Eric Worrall writes: The European Union has just committed economic suicide, by agreement a landmark deal, to cut CO2 emissions by 40% by 2030.
Given that European emissions, by any rational measure, have been rising steadily, this would at first seem to be an impossible goal.
But anyone who is expecting a rational re-appraisal of European environment policy – don’t underestimate the blind determination of Europe’s green elite, to fulfill their dream of an emission free Europe. They will, in my opinion, happily bomb the European economy back into the stone age to achieve their ridiculous goal.
An an example of the people who run Europe, consider the most recently appointed European Commissioner, Violetta Bulc. According to Roger Helmer, a prominent UKIP Euroskeptic member of the European Parliament, Bulc is on record as claiming to be a practicing fire walker and a shaman. http://rogerhelmermep.wordpress.com/2014/10/22/fire-walking-a-key-skill-for-eu-commissioners/
On her blog, Bulc describes herself as an expert on balanced sustainable development strategies, organic growth and innovation ecosystems. She believes in the power of networks, holistic individual, and positive energy.
A recent post on Bulc’s blog is “The vibration of white lions in the new era”. http://www.violeta.si/2014/09/the-vibration-of-white-lions-in-new-era.html
Yet Bulc is now, or shortly will become, one of the most powerful people in Europe – one of 28 European commissioners, who have sole power to source new legislation, which is usually in my opinion rubber stamped by near powerless European parliament. The European commission is also the sole body responsible for ensuring the legislation they source is executed – the commission combines executive, oversight and legislative powers into a single polity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Commission
Bulc will never have to face a vote – only members of the European parliament have to bother with all that populist democracy nonsense. Commissioners are appointed.
Can anyone imagine someone like Bulc relaxing her iron determination to drive down European emissions, just because a few miserable capitalists claim that they are going bankrupt? After all, its for the sake of the planet. And Bulc is not alone – most of the commission share her zeal for all things green.
Come back in a couple of years . They agree now – but agreements can be broken. And promises are not always honoured.
Yes, but if it cools as the Met Office predicts and they have more winters like last years, there could be many deaths in the future if they actually cut back on reliable energy. That will be extremely sad. But the progs and the greens think good intentions are enough.
If the Met Office predicts cooling, based on past predictive skills, then I’m purchasing air conditioners, ice machines and umbrellas to get ahead of demand.
Those “many deaths”?
Feature, not bug. Never underestimate the misanthropy of people who claim humans are a deadly virus upon Mother Gaia.
They don’t have good intentions, their intention is to destroy the industrial economy, whatever the cost.
I hope you’re right. However, imagine what kind of signal that sends now to any company considering to invest in Europe. With the already abysmal economic outlook for Europe, this really comes close to harakiri.
There is an interesting parallel to be found in the Hague world disarmament talks in 1899 and 1907 – obviously just before the most savage war (to that date anyhow) in the history of the planet.
The “same people” who are convinced they can save the planet now were convinced then they could end war then. The governments of the major powers knew that it was stupid and mostly, if not completely, impossible but were forced to go along because of the tremendous outcry from the public (the chattering classes?) Of course, some good things did come out of those talks but by and large they ultimately came to lip service on the important matters.
When my wife asks me to do a chore, I always say “Yes, dear,” regardless of my actual intentions. The European Union has just said, Yes, dear.”
Didn’t anyone notice this in the announcement”
“A 27% renewable energy target that is binding at an aggregate European level but voluntary for individual member states.”
Voluntary.
Also, the scheme is contingent upon the upcoming UN climate summit in Paris next summer arriving at a legally binding international deal.
Anyone holding their breath?
Much ado about nothing.
“binding at an aggregate European level but voluntary for individual member states”
So it’s a “binding” 27% for the European aggregate but “voluntary” for all member states. HOW can that work?
It’s not meant to work Winston that’s the whole point.
So if it’s not meant to work, what do they have in mind as a remedy for the failure?
The fragrant Violetta obviously dislikes us.
We need to die off [die horribly of cold, starvation and famine – or be bludgeoned to death – so the bludgeoners can lick our blood from their bludgeons, so supplementing their inadequate diet – I guess] for Ms Bulc.
How on Earth did this delightful soul get appointed?
[I note that Commissioners appear not to be subject to Voter Recall. Very Strange.]
Perhaps one Lion is starting to vibrate . . . . . . .
Auto
There seems to be much uncetainty about this.
The Guardian, a loyal alarmsit newspaper, is distinctly lukeawrm about the agreement:
“Climate commissioner hails ‘strong signal’ ahead of global Paris summit but key aspects of deal left vague or voluntary”
“As well as the greenhouse gas, two 27% targets were agreed – for renewable energy market share and increase in energy efficiency improvement. The former would be binding only on the EU as a whole. The latter would be optional, although it could be raised to 30% by a review in 2020.”
“But a clause was inserted into the text that could trigger a review of the EU’s new targets if other countries do not come forward with comparable commitments in Paris.”
So, is this a way out? If the Paris meeting does not agree on something similar, the EU can disentangle itself from this deal?
The UK insisted on a clause about voluntary commitment;
“The prime minister won a battle to keep policies aimed at boosting renewables and saving electricity voluntary for member states.”
“It’s important that you’ve got flexibility over your energy mix,” said a Downing Street spokeswoman. Cameron had hoped to cut the energy efficiency figure to 25%, but was prepared to accept 27% as long as it was not binding on Britain.”
And Poland secured a huge trunk of EU subsidies for its coal industry, to clean up this dominant part of their energy sector.
All in all, a typical EU compromise. Watch out for sour comments from greenies, they will probably not be too happy with this agreement. So economic suicide sems a bit to dramatic to describe the situation in Europe. The leaders know that they cannot commit their countries to really loss-makig climate policies.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/24/eu-leaders-agree-to-cut-greenhouse-gas-emissions-by-40-by-2030
Sigh. What is it Einstein said about insanity? Defining it as repeating the same mistake over and over again, doing the same thing even though it never works? I don’t remember the exact quote, but it sure describes the European Union to a tee. In the meantime, electricity rates keep shooting up in Europe.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. You are on point
My landlord replaced all fridge/freezer combos a couple of months ago and my electrical “consumption” have been reduced by half since, but the bill only by a fifth …
A new fridge reduced your power consumption by half, you sure about that?
Return on investment.
He or she need to get their money back. Unless you bought the fridge/freezer combo yourself, in which case raise heck.
But if the landlord bought it then in many ways you are both winners.
klem,
Yes, our bills contain statistics on monthly basis here in Sweden (including false information regulated by law about sources, ignoring physical laws …). There is an obvious drop at the time and have remained that low since, compared to earlier. Also, I don’t have a lot of electrical stuff, that is switched on. Mostly, I only sleep there and spend more time elsewhere working and socializing.
My previous fridge/freezer was already ca five years old when I moved into my flat fifteen years ago (fridges, freezers and stoves in flats here in Sweden, are in general owned by the landlords and not by the tenants).
This also seems appropriate:
Albert Einstein — ‘Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.’
The BRICS nations must be just quietly shaking their heads in public. And gleefully clapping their hands in private.
Well not really, they do rely a lot on people in the EU buying their stuff!
While that may be true now, there are enough people and resources in the BRICS countries to make the rest of the world irrelevant.
“Together, the four original BRIC countries comprise more than 2.8 billion people or 40 percent of the world’s population, cover more than a quarter of the world’s land area over three continents, and account for more than 25 percent of global GDP.”
http://www.globalsherpa.org/bric-countries-brics
Wait for Poland and Checho/slovakia who will never agree and it has to be unanimous. This is just grandstanding
Brianjay
The Poles have negotiated a 90% carbon credit deal which virtually exempts them. They are quite happy for the rest of Europe to commit suicide.
