From The Daily Sceptic

By Chris Morrison

The rape of the Amazon rainforest to feed an exploding global demand for wind turbine balsa wood cores could be getting worse. According to local reports, the main balsa-producing country Ecuador has seen a huge 2025 rise in exports of the vital turbine core wood from US$218 million in 2024 to US$301 million. Last March, the Daily Sceptic reported exclusively on figures that suggested half a million mature balsa trees were being illegally logged every year in Ecuador and Peru to make up for shortfalls from sustainable plantations. The massive export rise over just one year hardly suggests the illegal deforestation is easing – if anything, it is a possible sign that the situation is getting worse.

Along with the global slaughter of millions of bats and the decimation of local raptor populations, the looting of the Amazon for balsa is one of the dirty secrets of the ‘green’ power revolution. For obvious political reasons, it cannot be mentioned in Net Zero-supporting mainstream media. Balsa is a tropical hardwood that is both lightweight and strong, and despite chemical foam alternatives, it is the material of choice for large 15 MW offshore turbine blades. According to a recent Mordor Intelligence report, foams can lose rigidity under extreme marine conditions – especially near the blade roots where stresses peak in structures that are almost as high as the Eiffel Tower.

Ecuador provides at least 70% of world balsa and China takes over half this supply as it attempts to dominate the global manufacture of wind turbines. It is thought that about 50% of global balsa production is used in turbine blades. Each blade is composed of 7% balsa, and it is estimated that each set of three can use up to 40 trees. Given what is known about annual balsa production, the scale of illegal logging and the requirements of turbine manufacturers, it is not difficult to arrive at a possible Amazon natural forest yearly loss of around half a million trees. The detailed figures can be found in our March article.

Balsa is a fast-growing wood that reaches the maturity needed for wind turbine use in about seven years. Until the soaring demand from turbines kicked in, it was harvested in sustainable plantations. But since the turn of the decade, this sustainable harvest cannot keep up with demand. In a damning 2024 survey, the Environment Investigation Agency (EIA) found that Ecuadorian exports were boosted by up to 50% following illegal logging in virgin rainforest.

The EIA report was damning. Investigators toured many of the illegal logging sites and charged that most, if not all, exporters turned to natural forests as a “convenient and immediate replacement” when plantations were quickly depleted of older trees. The areas under attack were noted to be some of the last intact forest landscapes in the country. They were said to be unique protected areas and emblematic indigenous territories.

One can only imagine the worldwide outcry if oil companies needed the wood for their own operations. But when alleged ‘green’ companies loot the forest, the blind eye turned is positively Nelsonian.

A continued lack of enough sustainable wood in Ecuador allied to a massive 37% increase in 2025 manufactured balsa exports hardly suggests a fall in illegal logging. Given that over 40 trees are required for a giant turbine, perhaps an educational plaque should be attached noting that at least 20 were illegally taken from the Amazon so this unreliable power machine can help us stop the Earth catching fire. (Other pseudoscience climate scares are of course available.)

Within days of the Daily Sceptic illegal logging article going viral on social media, a ‘fact check’ was published blowing smoke around similar claims. Green blob-funded Science Feedback didn’t mention the Daily Sceptic by name – it seems to have learnt we bite back – but it noted: “A common strategy that misinformers use against renewable energy is to claim that wind turbines or solar panels aren’t as green as they seem.” It is accepted that illegal balsa wood logging occurs, “but the main cause of deforestation in the Amazon is agriculture, not wind turbines or logging in general”.

So that’s all right then – if it were the main cause, we would have to get rather more upset about the matter. We should not minimise the illegal logging harms, continues the ever-reliable smoke blower. But is the entire wind industry now dependent on illegal Amazon wood? “Probably not” is the reply. A more relevant question would ask whether a significant portion of the wind industry was dependent on illegally obtained wood – and the answer would be: definitely yes.

“It is quite misleading to blame wind turbines for deforestation in the Amazon without crucial context,” Science Feedback observes. At this point, your correspondent started to lose the will to continue reading this tripe. One can only wonder how Science Feedback would spin our story that large areas of the Indonesian rainforest are being turned into open-cast mining pits to supply nickel and increase the range of high-end electric vehicles.

“Necessary thinning of overgrown vegetation designed to improve the overall health of the local ecosystem – and of course help stop the Earth going up in flames” would be our helpful suggestion.

Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor. Follow him on X.