Thoughts on Energy, Water, Social Development & Sustainability

I was reading the Annual Energy Review, which is the official energy statistics from the US Govt. and noticed something that I hadn't before. Renewable energy sources has WOOD listed in it. In my honest opinion wood should be delisted from the renewable category.

Agreed that wood can be regrown much faster than coal or petroleum, but as long as it is counted as renewable source of energy, we are fooling ourselves. Look at the figure on the right (click it to enlarge). The red line indicates wood consumption in this country from 1949 to 2005. In the last 56 years the total consumption of wood has stayed almost the same. The only way you can save forests is to treat them the way we treat the endangered species. Actually, it is time that wood be declared a categoric threatened life form. No matter what kind, you just can't burn it. Use it for picture frames, furniture, etc. but don't just turn it to ash.