The EU and its parent body the UN are the product of the ultra green human-haters. These lunatics see humans as a cancer on the earth. Interestingly, the Nazis were an offshoot of this ultra green movement. They loved nature and animals, but hated humans. Perhaps UN actually stands for “United Nazis.”
Don’t be silly. They have no ‘dream’ to have an emission-free Europe. What they want is in the second part of that quotation:
I was always taught never to confuse ‘goals’ and ‘aims’: you think the Greens have ‘goals’; they KNOW they have ‘aims’.
Much of Europe is in recession strangled by the single currency as it makes nations uncompetitive.
Business investment is low, taxes are high, wage rates are stagnant. energy costs are high.
So how do we improve things? I know!
Lets vastly increase business costs by raising energy prices further whilst tying industry up in green tape. This will also help to remove any spending power that consumers have got left in their pockets.
Has anyone in the EU actually heard of China which is now emitting more co2 than the US and Europe combined?
Renewables need to be a part of the energy mix, indeed I would advocate a CERN type research programme to find new/improve existing renewables-but they are too unreliable and expensive at present to warrant this further emphasis on green energy. Hello Sou. What is Australia doing?
tonyb
So how do we improve things?
Stamp out TWO BILLION sterling by December 1st! and that is an order not a request, you have no choice!
You gota to be feeling sorry for the UKs PM’s current predicament.
No I haven’t!!!
He got himself in the stupid position he’s now in. He knows that in a few weeks time, UKIP will have another MP after this announcement. He could have stopped it in its tracks but his monumentally stupid policy of loving all the green crap and, at heart, being a committed EU-lover means that he is now skewered. Good.
Ahh…. but he worked for Mr.Green (CarltonTV), I remember him as a young dapper fellow some 15 or maybe 20 years ago, visiting once or twice our technical services we run for the ITV at the London’s South Bank.
Vuk – I am immensely grateful for all the stats, graphs etc. you post here and for all the work that goes into them. I don’t profess to understand it all, but thank you anyway.
However, your attempts to get me to love Camoron are never going to work. I have nothing but contempt for him, contempt only beaten by that I hold for Milliband.
Please don’t give up your day job!
Hi again
Mrs C would not appreciate that.
My day job is done, the ITV has provided for a comfortable existence.
When you make it too tough for manufacturers they simply go overseas and maybe keep their head office locally. No wonder China is a manufacturing haven. The EU policy can only help China and India who could not give a fart about co2 emissions.
Abso-effing-lutely. This is just insanity. A sad day for the entire EU population, but it will only strengthen the EU-sceptic parties that are cropping up all over the place. I increasingly get the sense that the EU, as an institution, is headed for the dustbin of history.
You say that in jest, but that’s EXACTLY the “broken window” theory that Krugman and others have sold the US government on. They will say, with completely straight faces, that wars are good for the economy, because destruction = stimulus. This is essentially the green equivalent of bombing Dresden to the stone age.
This is not just economic suicide, but political suicide for those that voted for it. AGW is just not physically possible and the voters are going to find that out well before 2030.
This decision is of course a massive boost for the rise and rise of the UKIP.
Indeed it is a massive boost for UKIP. Along with the ill-timed extra tax bill that was handed to the UK today (while France gets a rebate). Once may be misfortune but twice?
One wonders if this might be an EU plan to get rid of Cameron and negotiate with the City of London via a PM who is less constrained by an unruly party?
Cameron must have agreed to this, surely? I thought it required unanimity, which was why some were getting excited over the possibility of a Polish veto.
As I’ve already posted, I think this (and the new tax bill) has made a probable UKIP win in Strood an absolute certainty. Following that, the Tories may well have a leadership election. Even if he wins, he will (as Margaret Thatcher was in 1990) undoubtedly be weakened as leader.
That then begs the question as to what happens in the GE in May. Cameron definitely won’t be “less constrained by an unruly party”, as Tories who scent blood are quick to go in for the kill. On the other hand, Milliband (let’s face it, the only other party leader who has any chance of being PM next time) may not have an unruly party behind him, but will almost certainly not be willing to be in the middle of any City of London – EU stitch up,even if his party let him.
It seems to me that this concatenation of events has greatly increased the chances of UKIP having a major presence in parliament next May with all the unpredictability that that will bring. Interesting times.
No, Cameron does not agree. The EU has not cut Cameron any breaks of late, despite his increasingly desperate position. This is just more evidence of the apparent death wish of the EU.
It seems from the above, Bulc is certifiable. She will be in similar company in the EU Comission then. It should simply be redesginated as an asylum.
Even more reason for the UK to get out of the mad house that is the EU
+1
+lots if your doctorate is in psycho-nutrients
+ shed-loads if you can assist an Alzheimer’s’ beginner in what word I seek.
some of the cannabinoids,
Ah – it IS catching up with me.
Whatever it is . . . . . . .
Auto
It could have a fortunate side effect, once people begin to realise that renewable energy is so expensive and inefficient, they might start actually questioning the actual science which is supposedly behind the drive to cut emissions.
And when people actually start to properly look at things like Mann’s hockeystick, they might get rather annoyed at how they have been duped, and just questionable some of the loftier ideals really are. The power of the people properly challenging the science is there, it just hasn’t been done yet, because people generally haven’t suffered from much from it, once they do, you can bet that people might start asking hard questions, which they should have already been doing anyway…No.1. being climate sensivity.
The trade unions wanted even more severe cuts.
Are Europeans workers aware that their own unions are trying to put them out of a job?
Unions are outdated! They are basically today an extension of politics, at least here in Sweden, where most of them are tied indirectly to the Labour Party (Our present “PM” is the former leader for the metal union. We will hopefully soon get a new election, as the new leftist government is too weak to govern by itself and many campaign promises, not surprisingly, are already broken …). They put most effort in collecting member fees from the workers.
In the UK, unions mostly seem to represent government employees and employees of what were once nationalized industries run by the government. I’m guessing government employees expect to get more power as a result of this nonsense, and don’t care that there will be no-one left running businesses to pay their wages.
UK Climate Change Act requires 80% reduction by 2050. It was passed by almost all our MPs. Its author could be our Prime Minister in a few months. Pray for us but not to Gaia if you don’t mind.
Nigel S
October 24, 2014 at 1:24 am
It’s law here. It is!! Mod – no /Sarc!
I suggest prayer to any – and every – god, goddess, demi-god, etc. that you hold holy [even semi-demi-hemi-holy!] – please.
Because this watermelon legislation is bad for the UK and the world.
I think a solution may lie elsewhere – but I’ll take any help – even supernatural – I can get!
Auto
People say “they’re insane”, but I mean it clinically. Our politicians are delusioinal.
It’s like having the mad emperor Nero playing his lute whilst he watches the once glorious city of Rome burning at his feet.
emperor nero that was long ago – now we have !
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Official-The-US-is-a-Leading-Terrorist-State-20141020-0067.html
Freshly-minted and up on a tee, ready for the death-swat from something like ISIS.
In living memory, Britain and Europe ruled this planet, defined civilisation, invented everything worth inventing, and set the course of history. Now they’re gleefully putting their heads on the chopping block to please their rulers, who are men without chests who openly despise their people and their culture.
This isn’t suicide, it’s assassination.
Just out of curiosity, what did they invent?
The steam engine. It’s ironic, really, isn’t it?
Have you heard of the Industrial Revolutiuon aka the birth of the modern world?
