The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization

by Peter Zeihan

Third, there is a big looming environmental issue. In 2019, wood and various wood by-products accounted for 2.3 percent of Europe’s electricity generation, mostly because the EU has some epically stupid regulations that consider the burning of wood and wood by-products to be carbon-neutral despite the pretty much undisputed fact that wood burning emits more carbon dioxide than even coal. More to the point, some half of the trees felled are used as direct fuel, with the vast majority being burned within a day’s walk of the forest’s edge, particularly in India and sub-Saharan Africa. In a post-globalized world, very little about wood-as-fuel is going to be inhibited. If anything, the opposite will happen. If people cannot source globally traded energy products like natural gas or diesel, they will have a choice between not having heat for cooking or staying warm . . . or burning wood. The scale of the devastation—in terms of carbon emissions, land cover, biodiversity, smog, water quality, and safety—caused by half the world’s population reverting to wood burning is difficult to wrap the mind around.