We are burning 1970’s petrol in our living rooms

Is your “eco-friendly” wood burner releasing 1970s neurotoxins? 

We’ve all been hammered by industry hype that wood burning is a clean, green, renewable heat source that mitigates global warming. 

Thankfully, these “all-natural” fairy tales are unravelling. As detailed in The Guardian, a new study by the University of Massachusetts Amherst has driven a further nail into the biomass industry’s heavily marketed coffin by revealing that when you burn wood, you aren’t just releasing carbon—you are actively poisoning the local air supply with historical lead.

The process is simple. Deadly simple. 

Think of trees as environmental sponges, removing not just CO2 from the atmosphere but also toxic heavy metals from polluted soil. Over decades, forests have acted as environmental sinks—trapping the lead left behind by 20th century industrial activity and leaded gasoline—within their wood.

But burn this wood and the trapped lead vaporises. Both vintage and modern wood stoves burn hotly enough to turn this heavy metal into airborne smoke, threatening homes and entire neighbourhoods. 

As the air cools, the vapour condenses, attaching itself to microscopic PM2.5 soot and ash particles—pollutants small enough to bypass your respiratory system’s natural filters.

Breathe in these particles as you crack open your stove door or as you happily grill marshmallows over a camp fire, and they will penetrate deep into your lungs’ alveoli, passing straight into your bloodstream and organs.

Lead is a potent, cumulative neurotoxin. 

The World Health Organization confirms there is absolutely zero safe level of human exposure. Once inhaled, it causes cellular inflammation, irreversible neurological damage and cognitive decline.

Leaded petrol was rightly banned over 25 years ago following decades of industry cover-ups. But now, in a cynical relay race of corporate deception, the biomass industry has simply caught the greenwashing baton from the petrol sector.

The legacy damage remains.

Urban areas still experience routine winter spikes in airborne lead. While this pollution was previously blamed on people burning scrap timber covered in old lead paint, the American study points to untreated wood itself as the culprit.

Other research—including a 2003 Swedish study that found significantly more lead inside wood-heated homes than those without—aligns with these findings, indicating that indoor and residential wood heating continually exposes local neighbourhoods to toxic air.

We can no longer afford to evaluate green energy solely through a carbon lens. True sustainability requires a comprehensive toxicological assessment. Policymakers must immediately update clean air strategies to account for biomass heavy metal emissions. 

It is high time to extinguish domestic wood burning incentives and prioritise truly clean, non-combustible heating alternatives to protect our communities’ long-term neurological health.

May 2026

Photo: Deutsches Ärzteblatt, November 2023 / Graphic: Created in BioRender. Henegan, P. (2026)

Spring logging: Switzerland doesn’t seem to need forest birds or silence 

Is there anything more uplifting than the sound of wood harvesters and chippers drowning out bird song during peak nesting season?

 While “old school” ecologists cling to the idea that spring is for nesting birds, breeding mammals, spawning amphibians and emerging flora, modern Swiss forest management is taking a much more… mechanical approach.

The uptick in 30-tonne harvester usage during the peak breeding season is particularly common in the canton of Bern where logging occurs virtually all year round, presumably to amortise its growing lignin lugging fleet. 

Shockingly, spring timber removal is also being carried out in nature reserves, including the internationally important Belpau Emerald Network which ironically abuts the Swiss capital where the Bern Convention was once ratified, long, long ago.

Two of the worst offenders and curators of many hectares of public forests include the Staatsforstbetrieb Bern (SFB) and the canton’s various Burgergemeinden. Despite their claims to be preserving forests for future generations, the SFB has also been caught spraying rioting brambles with glyphosate while the Burgergemeinde Bern’s website openly admits to cutting trees in spring. 

From 1 April – 15 July, forest users are instructed to stick to paths and keep dogs on leads, while heavy machines unbound by any constraints are free to compact and churn the forest floor and evict nesting birds and bats from their old trees.  

The Federal Act on Forest (Art.18) prohibits the use of “environmentally hazardous substances” in forests and the Hunting law (LChP – Art. 17) warns of fines and even prison sentences for anyone “disturbing birds during the nesting season.” 

