| How a blind spot in the Kyoto Protocol helped create the biomass industry.  Photograph by Bill Allsopp / Getty You may never have heard of Drax, but its name alone evokes its rather ruthless function and form—it’s effectively a gigantic woodstove in the north of England that generates electricity by burning imported pellets and emits millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year. The use of this wood, or “sustainably sourced biomass,” as its known in the industry, is touted as a green alternative to the burning of coal, but, as Sarah Miller explains in a penetrating and darkly funny report from Drax, that assumption is based largely on a “carbon accounting loophole” that has allowed biomass emissions to be treated as carbon-neutral. Along the way, Miller examines the limits of wood as a renewable resource, why “carbon-capture” technology might not save us, and the kind of bold economic reform that is necessary to really fight climate change. The story will make you smile, and then make you mad. —Ian Crouch, newsletter editor Read “The Millions of Tons of Carbon Emissions That Don’t Officially Exist.” | 
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