What did the Europeans ever do for us? Well, the World Wide Web and thermometers seem relevant. If we just look at British inventions in alphabetical order: Anemometers, Disk Brakes, Tin Can, Cats Eyes, Portland Cement, Cordite, Corkscrews, Depth Charges, SCUBA Diving Gear. That has got to D and we haven’t had to move outside the UK yet.
http://inventors.about.com/od/europeaninvention/
When I was given this book- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asimovs-Biographical-Encyclopedia-Science-Technology/dp/0385177712 the first thing that struck me was the number of Scottish inventors listed. Added to the English and German they outnumbered the rest of the world many fold.
Accurate time pieces. Radically altered man’s ability to sail the seas and maintain accurate location.
What have Romans ever done for us?
Don’t make me post the Monty Python “what have the Romans done for us” video.
Oops. Too late.
You really can’t think of anything invented in Europe?
How about scientific instruments for starters, such as the telescope, microscope, thermometer, barometer, etc? Or advances in science & math, such as the calculus, theory of gravity, atomic theory of matter (including discoveries of oxygen, hydrogen, etc & the periodic table of the elements), the germ theory of disease (including antibiotics, public health, sterile surgery, etc) & theory of evolution.
Or technology, such as the horse collar, screwdriver, eyeglasses, mechanical clock, moveable type printing press, steam engine, railroad, electric battery, gas & diesel engines, radio, radar, sonar, liquid & solid fuel rockets & nuclear power (developed in the US based upon the idea of a Hungarian immigrant, reliant in turn upon the discovery of fission by two Germans), to name but a few. Some of these advances relied upon Chinese component discoveries or inventions.
Still waiting for someone to invent a reliable thermometer that doesn’t require constant adjustment.
Historically, that’s just medicine in general.
Except everyone dies some time.
We don’t know what will happen next, but in general EU treaties are ignored by everyone; see the Schengen treaty, – Italy constantly violates it by sending illegal immigrants on their merry way to Austria and Germany; and the Maastricht treaty – limiting public deficits to 3% of GDP, nobody even mentions that anymore.
“A recent post on Bulc’s blog is “The vibration of white lions in the new era”. ”
LOL. She’s EU commissioner for transport. What could possibly go wrong with that one?
Maybe everything that the EU does is so crap because the elite (Bilderbergers) are already hopelessly senile.
So, the elite will probably not see 2030. Either the EU is history at that point or the elite will have been replaced by less senile people. (I’m not talking about the elected people.)
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/circus-arts/firewalking.htm
she should know what a scam fire walking is
Its charged on the UK mostly and a few others and paid to….others and wait for it…..largely France and Germany.
One country that wrecked Europe and the other wrecking itself now. Irony !!
Next year Europe and the USA will sink into economic chaos dragging the rest of the world down with it. 2015-2016 will make 2007-2008 look like a picnic. All these green schemes will be turned into dust. Unfortunately so will a lot of people.
Peter, your expertise in economic matters is shown to be equal to that of your expertise in climate matters, i.e. nil.
Let me play economic swami too. It’s fun and I’m not ashamed of being wrong (just like a real economist; no-ne knows anything).
It’s time to acknowledge that the Eurozone is not one economic area anymore.
Deflation is not a threat in areas with export manufacturing or export primary resource economies as the lower input costs from falling oil and other resources will stimulate investment and productivity gains on their main wealth generator.
But service based economies which have no stimulus by productivity gains but still falling input costs will have deflationary pressures.
The best case of falling oil prices stimulating economic reform and productivity will be in the east of the EU with agricultural reforms – unless the CAP inhibits them.
-The worst case will be in France.
US energy gas costs about a third of that in Europe. I expect that will drive their competitiveness. I don’t know what effect tax cuts will have but I am aware that their corporation tax is among the highest in the world and could probably do with cutting.
The problem isn’t the Democrats or the Republicans, it is the system which keeps the Democrats and the Republicans in power regardless of how badly both fail.
To cure ourselves of right wing extremism, it took WW2. To cure most of the world of communism it took the cold war and the inevitable collapse of communist incompetence.
What will it take to cure ourselves of climate catastrophe armagedonnism?
I hope its a fairly simple cure.
Emigrate.
Where to? What’s left?
North Korea and Syria are looking prettyy good?
“Right wing extremism”? Not this hoary old chestnut again. There was nothing “right wing” about the various political ideologies of Europe in the first half of the 20th century, only further left and less further left. To have a right and left wing, you have to have a “centre”. Europe has never had a “centre”.
Exactly right – Fascism was simply a variant, nationalistic form of Socialism, while Communism was more inter-nationalistic in focus. In actual practice, there wasn’t a dimes worth of difference between the two.
Um, Ursus, please note that the “Right Wing” designation was assigned by Stalin as Herr H. was “to the right” of International Socialism. (i.e. National Socialism did not see the need for a global socialism…) Also note that Mussolini chose ‘Fascist’ as it was a sop to the “bundle” image for Unions. Both were socialist ( now called “3rd way progressive” ) types with a market glue on. Calling them “right wing” is at best an error. It was the National Socialist German Workers party, after all…
That the Progressive / Socialist folks want to relabel their trash as “right wing” is not a surprise, but please do not swallow that mistake and chuck it back up again….
http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/some-quotes-on-socialism-and-fascism/
Yes, they were authoritarian militaristic nationalists. But socialist ones…. not free market liberals (classical sense / UK sense) aka libertarians (USA usage). Most socialisms are authoritarian central control militaristic types. (See the USSR and Maoist China) it is only over the question of international vs national that they quibble…
It get’s worse. The UK is effectively being fined by the EU for having the effrontery to get its economy turned around:
http://alturl.com/j9oqs
Well, not exactly true. What has happened is that the UK have changed the way they measure the economy by including illegal activities. This has been applied retrospectively from 2006 and the result is that the UK economy was larger by some measure. Consequently, the amount of EU tax levied was based on an economic metric that was too small and like the tax man they want the difference repaid.
So – the Reeperbahn has no ‘Ladies of negotiated Virtue’?
Auto
Better emigrate to Southeast Asia. Nobody here is as crazy.as these modern European Luddites.
As China grows and prospers so will the economies of her neighbours and so will retirement funds invested here where “capitalism” is not regarded as a dirty word..
Not quite as bad as it seems
40% is from the 1990 baseline, and apparantly emissions are already 20% down from that. However Germany switching off nuclear is likely to make emissions go up
Incredible.
‘And the band played on as the ship slipped beneath the waves…..’
I’m certain that in another 4-5yrs, as temps continue to drop, she will be labeled as a savior, and the falling temps will be proof that their policies were incredibly effective.
C’mon…we know how this works by now. We’ve seen that move a thousand times.
“…as temps continue to drop, she will be labeled as a savior…”
I feel that’s why we’re seeing such a huge push against CO2. If it warms; “We need more taxes and reductions!”, and if it cools; “Our new taxes and reductions are working!” Win-win, just not for taxpayers.
If temps drop it will still be in the face of rapidly rising CO2 — from China, India, Brazil, and the rest of the world. Hard for Europe (or US) to claim any victories from their regional CO2 policies.
It doesn’t matter if temps drop, they will just adjust the numbers to show the warming has continued
As I was thinking, we have some so so President of the USA who is shutting down coal electric plants as well as by law Atomic plants are required to shut down due to their age. He seems to ha the largest Carbon Foot Print of them all.
We are now in in a Sunspot Minimum and that will require a very large carbon footprint to keep the inter cities alive. What does he care? He only wants his Cap and Tax to pass so his make believe stock options go up. You have to go back to his Senate days in Chicago for that gem.
R
So the Euro Union is on a Gun to its head. Fastest way to dissolve it’s self. I have a book somewhere on the Shelf that was written after the Great WAR to end all wars. Pretty much described the Europe of today. You have Berlin as the Pimp and Paris as the Prostitute. They run the EU for German money has bailed it out so many times it should be bankrupt.
I already had Europe customers at my cash register at my summer souvenir concession complaining about the Cap and tax. I let them know not to complain to me but to their Representative.
