Attenborough ‘alarm’ at burning wood for power

SIR David Attenborough has warned against the ‘alarming’ practice of razing forests to fuel wood-burning power stations in Britain.

The broadcaster, 96, complained about the practice in a letter seen exclusively by the Daily Mail.

About 6 per cent of the UK’s total power comes from Drax, a woodburning power station in Yorkshire which goes through seven million tonnes of biomass pellets a year.

It emits approximately 13million tonnes of carbon dioxide – making it Britain’s biggest emitter of the greenhouse gas – yet receives more than £800million of taxpayer subsidies a year by claiming to be a ‘green’ energy source.

While the power station insists burning wood is ‘renewable’ as trees grow back, critics say this is misleading as a mature tree could take 100 years to grow.

The warning comes as the House of Commons environmental audit committee announced it would investigate whether burning so- called ‘biomass’, as burning wood pellets is called, is fuelling deforestation.

In a hand-written letter to an anti-biomass campaigner, Sir David said the practice was ‘alarming’, adding: ‘I shall do my best to become better informed on the issue and I am grateful for you telling me about it.’

A Drax spokesman said: ‘Drax agrees wholeheartedly with Sir David, which is why we never use biomass which causes or contributes to deforestation – this is a fundamental part of our policies, and we have a legal obligation to prove this is the case.’ The power station admits using ‘thinnings’ from poor quality trees of no use to sawmills.

Audit committee chairman Philip Dunne said: ‘We must make sure the domestic timber industry is fit for the future and can support our net zero ambitions, while better understanding the impact any imports have on the wider world.’

Geologists have uncovered a fossil of the earliest known animal predator – and named it after Sir David Attenborough. The 560million-year-old Auroralumina attenboroughii was found near Leicester. It is related to a group that includes corals and jellyfish and is thought to be the earliest creature to have a skeleton.

WILL France one day accept that Britain has left the EU and stop behaving like an adolescent in a huff?

A French official’s taunt that the only way to prevent the Channel port holiday chaos is to reverse Brexit was truly pathetic.

It was funny how the queues started dwindling when French border guards finally turned up to work – hours late.

With UK tourists spending billions there each year, by being difficult France is simply cutting off its nose to spite its face.