In 2021, the Court of Justice of the European Union  (or easier to understand here (scroll down quite far)) ruled that logging during the breeding season was an “intentional destruction” of bird nests because forest owners were aware that birds breed in forests. In Switzerland, however, the gamekeepers state that, absurdly, destroyed nests or eggs must be found on the ground to prove that the brood has been disturbed.

You’d think this was obvious. A singing bird is a sure sign of a territory and a nest. 

As early as 2023, formal reports regarding these apparent habitat violations were submitted to mainstream NGOs. Their response? Not merely inaction, but a continued failure to condemn the practice.

Spring in Switzerland arrives up to 10 days earlier so we are graciously helping nature keep pace with our chainsaws. We step in to ensure trees are cut down before they get too old, preventing forests from becoming inconveniently biodiverse or stubbornly dense with carbon.

The Federal Office for the Environment advocates that forests must fulfil “diverse functions.” Yet, in a testament to focused priorities, over 81% of Swiss forest policy actors agree that the functional priority must remain harvesting wood over carbon sequestration or ecological naturalness.

All ecosystem functions may very well be equal, but some are clearly more equal than others. Quite an Orwellian turn in our pragmatic Swiss forest management. 

In Switzerland, we don’t preserve woodland habitats, we protect revenue streams.

May 2026

Photo: Agent Green

Small NGO, big victory

Three years ago, a story emerged that should have terrified anyone who believes in a free press. Ameco, a Swiss-based biomass behemoth, launched a brutal legal assault against Agent Green, a small but fearless Romanian NGO.

The “Crime”?

Daring to report the truth. In a joint investigation with the Environmental Investigation Agency and EuroNatur Foundation, Agent Green exposed how trees logged from a National Park ended up as biomass at Ameco. The story was so critical it was featured in The New York Times.

Ameco didn’t just sue; they tried to snuff out Agent Green entirely. They demanded:

• €3,000,000+ in lost revenue
• €200,000 in moral damages
• €5,464 PER DAY until the article was deleted
• A public apology and the total scrubbing of the NYT investigation from the internet

In an unprecedented show of solidarity, scientists and Oxbridge professors and 122 other global entities stepped up, recognising that an attack on Agent Green was an attack on scientific integrity and the right to hold industry accountable.

The Harghita Tribunal has now rejected every single one of Ameco’s claims, confirming what we already knew: Agent Green did not misinform and acted in the public interest.

However, a win in court doesn’t mean the damage is undone. Agent Green is still out tens of thousands of euros in legal fees—the “hidden tax” of SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) suits designed to bleed NGOs dry and intimidate whistleblowers through financial and psychological exhaustion.

This case was never just about Romanian forests; it was about the fundamental freedom to investigate and speak up. If Ameco had succeeded, no NGO, no matter how watertight their evidence, would have been safe from a corporate gag order.

The battle is won, but the struggle for transparency continues. The industry must be held accountable for promoting biomass as a clean, green solution when, in reality, burning ancient forests is a highly polluting, carbon-intensive practice that robs us of our best natural defence against global warming. This lawsuit was a desperate attempt to hide the gap between corporate greenwashing and the destruction on the ground.

Romania must urgently implement the EU Anti-SLAPP Directive to ensure that abusive intimidation lawsuits brought by financially powerful actors no longer silence the truth.

Justice won today, but the price of truth shouldn’t be bankruptcy. Support the organisations that take the hits so our ancient forests don’t have to.

May 2026

Photo: Agent Green

The Swiss climate strategy: if you can’t beat the heat, burn the trees

Switzerland is currently busy doing “too little” against climate change, while being hit twice as hard by the consequences. Apparently, warming up at double the global rate isn’t quite enough to trigger meaningful domestic action.

While the rest of the world has seen a 1.5°C rise since the pre-industrial era, Switzerland has surged by almost 3°C, according to a new study by the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences. Experts attribute this to parched soils and disappearing snow. Even the “perk” of cleaner air has backfired, allowing more heat to radiate onto a surface that is already baking. 

The government can’t exactly claim it wasn’t warned. A group of over 2,000 senior Swiss women (aka Climate Grannies), spent nine years arguing that the state’s inaction was a literal threat to their lives. After being told by Swiss courts to basically go home and knit, they took their complaint to the European Court of Human Rights which ruled in their favour two years ago. 