Fools. This might break up the EU eventually.
Let’s prey it does.
Paul
I don’t think Americans quite understand the whole EU thing. Their leaders always mistake and agreement to do something with them actually doing something. They never get around to the second part, the actually doing of something; and they won’t this time either.
Their economies are so totally f***ked they could not do this even if they wanted to.
I understand the demand for several billion more euros from the UK because their economy grew and increased its share size within the stagnant EU. Are you saying they never pay up?
David, this has to be seen as an opportunity. As the European economy decays we can move dollars to lower value euros, buy real estate property we can later sell to Chinese, Indians, and Russians.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/520672/Winter-weather-2014-UK-forecast-cold-snow-November
The Brits are in for a very hard time
David, please don’t be misled by this Express “report”. To say that it is utter bunk is being far too kind. This newspaper prints a science-free long-range winter weather “forecast” every year. It predicts incredible weather with extreme low temperatures, blizzards, blackouts… and it never comes out that way. Pure sensationalism.
It’s no worse than the MET office forecast … maybe a bit better …
MikeP, then reject both forms of speculation – the Express and the MET office. Nether are encumbered by accountability for their inaccuracy.
In short, two wrongs don’t make a right.
(But two Wrights do make an aeroplane, of course).
The EU desperately needs to wean itself from Russian coal,oil and gas for reasons that have nothing to do with climate change.
Sayng it’s policies have something to do with climate change is just a way to placate the watermelons.
But it gas plenty of coal, and possibly gas. There is absolutely no need to go green to wean itself off Russia..
Not really…Germany is burning lots of ‘brown coal(lignite)’ and also importing lots ‘black coal’ from Russia.
UK Coal has trouble being profitable with steam coal prices below $100/tonne.(for comparison mine mouth coal prices in Gillette,Wyoming are $10/ton.(Yes..Wyoming coal is 10 times cheaper)
Fracking might hold some hope for the EU getting off of Russian gas but it doesn’t take much encouragement for the usual suspects to find a reason to ‘not frack’.
Even as a US citizen in favor of fracking I question whether fracking is appropriate in densely populated areas. Most of Europe is densely populated.
the Kyoto treaty always was a treaty among ‘energy importing countries’.
@harrywr2
One of the practices becoming popular in North Dakota and other shale plays is to build a 20-40 acre drilling and frack pad upon which to drill all wells to drain two to four sections (1280-2560 acres). “Two miles down, Two mile horizontal, repeat every 20 days. 10-20 wells per pad. That is about 2% of the land being devoted to the drilling, fracking equipment, tanks, materials, and maintenance.
Wiki has a good entry on fracking in Germany & other EU member countries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing_by_country#Germany
Fracking in NY & PA occurs in built-up areas, too, such as all around Pittsburgh & near Wilkes-Barre:
http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/drilling/
harrywr2
October 24, 2014 at 5:25 am
Unfortunately, Oregon won’t let clean, high BTU coal from Wyoming be exported to China via “death trains” to the Port of Morrow on the Columbia River.
Stephen Rasey if the oil companies drilling in North Dakota got things done properly those 20-well pads should be less than 10 acres. That’s with room to spare. I’ve seen 32-well pads take up less than 12 acres.
Another take on this.
Europe’s New Climate Targets: Myth & Reality:
http://youtu.be/GVZecOM424o
A hall full of nodding heads, 1984 anyone? The stupidity is astounding. I feel for the Brits this coming winter, how are the wood pellets from Carolina etc working for you? And cannot believe the ruling in Oregon re the “Death Trains”, that one takes the cake! (But hey send it to Vancouver, we’ll gladly move it on Wyoming).
That’s probably what will happen. Canada should thank our ecoloons, first for Keystone traffic & now for Wyoming & Montana coal trains.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/08/19/too-late-for-oregons-coal-terminal-exporting-us-coal-to-asia-could-drop-emissions-21-percent/
No-no-no. They did exactly not.
Americans do not understand how EU works.
The key in this “agreement” was that each and every EU land can veto any practical decision to reach this “voluntary” goal.
And so it is meaningless, as I suspected and as the post fails to make clear.
It’s all about Abrupt Climate Change:
To quote the messenger Guy McPherson of Arizona University “…the heat has gone into the deep oceans …” and in such quantity “to lock warming in for the next 40 years … ” and the “tipping point” will create “abrupt climate change” …. “creating a human extinction event …” He claims ” the trigger on the clathrate gun has been pulled …”
He repeatedly claimed a 3 degree celsius rise hasn’t occured during human occupation — no humans around with a 3 degrees C rise “from baseline. Given we evolved during the current Quaternary Ice Age and have survived at least a couple of glaciations.
I didn’t realise humanity was such a fragile species. We don’t have fangs, nor claws and now it seems the low surface-area profile we present to the sun from our vertical posture, our relatively hairless skin and our copious sweat glands just won’t be able to cope with a mere smear 3 degree C rise “from baseline,” whatever that is. Diurnal and seasonal variations are an order of magnitude greater each year and we survive those just fine.
Mind you, in true propaganda mode, the baseline was never defined.
In summary: We’re all going to die!!!
His objective, openly stated, is to completely collapse industrial civilisation.
It very much looks as though Europe has been convinced, and is lining up to be the first lemming over the cliff.
McPherson is, to put it kindly, crazy like a fox. There is no hidden heat. There is no locked in warming. There is no calthrate gun. He is indulging in selling magical thinking to gullible people and profiting off the fear that leads to nice grants, speaking fees and book deals.
I do seem to remember reading about french peasants in 1789.
Just because you are appointed by chums doesn’t mean some bellicose oiks can’t chop your head off……
One does also wonder what will happen if National Governments simply refuse to wire the money to Brussels?
Wouldn’t last long then, the EU commission, would it??
Germany is phasing out nuclear power. It will be interesting when the winters turn bitterly cold and Germans start freezing to death and the French can’t supply them power. This will be when the green dream ends. You don’t get much energy from your green sources in the middle of a cold, still winter’s night.
Next to no German heats electrically. Also, we don’t die from cold.
may they rest in peace
The outcome will either be:
1. countries simply exiting the EU via referendum
2. they will strive for but measure how far behind they are
3. the goals will be ignored or
4. some scheme will be approved to keep the EU but allow nations to opt out
since the actual implemenation will be sub-species (Western European) extinction. I’m still guessing most will simply not vote to die. But …
And this right on top of the UK, and others in the EU facing what might be a Winter Die Off directly due to their energy policies as folks freeze, burn down their houses, etc., all the while Germany is ernestly building more coal fired power plants.
The UK economy is doing well, as is the Dutch, France, under a stupid socialist president, is doing very badly, Germany, after years of solid growth is also suffering a little. How are the UK, and Holland rewarded? We have to pay £1.8 Bn and little Holland over 700 million: Germany and France are rewarded with a rebate! Rather like the inland revenue department giving grants to people whose pay goes down. This is why I am not surprised at the EU’s idiotic emissions policy. The whole union is run by left wing bureaucratic loons.
Ah, but those clever Germans have invented the Grid Storage Battery, very very expensive but it works. Take a 2GW lignite power plant and switch it to generate on demand. No blackouts but no reduction in fuel use.
“…to fulfill their dream of an emission free Europe.”
Was that emission free, or population free?
Is there a difference?
don’t believe the positive spin….it’s a toothless outcome…and the CAGW activists are furious:
24 Oct: UK Telegraph: Emily Gosden: End to wind farm quotas as EU agrees 2030 climate deal
EU leaders vow to slash carbon emissions by 40 per cent by 2030 but do not impose national renewable energy targets
Britain will no longer be forced to build wind and solar farms from 2020, under a new EU climate change deal that leaves countries free to choose how to cut their carbon emissions…
Following UK lobbying, the deal does not impose binding national targets for renewable energy or energy efficiency…
In the end the EU set a binding target for 27 per cent renewable energy and an indicative target for 27 per cent energy efficiency improvements, but crucially both only at EU level.
