlier because they are sleep deprived, he said.

Mr Wohlleben said: ‘Trees that live near street lights will die earlier because it’s like burning a light in your bedroom.’

Mr Wohlleben was a state forester but now looks after a forest on behalf of the community in Hummel, Germany, where machinery is banned and the trees are left alone. His book, The Hidden Life Of Trees, sold out within minutes of the talk.

Britain’s largest power station, Drax in North Yorkshire, received more than £450 million in subsidies in 2015 for burning biomass, which was mostly US wood pellets.