Forests as Fuel: Energy, Landscape, Climate, and Race in the U.S. South - Paperback

by Sarah Hitchner (Author), John Schelhas (Author), J. Peter Brosius (Author)

In the US South, wood-based bioenergy schemes are being promoted and implemented through a powerful vision merging social, environmental, and economic benefits for rural, forest-dependent communities. While this dominant narrative has led to heavy investment in experimental technologies and rural development, many complexities and complications have emerged during implementation. Forests as Fuel draws on extensive multi-sited ethnography to ground the story of wood-based bioenergy in the biophysical, economic, political, social, and cultural landscape of this region. This book contextualizes energy issues within the history and potential futures of the region's forested landscapes, highlighting the impacts of varying perceptions of climate change and complex racial dynamics. Eschewing simple answers, the authors illuminate the points of friction that occur as competing visions of bioenergy development confront each other to variously support, reshape, contest, or reject bioenergy development. Building on recent conceptual advances in studies of sociotechnical imaginaries, environmental history, and energy justice, the authors present a careful and nuanced analysis that can provide guidance for promoting meaningful participation of local community members in renewable energy policy and production while recognizing the complex interplay of factors affecting its implementation in local places.

Author Biography

Sarah Hitchner is assistant research scientist and adjunct professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Georgia.

John Schelhas is research forester with the Southern Research Station of the USDA Forest Service.

J. Peter Brosius is distinguished research professor of anthropology at the University of Georgia and founding director of the University of Georgia's Center for Integrative Conservation Research.