“These targets will be achieved while fully respecting the member states’ freedom to determine their energy mix. Targets will not be translated into nationally binding targets,” the agreement said…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/11185057/End-to-wind-farm-quotas-as-EU-agrees-2030-climate-deal.html
lots more in the link below:
24 Oct: OneWorld.org: EU climate deal ‘puts polluters before people’
Brook Riley, climate justice and energy campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe,commented: “To describe 40% emissions cuts as adequate or ambitious, as EU leaders are doing, is dangerously irresponsible. 40% is off the radar of climate science. This deal does nothing to end Europe’s dependency on fossil fuels or to speed up our transition to a clean energy future. It’s a deal that puts dirty industry interests ahead of citizens and the planet.”
Only the 40% emissions reduction target will be broken down into 28 nationally binding targets. The renewables target will be binding at EU level, and there is no clarity how it will be implemented. The energy savings target is only indicative…
Molly Walsh, climate justice and energy campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe said:”The renewable energy target represents barely more than business-as-usual and will send a dangerous signal to national governments that EU renewables policy is being abandoned…
Friends of the Earth Europe, Oxfam, Climate Action Network Europe, and the European Environmental Bureau were outside the summit today to protest about the lack of action being proposed to move Europe away from fossil fuels.
Dressed as corporate lobbyists, they constructed a huge blockade of leaky oil barrels and bags of coal, to symbolise the dirty energy companies blocking action on climate change. Photos available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/foeeurope/sets/72157648519429630/ …
Europe’s new climate and energy targets for the period 2020–2030 show a leadership out of touch with climate reality, said WWF’s Global Climate and Energy initiative leader Samantha Smith…
http://oneworld.org/2014/10/24/eu-climate-deal-puts-polluters-before-people/
Reblogged this on Centinel2012 and commented:
Germany’s problems with closing their nuke plants and relying more and more on wind and solar PV while than having to turn back on their coal powered generators shows how foolish this will be.
EU is on suicide watch on another matter:
24 Oct: SF Chronicle: AP: Raf Casert: Britain protests EU demand for more funding
Britain is protesting a European Union request for an additional 2.1 billion euro ($2.65 billion) contribution to the EU coffers at a time of increasing pressure at home for the country to leave the bloc…
The Netherlands too has been asked for a big top-up, of 642 million euros, which Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem called “extremely surprising, unpleasantly surprising.”…
Whatever the cause, Cameron and his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte already discussed a common protest at the EU summit which ends Friday. The Netherlands too is facing an increasingly vocal anti-EU camp…
Dijsselbloem said “we are not going to take this lying down.”…
A longtime reluctant member of the EU, Britain has seen a surge in the popularity of the UKIP party, which wants to get Britain out of the EU, claiming its bureaucracy is profligate.
“The EU is like a thirsty vampire feasting on U.K. taxpayers’ blood. We need to protect the innocent victims, who are us,” said UKIP leader Nigel Farage…
http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/world/article/Britain-says-EU-is-asking-for-bigger-contribution-5844420.php
Perhaps the UK and the Dutch can exit together as a Confederation…. Invite some Swedish and Norwegians along… maybe some folk in Iceland too… and Denmark. Would likely make a nice package together…. Heck, extend the invite to the Former Eastern Block too. Leave Germany, France, and Italy to support the Rump-EU on windmills and solar panels during a dark December snow….
It looks like you are not quite up to scratch on e.g. Norwegian politics, as regards both EU and “climate”. The Norwegian people voted in 2 referendums (1972 and 1994) to stay out of EU, but Gro Harlem Brundtland managed to get it in through the back door anyway (https://www.gov.uk/eu-eea) . Regarding “climate” politics, the climate opposition in Norway has been completely eradicated now that the seemingly skeptic progressive party (or so they want us to believe) is in government. There is only one voice in Norway nowadays: AGW all the way.
Hasn’t stopped Norway from cashing in on its North Sea fossil fuel bonanza.
Norway has a way to go before becoming fully transformed into Muriburiland:
Though this might have been introduced on the back of climate change – the evidence for, or impact of, we can dispute – there is merit in doing everything possible to minimise the EU’s reliance on Russia for fossil fuels, and making the EU more self-sufficient.
Of course there will be a price to pay by consumers in doing so. But I for one am more concerned about geopolitics and Russia holding the EU to ransom over fuel supplies than climate change. So on balance it may be a price worth paying.
Was there a Russian agenda to hold the EU ‘to ransom’ before the sanctions imposed on it by the US/EU? IMHO the sabre rattling started with them and has now forced Russia into a tit-for-tat.
I don’t think the US or EU invited Russia to interfere in the Ukraine did it? Was the US/EU already imposing sanctions before that then?
Putin and his fellow thugs in the Kremlin will be throwing a huge party to celebrate the European policy to become even MORE dependent on Russian oil and gas.
Putin never in a million years thought that any group of leaders could be more stupid than Obama, but he now realizes he was wrong.
China – and all of Asia – is celebrating because the cost of all European export goods will be going up, providing an even greater advantage to Asian produced products for export.
And lots of folks thought that only the voters in Venezuela and Argentina would vote for economic suicide; which of course MUST be followed by political suicide.
As for the ruling elites of Europe, they are wealthy enough to afford ever more expensive cost of living and if things really get hot, they are near enough to Switzerland to save their ass from the discontented and really ANGRY masses.
If the European economy collapses, China’s collapses with it, simply because they are almost entirely dependent on exports. There are no winners in this game, and China – already in economic difficulty – will certainly not be celebrating.
After the brutal winter ahead, this should be interesting.
No democraticaly elected legislature will be given the chance to vote on this directive from the European Commission. Europe is now ruled by unaccountable green/left bureaucrats, with the permission of the European countries’ heads of state. Gramski has won.
There seems to be a lack of understanding of how the EU works. There is the European Commission with its commissioners such as this nutter. There is the European Parliament made up of the MEPs that less the half of the population of Europe think are worth bothering voting for – around 25% in the UK. Finally there is the European Council. Just because the Commission agree something its does not mean that the other parts of the system will agree to it. The most direct national government involvement is via the Council. The parliament which is often seen as a token offering to democracy has recently gained more power so can block daft ideas like this. They are aware of growing problems with energy costs and jobs being exported elsewhere so the net result is no reduction in emissions – not that they are a problem anyway as we wiser ones know.
The timing of the EU tax on the economic success of the UK could not have come at a better time for UKIP as they have been shown as ahead in one poll for the by-election next month. And there is nothing Call Me Dave (UK PM) can do about it.
Knock knock, Who’s there?…. it’s me Dave…..?, Dave?.., Dave snot here….hey come on It’s me Dave.. …Dave?… Dave snot here…..
Hey man, you didn’t stop at that red light. That’s OK man, I’ll stop twice at the next one.
Maybe they’ll ignore Dave twice next time.
There’s still chance for a miracle, a cheap and reliable source of power with no CO2 production being discovered or invented and implemented on large scale. However skeptical I was about Rossi’s e-cat since the very beginning, its recent more or less independent tests are starting to look very convincing.
If no such source is found and implemented, Europe will simply write off or move the target. It will harm itself somewhat but fortunately there are still smart and intelligent people at lower levels of execution and in technology who will not do what’s told to them and rather teach the parliament how much of a nonsense those decisions are.
As far as I know, EU did not meet any of its CO2 reduction targets so far. It did not break because of it.