The latest study essentially reaffirms that judicial slap on the wrist—which the Swiss Parliament voted to ignore—merely swapping legal jargon for scientific data to deliver the same uncomfortable truth: Switzerland is an expert at importing goods and exporting its CO₂ responsibility. To meet 2030 targets, the plan isn’t to stop emitting, but to buy enough foreign carbon “indulgences” to make the domestic statistics look green.

Meanwhile, the government is touting woody biomass as a “miracle” fix, ignoring warnings that burning trees is a carbon disaster. In a masterstroke of tone-deaf marketing, the Emmental region has retreated into its own echo chamber to brand energy wood the “Oil of Emmental.”

Because nothing says “climate protection” like campaigns featuring Swiss men dressed as Arab sheiks carrying chainsaws, a bizarre bit of cultural appropriation used to signal that our “black gold” grows on trees. 

To ensure our forests are “fit” for the future, the current trend involves aggressive interventions that look suspiciously like industrial logging. It’s a brilliant loop: we clear-cut forests to make them “climate fit” and burn the logs for heat. We call it “carbon neutral” because—theoretically—another tree might grow back in fifty years. This wood-fired logic is being pushed as a saviour, even though burning it can release more CO₂ than the fossil fuels it replaces.

While we hit the financial and technical limits of adapting to extreme weather, the political response remains fixated on “technological shifts” involving chainsaws. 

The 60 authors from the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences argue that the financial sector is still asleep at the wheel. They suggest redirecting investments into actual green infrastructure. 

But as long as burning our carbon sinks is subsidised as “clean energy” and marketed with sheik-costumes, real change remains as elusive as a Swiss glacier in July.

Other findings:

• Heatwaves: more frequent and intense since 1901
• Cold: up to 60 fewer frost days since 1961
•  0°C isotherm: has risen by 300 to 400 m since 1961
• Growing season: extended by 2-4 weeks since 1961
• Snow days: reduced by 50% below 800 m and by 20% at 2000 m since 1970
• Heavy precipitation: 12% more intense and 26% more frequent since 1901
• Drought: significantly drier summers since 1981

April 2026

Twisting of the facts in the article: ‘The forest needs new lifeblood’, in the daily newspapers of Bern

In the above-mentioned article dated 14 April 2026, (published in “Der Bund” and the “Berner Zeitung”) the timber lobby is once again twisting the facts. “Climate change is having an impact all across the country,” reads the opening sentence of the article. It really should read: “Clear-cutting in forestry is having an impact all across the country,” because it is precisely this practice that has been proven to be the reason why forests are suffering from climate change in the first place.

The truth is that intact forests are being cleared for burning under the pretext of ‘climate-friendly forest conversion’, the logging industry is reaping the profits and taxpayers are subsidising the planting of so-called ‘climate-resilient trees’, whilst the old, irreplaceable trees are being burned in wood-fired power stations, emitting vast quantities of pollutants and CO₂, which in turn harms people and the climate.

Read our criticism here  in the email sent to the relevant parties and authorities.

It is also worth noting that, whilst most articles in the newspapers mentioned are paywalled, those published by the timber lobby are usually available free of charge.

Clean electricity for the production of the dirtiest energy source: pellets

On its website, BeO Pellets GmbH, a company based in Ringgenberg in the canton of Berne, advertises that it produces its pellets using clean electricity (from solar panels or hydroelectric power). The company also praises the use of regional fir and hardwood and emphasises the importance of sustainability and climate protection, creating the impression that the pellets are a particularly environmentally and climate-friendly product.

The truth is that no other heating system is as harmful to health, the environment and the climate as wood-fired heating systems. In terms of pollutants, the combustion of pellets – for the same amount of heat – emits, for example, compared to fossil fuel heating systems (excluding pollutants generated during production):

5.5 times more nitrogen oxides

7 times more volatile organic compounds

20 times more sulphur dioxide

33 times more carbon monoxide

800 times more particulate matter

Furthermore, wood-fired heating systems emit significantly more CO₂ than fossil fuel heating systems and were also classified as carcinogenic by the International Agency for Research on Cancer in February 2026. Clean electricity used in production does not make pellets clean, climate-friendly or environmentally friendly.

