The progressive idea that wood fires are a “carbon-neutral” source of energy is an environmental fantasy, but a popular one. With the encouragement of green advocates, about a million tons of wood are burned in England every year, some of which comes from old forests. Tons of wood pellets are also imported from the United States. Last year, the increasing tonnage of wood being burned in EU countries prompted a warning from 200 European scientists, who wrote to the boffins in Brussels, cautioning that “bioenergy is not carbon-neutral and can have seriously negative climate impacts. The combustion of forest biomass generally releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than fossil fuels . . . because more has to be burnt relative to fossil fuel.”