I don’t have any faith in this Rossi thing. If it was working like he says, why don’t they remove the electric input and let it power itself from electricity it generates as part of it’s operation?
For this reaction to work, mass must be converted to energy. They claim that chemical reactions – known and unknown – can’t account for the amount of energy being produced. That leaves only one explanation – mass must be lost through nuclear combinations. Eg, protons combining to form helium. However, no elemental transformations have ever been detected, which is why they say it involves a new kind of physics. Yeah, right.
For what I know about it, the device is only producing heat. And you still need certain level of effectivity turning this heat back into electricity. That would be unnecessarily complex for testing device of such size and would increase the size of the device, allowing for more mass to be suspect of being used to generate the heat.
From the last report I remember elemental changes were detected. Isotopic composition of both Lithium and Nickel contents has changed between start and end of the experiment.
I was 100% skeptical about e-cat since day one. Theory says no cold fusion is possible, Rossi was proven cheater in the past and there were many ways how to cheat in first few demonstrations. I’m still not a believer. But I’m cautiously optimistic. I would still not put my money on it but I’m watching. If it works in real world without cheating then I don’t care what Rossi’s history is or what theory says about it. We can figure out later what was wrong on our understanding.
It still may be a scam. But latest experiments look very convincing to me.
most of the commission share her zeal for all things green
Which by ‘lucky chance ‘ also mean lots more money going into the hands of people like her who combine corruption with incompetency on an industrial scale . Life as EU commissioner is very rich and tax free and it’s often the case that actual ability has little to with getting the job in the first place.
The idiot climate “expert” has just stated on prime BBC television that there is no doubt at all CO2 has caused “climate change”. Is it possible to make a legal challenge to this fool?
Latest Cameron at EU:
I AM NOT PAYING THE 2 BILLION EURO BILL !!!
He will.
Remember when he wielded the Veto?
He folded in a week. Folded like Edward II.
His clan motto worked in the Scottish referendum, but what about Europe?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/Clan_member_crest_badge_-_Clan_Cameron.svg/472px-Clan_member_crest_badge_-_Clan_Cameron.svg.png
LET US UNITE !
Like he said he was going to renegotiate to stop free movement of migrants. He will have to pay up because it is a clear case of the UK having understated its economy since 2006. There is nothing he can do about it.
Well, no. He’s not going to pay it, British taxpayers will.
Then they’ll go and vote UKIP. And, since the Tories won’t stop contesting seats UKIP are likely to win, that means Britain will have another Labour government. Which will be the end of Britain as anything resembling a viable nation.
Maybe it would have been better for Scotland’s secession movement to have succeeded. That alone would have made the prospect of another Labour regime distant.
Perhaps better yet would be for not just Scotland, N. Ireland & Wales to go their separate ways, but the socialist North of England as well, leaving a conservative South England (except for parts of London). Let local people be as Commie as they wanna be, & see how that works out for them. It seems that once in every generation citizens need to be reinoculated against the siren call of socialism.
But first, all of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland should leave the EU, to become once again proud masters of their own fates.
For centuries the North didn’t like rule by London any better than did the disparate peoples of Scotland. Now could be their chance to embrace their Celtic & Norse heritages & unique cultures & dialects.
They’ll win and win (pass laws) until they lose (get public pushback).
It’s amazing that Green strategists haven’t asked themselves the question, “And then what?” (after their laws are passed). They seem to imagine that they’ll be in the clear thereafter.
They’d better hope Rossi’s cold fusion E-Cat is real. That’s the only low-emissions power source that would be economically practical.
The only way this move makes sense is as a bandwagon-effect ploy to induce China and India to hop aboard. And/or to shame them into doing so.
But if it is, and if they fall for it, they’ll jump off once it starts pinching their economies.
Shame China?
The government who brought you Tiananmen Square?
The government who is brushing off Hong Kong democracy marches that demand, quaintly, that China abide by their 15 year old agreements when Hong Kong was handed over to them?
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on ME.”
American version:
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee—I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, ‘Fool me once, shame on…shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
George Bush
Clearly the way forward is the molten salt reactor. Many are in a race to bring this back to the future technology form ORNL. http://www.energyfromthorium.com
Some of you are talking as if you actually believe man made CO2 is causing a problem?
Precautionary principle at work.
Its all about superstitious racist fortress Europe returning to the dark ages.
They want to destroy the economy to stop immigration to Europe.
They don’t like black carbon, they don’t like black people.
And it seems they don’t like money either.
phlogiston
October 24, 2014 at 6:19 am
“Its all about superstitious racist fortress Europe returning to the dark ages.
They want to destroy the economy to stop immigration to Europe.
They don’t like black carbon, they don’t like black people.”
phlogiston, you are a complete idiot and you don’t know what you’re talking about;
but let’s take your idiotic drivel serious for a moment: would it then, if we were so racist, not make much more sense to let Frontex NOT help the traffickers by rescuing every migrant boat they find in the Mediterranean and bringing the migrants to Italy?
See how easy it was to sink your idiotic argument. Now go and read about Coudenhouve-Kalergi so that you become less of an idiot.
It’s perhaps not so much the 40% reduction that’s insane – it’s the way they plan to achieve it that is really, really stupid. They will pick renewables to carry the load – producing a complicated and duplicative power system that actually is anything but sustainable , if by sustainable you more realistically mean a power system that can be economically sustained in the face of alternative
technologies
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/wind-power-investments-in-germany-proving-riskier-than-thought-a-946367.html
They are not that stupid. It’s planned to fail. Investigate the politics and forget about the science.
I think you need to expound that “planned to fail” point.
Like cutting down a large tree…. which way is it planned to fall?
Now there’s a question that makes you go, “Hmmmmm….”
You’re right. They need to tell us what “sustainable” means to them.
Then we can start negotiations.
If the French do not comply with overall budget deficit agreements of the EU, then lesser agreements are even more fake.
Emissions to be cut by 40%! A chicken in every pot! Now re-elect me.
You know what Europe really needs? They need ANOTHER layer of bureaucracy on top of it all. I suggest a league of nations, if you will…united in their goals. I know, we can call it the United Nations. It can have final say over the sovereignty of us all. That is sure to make us uncompetitive. Oh wait….
Quote …. “The vibrations of white lions in the new era”
_____________________________________
We have a shop, just off the main high street, that sells ‘New Age White Lion Vibrators’. Its a bit of a seedy place, and you would not want to be seen dead in there – but they are for sale. I’m sure that Sam Cam, the wife of Dave hug-a-husky Ca-Moron has one – she’s always smiling.
😉
In short, the lunatic fringe has taken over the asylum. A few decades ago, the hippy fringe of society lived in mut-huts outside Glastonbury; ate meal-worms for breakfast and smoked super-thin rollies. Now they are the head of a multi-billion dollar scam, criss-crossing the world in corporate jets and super-speedboats, pretending to save a whale or poly bear.
What pillock allowed this to happen? Ah, yes, that pillock would be us……….
Ralph
Anyone ever read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand? I admire people who saw the writing on the wall nearly 60 years ago and turn out to be spot on in their predictions. I don’t like the fact that she was right, as we will all pay the piper, but I can’t help saluting her. Well, even though it is a massive tome, I recommend it to WUWT-ers as the solution to the global surrender of reason is quite interesting.
As a warm up, I suggest The Fountainhead, with special attention to the character of Ellsworth Toohey. who lives and breaths today in the columns of the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Guardian, BBC, and NPR.
Or, if you don’t want to do all that reading, just follow Mr. Toohey’s excellent advice: Don’t bother to examine a folly – ask yourself only what it accomplishes.
The last time the European economy was in ruins was following World War II. In the U.S. we called it the “Fabulous Fifties”.