Find out about the “sustainability” of wood burning in our latest news of 7 april 2026 for example, or in our various articles on forest and health.

Photos: BeO Pellets GmbH

Ongoing destruction of protective forests around Lake Brienz

Almost all the forests around Lake Brienz are classified as protective forests. According to the Canton of Bern, these forests are supposed to be a key element in protecting against natural hazards.

For years, we have been observing, investigating and documenting the condition of the forests, and forest management practices, around Lake Brienz – with alarming results: just a few years ago, the intact protective forest formed a continuous, unbroken and stable belt along the entire length of the Lake. Every year, this healthy, intact forest is further weakened by excessive logging under the guise of so-called protective forest management.

At the latest following an incident (rockfall, landslide, avalanche, debris flow, storm damage, beetle infestation), the climate will be blamed (Belp near the capital) or complex geological conditions (Schwanden/Glarus).

Explosive: BEO Pellets from Ringgenberg (just 5 kilometres from the clear-cut areas) produces pellets from local mountain timber.

Photo: Clearly visible are four wide vertical clear-cut areas covering almost the entire height of the slope, as well as another clear-cut area slightly to the right and above the village of Oberried.

Heating with wood – officially carcinogenic

Ever since its launch in 1987 by the European Commission and the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the European Code Against Cancer (ECAC) has provided citizens with evidence-based recommendations to manage their own health.

Developed by 60 European experts, the 5th edition (ECAC5) lists 14 ways to help prevent cancer including though combatting air pollution.

As individuals cannot personally control the air they breathe, the 2026 update has moved beyond its historical focus on individual lifestyle choices to formally call on governments to implement the systemic changes and legislative protections required to eliminate environmental carcinogens. 

As an article in The Guardian reports, the scientific basis for this shift is compelling: an estimated 28,000 lung cancer cases in Europe annually are now attributed to particulate matter, including through increased biomass burning.

While wood fires are often viewed through a lens of recreation or aesthetics, they are a primary contributor to this toxic load and a major source of indoor and outdoor pollutants. The evidence increasingly links these emissions not only to lung cancer but also to bladder, kidney and brain cancers. 

Adhering to World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines could reduce lung cancer mortality by more than 10%, the experts believe. To reach these targets, essential structural reforms are needed, including: 

• Phasing out wood and coal: in a direct response to the increasing trend of wood burning—which counteracts other air quality gains—the experts explicitly call on governments to discourage and eventually phase out the use of solid fuels for heating, cooking and recreation.

• Decarbonisation incentives: to facilitate this transition, robust incentives for the installation of non-polluting home energy systems, such as heat pumps, solar power and geothermal energy, are needed, effectively moving the burden of heat generation away from harmful combustion.

• Protection of vulnerable groups: because wood smoke concentrates in residential areas, the experts urge that schools and nursing homes be fitted with high-grade indoor air filters to scrub the air of dangerous particulates.

• Ending combustion for power: the expert group calls for a total end to combustion for electricity generation and heating across the EU, including the use of biomass, framed as “green” but nevertheless a significant source of carcinogenic particulate matter. 

The report concludes that while individuals should take personal precautions—such as keeping their homes free of smoke—significant reductions in cancer incidence require legislative action. It is no longer sufficient to advise citizens on how to breathe; governments must now implement the infrastructure and energy transitions necessary to ensure the air is safe by default.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified wood burning as carcinogenic

Since 4 February, air pollution – and wood burning in particular – has been classified as carcinogenic (see our report of 4 March 2026)

Read more about wood burning as a risk factor for cancer in our new article.

Forests are more than just the climate regulators that the ETH study portrays them to be

A team of researchers at ETH Zurich has concluded that forests in northern latitudes warm the surrounding environment, whilst targeted reforestation – particularly in the tropics – has a significant cooling effect.

However, the study paints an incomplete picture and opens the door for polluters in the North to shift their climate responsibility onto other regions. The timber lobby could also misuse the data to justify even more deforestation. In Switzerland, intact forests are already being wrongly cleared to make them ‘climate-fit’.

Read our critique of the study here.