Biomass, renewable resources? Can they be good for anything other than food and animal feed? Can they be used in cars, power plants, and factories? Even more than 20 years after the "invention" of environmental protection, most of our consumer goods follow a one-way street from raw material sources to landfills. The products burden soils, waters, and the atmosphere. Dieter Osteroth points out that the environment does not necessarily have to be understood as a final repository for cultural waste. Until relatively recently, humans largely lived in harmony with the natural balance of the world. This means they did not interrupt the cycle of growth and decay, which is guided by the sun and closed by atmospheric carbon dioxide. The understanding that we do not add "additional" CO2 to this cycle when utilizing biomass is being lost.