Possibly the difference is that there won’t be a Marshall Plan this time.
https://www.change.org/p/gouvernement-fran%C3%A7ais-pour-l-organisation-d-un-r%C3%A9f%C3%A9rendum-sur-l-accord-de-libre-%C3%A9change-ue-canada-ceta-le-trait%C3%A9-transatlantique-tafta-et-l-accord-sur-le-commerce-des-services-tisa?utm_source=emailcampaign11&utm_medium=phpList&utm_content=HTML&utm_campaign=TAFTA+:+L%E2%80%99UPR+lance+une+grande+p%C3%A9tition+pour+demander+%C3%A0+Fran%C3%A7ois+Hollande+l%E2%80%99organisation+d%E2%80%99un+r%C3%A9f%C3%A9rendum
There is more or less to this story than meets the eye.
What about Poland’s threat to veto a 40% reduction proposal? (WUWT/GWPF Oct 19)
Does the alleged agreement still face the Poland Veto?
Or was Poland bought off?
In the end, it really won’t matter.
One cold winter, with scheduled and unscheduled power plant shut downs, a grid were everyone is borrowing power from another [1], will spark a revolt.
Note: [1] – just saw a reference last night documenting how UK, Ireland, France, Belgium all show net power generation deficits that plan on borrowing 1-5 GW of power through the interconnects. Dominos.
Poland got its way and I daresay that others are satisfied, too. The agreement is meaningless and will be revisited next year when Poland will again prevail, with the tacit support of others.
Yes, if it is true that they have inserted the provision that cancels this agreement if the rest of the world does not follow suit at the Paris meeting next year, then it is indeed meaningless.
Finally found the reference to the mutual borrowing of power through interconnects:
Bishop Hill: House of Cards
This is really bad news.
There’s no intention to reach that goal. All they have done is to say empty words to keep greens quiet for a while. In the agreement there are no “or else…” statements that I am aware of. And you can only measure the strength of a compromise by the fines that you agree to have imposed on you if you do not do what you said that you would do.
But even if there were fines, it would not be the first time that the EU finally decides not to impose previously agreed fines on countries that fail to reach some goal. They have zero credibility.
Which electorally is foolish.
Greens are zealots. Nothing is ever good enough for them. This story was reported as “not enough” by the BBC and Grauniad.
There are no votes in Green.
It is not possible if engineering and economic constraints are taken into account for the EU to reduce their CO2 emissions by 20% using the green scams. They could if they (and the countries that supply the EU with goods) completely changed to nuclear power reduce their total CO2 emissions by roughly 20% to 30%. Green energy is a very, very, expensive scam. ‘Green energy’ can reduce CO2 emissions by roughly a maximum of 5% to 10%, the CO2 input to construct the scam is taken into account, more high voltage lines, and complete back-up inefficient natural gas single cycle power plants as opposed to combined cycle natural gas power plants which are 30% more efficient that single cycle natural gas power plants, however combined cycle natural gas power plants cannot be turned on and off at random times which ‘green’ energy requires.
Roughly 60% of the CO2 emissions are due to agriculture and the CO2 input for goods purchased. Real reductions of CO2 emissions below 20% requires government intervention to force reduction in consumption. Banning of air travel and vacation travelling. Banning of second homes. Banning of private automobile ownership. Forced change to a vegan diet. Forced population control.
Now for America………… guys………..guys……….. aw come on guys it’s cold and lonely out here……
If the European populace would decide to accept the power of their voice and work to take their nationalism back, they would be vastly better off. They would be better off with individual countries that chose to co-operate than a “union of equal serfdoms” combined under a brainless union.
When you adopt a mistaken strategy you will fail, thus the EU will eventual fail. Like an erroneous chess strategy the position may look beautiful through the middle game but the end game collapse is sudden and ugly.
If Poland has a 90% carbon exemption then they have adopted a sound but somewhat cruel stratagem in allowing the EU to self immolate on their green pyre.
The ignorance and arrogance of the unelected idiots in the EU continue.
Do they really think they can make 40% of our fossil fuel consumption go away by diktat, without any technical way of achieving it? The existing renewable energy ‘solutions’ have proven to be nothing more than a slow-motion train wreck.
They might as well have decided that more unicorns should inhabit the forests of Europe (sounds like a plan to you, I’m sure, Ms Bulc?).
Tagerbaek, you may have got your wires a little crossed. They’re not insisting that there is a 40% reduction in fossil fuel consumption. They are, however, insisting on a 40% reduction on the current levels of anthropogenic CO2 emissions by 2030. So, technically, this could mean reductions on any one of the many, many, many different ways that man ‘manufactures’ additional CO2 for his own gain.
Even so, our man-made CO2 contribution to the total CO2 up there in the sky is only around 3.225%. Naturally occurring CO2 is about 96.775%. Worse – is that the total amount of ALL CO2 up there is 0.04% of the whole atmosphere – which is not a lot (but the politicians ignore this fact). This is the main reason why we skeptics have questioned the whole AGW scare. Man-made CO2 is such a microscopic amount of gas when compared to the rest of the atmosphere.
So if they insist we close all large scale bread production plants, ban decaffeinated coffee or make human cremation illegal (all produce man-made CO2), it’s not going to make one iota of difference to the earth’s temperature. And it never will. Ever.
They’ve already changed our light bulbs in order to save us from ‘doom’. . . . so don’t be too surprised what idiotic whim of an idea they come up with next.
Now where did I put my glass off fizzy lemonade?
Actually, the proposed reduction refers to 1990 as starting point, when East Europeans still were still wasting energy with abandon to “overfulfill” their 5-year plans.
They will do it even if they have to adopt the Amish way of life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not much wrong with the Amish way of life ( Grandma was one…) but it does take a certain care and awareness of reality. Up at 4 AM (cows need milking, you know) then a large breakfast about 6 am. There are hogs to feed (and butcher and smoke and…) and chickens to feed (and butcher and pluck and…) then a large lunch (of same…). About 4 or 5 PM you can start thinking about dinner (AFTER you cut some wood for the stove, or for some, pour a bit more kerosene in the stove…). Best to get it started by then, since the kerosene lamps are not ideal for lighting a kitchen… After dinner (and evening tending of the cows) you get an hour or two to read the Bible by kerosene lamp, then off to bed. Best be in bed by 9, as that is only 7 hours sleep…
Don’t forget that in all the hours between start and end of the day, you get to sew your clothes, polish and mend boots, weave straw hats, sharpen knives and farm tools, shoe horses ( Grampa was a blacksmith to the Amish, that’s how he met Grandma…) and wash up everything (after shoveling out the manure and running the spreader…) IFF you are lucky, you will have enough time left to fish a bit in the creek…
Oh, and don’t forget that Sunday is mandatory church time…
It is a marvelously self reliant life style, and that heritage has shaped some of my views on things. ( I have an oil lamp and candles to hand at all times, and I can fix most tools I use, and know how to ‘prepare’ most animals from manger to dinnerplate…)
So don’t worry, it will all be OK. Might be a bit rocky in the transition, but those of us who were taught some of the Old Ways will help teach you how to do it… First off, get a nice Kerosene lamp. Aladdin makes some good ones. http://www.aladdinlamps.com/ then a kerosene stove ( I like this one: http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/butterfly-2487-16-wick-stove/ but not this one: http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2013/03/10/butterfly-2412-kerosene-stove-review/ The first one does a decent job with an oven: http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/butterfly-brand-oven-first-fire/ ). Then, get some wood and wire and build some hutches. Raise a couple of chickens and a few guinea pigs ( hey, even NPR says it’s OK to eat your pets… http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/03/12/174105739/from-pets-to-plates-why-more-people-are-eating-guinea-pigs ) that will get you ready for large animals.
