Logging trees specifically…

Logging trees specifically to burn them for energy is stepping back centuries in technology, when wood was the only available fuel for heating and cooking. It's a double-whammy against any kind of climate change mitigation and resilience, in that it (1) releases carbon into the atmosphere and (2) destroys the very forests that provide the CO2 storage, shade and cooling evapotranspiration that can help us survive a warming planet. Forests are solar-powered air conditioners.

Even burning genuine "waste" wood is unwise and unsustainable. The best use of wood waste is putting it back on the land itself, to replenish soil fertility, provide habitat for important soil organisms (eg fungi) and reduce drought with moisture-retaining organic matter. These are the elements necessary to grow a healthy and sustainable forest in the first place.

In Denmark, garbage is burned to create energy -- and it's burned in state-of-the-art facilities that trap virtually all pollutants and resources, for safe disposal or recycling. This solves two problems at once: energy production and waste disposal.

Given the very limited success of recycling in Canada, and the virtual impossibility of diverting many materials from the waste stream at all, we should follow the Danish example.