Then there’s the hard part. You need to find about 40 acres to farm. Sell your condo quick, and get out there on your land early. It will be a lot harder after your car is sold…
That’s about it. Most of the rest you make yourself. There are lots of web pages on how to make old style hand tools ( drills, planes, spinning wheels). I suggest printing them off now. You won’t have a telephone nor the internet once ‘on the farm’… After that, it’s pretty simple. Up each day. Tend animals. Make what you need. Fix what is broken. Tend farm and animals. Make more things you need. Fix more of what is broken. Prepare food for storage. Tend farm and animals. Lunch. Tend farm and animals. Make more of what you need. Fix more of what is broken. Tend farm and animals. Dinner. Tend animals. Fix more of what is broken. Sharpen dull things. Do canning. Wash. Sleep. Wake. Tend animals….
Kerosene? Kerosene? That comes from big-oil, doesn’t it? You cannot have that! Try burning ducklings and puppies, that is much more natural……
R
>>…After dinner (and evening tending of the cows) you get an hour or two to read the Bible by kerosene lamp…<<
The Brussels Bolshevik Bureaucrats won't let you read the bible. They will oblige you to read the european treaties instead. And forget about kerosene. That's unsustainable. Use kindlings!
@ralfellisi
Kerosene? That comes from big-oil, doesn’t it
Historically, Big Oil came from Kerosene.
John Rockefeller built Standard Oil by standardizing the manufacturing of kerosene.
A Chicken-and-Egg sort of thing.
And once a year, Standard Oil would send a freighter loaded with two gallon kerosene tins to the …Persian Gulf (also known as the Arabian Gulf).
It has been put like this:
Farming: unremitting hard labor in order to eat none-too-well.
Before agriculture, there were fewer but better people. Hunter gatherers were generally bigger, healthier, & in most environments didn’t need to work as long or hard as farmers or even herders.
They can’t even hold their budget line for 2 years, let alone make a binding agreement over 16 years… The EU is the political arm of NATO and as such does not have the wellness of Europeans at heart but the utter domination of this part of the world by Washington. All European politicians, from the Right or from the Left are europeanists. In France the only reason Sarkozy is coming back on the political stage despite poor popularity polls is to ensure the Le Pen woman gets less votes. In the UK, only UKIP is truly thinking about Brits’ interests. Now Washington is displeased with Hungary… Is Nuland ready to bring some Yatseniuk lap dog over there and trouble Maidan style? Global Warming has been invented in order to enslave the middle/upper classes of the western world and change the rules on developing countries. Energy suicide coupled with destruction of the nations and the meaning of family… The EU bureaucrats are serving their masters…
+1 The new NATO-boss is well known for doing what he is told.
It’s fairly doable – all we have to do is to nuke Germany and France.
This news is being buried in UK as the “£1.7 bn to EU” news is making all the fuss. I urge everyone here from the UK focusing on this news instead and spreading the word. Sky news has not mentioned this at all as far as I saw while the BBC said it was good and carried on as they do. Like I said – this is being buried by Cameron with the media being completly complicit. More awareness needs to be raised.
These are the same idiots like Chicago who tried to float the carbon credit market and went bankrupt.
The very excellent GWPF has put up an article by Dr Pieser wherein it states that this is not an agreement but a position paper ahead of next years Paris bun fight. If the UN does get a global deal on Climate Change then and only then will this deal be activated. It also contains a final paragraph saying that the whole thing can be renegotiated as and when the boys want to.
It is just a bit of spin and PR by the Eurocrats. Hot bubbling bullsh*t in other words. That didn’t stop the disgraceful BBC trumpeting this thing as if it were the final death knell of all climate nonconformists. With the EU nothing is ever what it seems although blagging the Brits for £1.7 billion is very much in character.
Bulc has certainly used networks and holistic positive energy to put herself in a position of power. Now she is using networks and holistic positive energy to try to screw the middle class of Europe while the elite continue to enjoy the benefits of holistic positive energy. There is nothing like using holistic and positive energy to further concentrate wealth at the top. I mean thats much better than using fossil fuels to concentrate wealth…I guess.
“I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy.” – Richard Feynman
Herding human chattel to support massive societal restructuring isn’t a scientific problem, so a scientist would not be a very good choice. Someone that regularly demonstrates the gullibility of everyone around them by pushing new age bunk is a perfect choice.
Don’t worry. Everybody will follow Germany’s lead on CO2 and France’s lead on fiscal discipline. I’ll bet France won’t be penalized on failing a 3% ceiling on deficit.
“Given that European emissions, by any rational measure, have been rising steadily, this would at first seem to be an impossible goal.”
European emissions have not been rising at all. According to World Bank data, they are lower in 2010 than they were in 1980. (Data from database: World Development Indicators, Last Updated: 09/24/2014, freely available on-line). I would post the graph here if I knew how.
I do agree that it is economic suicide, and hopefully, an impossible goal.
If I were an economic development officer with a state in the US, I would be pitching German and British companies to lure them away from the economic war zone of EU with cheap, abundant energy, a workforce that (I hope still) knows how to work and favorable tax regime. Certainly the polymer chemical industry, fertilizer industry, iron, steel, foundry, and other energy intensive industries – actually any manufacturing industry. It shouldn’t take much. If they stay they are dead, period. Hmmmm, I might just look at this as a possible investment strategy. Let’s see DOW’s chart:
http://www.dow.com/investors/stockholder/?qm_page=90389
Hmm… I guess I should have known, the US industry is already moving on the opportunities. Westlake Chemical in Louisiana has just purchased Germany’s large Vinnolt Holdings GmbH, a manufacture of plastics. They are going to be making good use of cheap LA natural gas for feedstock. Its worse than they thought!!
http://www.advfn.com/news_Westlake-Chemical-Closes-Purchase-of-Vinnolit-Hold_63099516.html
On the new EU Commissioner
“Bulc describes herself as an expert on balanced sustainable development strategies, organic growth and innovation ecosystems. She believes in the power of networks, holistic individual, and positive energy.”
S’truth and z’ounds! An expert on fanciful things that not only don’t work but actually don’t exist and who writes a blog about her white lion vibrator – sounds a bit racist as well as race: ““The vibration of white lions in the new era”. .
Read her blog: http://www.violeta.si/2014/09/the-vibration-of-white-lions-in-new-era.html
and see the wifty poofty commissioner they are bringing in!
An interesting corollary to your post is that the USA since 1949 has reduced the CO2 component of her GDP by 75%. This has been done without legislative coercion and has been produced by the miracle of capitalism, the free market, which simply drives increasing efficiencies in all aspects of endeavour. The decline has been steady and seems to be unaffected by events, just the continual striving for improvement and profit.
http://informthepundits.wordpress.com
Hey guys,
RELAXXXX, I am a German and I heard all the press releases
This is no suicide – only the Greens and Greenpeace think it is, because the goals were much higher (to fight global warming). Europe has come to a compromise. The stakes were much higher and because of Poland and other countries the cut them down. Some facts:
-German chancellor Angela Merkel has given up her role as leading fighter against global warming. No more speeches about the importance of fighting the global warming and how to keep the 2° goal.
-She said it will be easy for Germany to keep this goals.
-The percentage of Renewable energies to be installled til 2030 went down.
-There is no description how to reach this goal – and it’s 16 years away.
– It is not likely that any present government will be still on the rule – so nothing has to be done.
The greens are whining – but nobody listens here.
Nobody can make a 180° turn at once. So a good politician will just forget to mention some matters – as this is now the case in Europe with global warming. There are more important things to fight against – like Ebola. And this is now done in earnest from the EU.
Johannes:
what’s the news from your side on the Ebola scare? Is it taken seriously?
What I see, the press is reporting somehow objectively, German hospitals are treating ebola patients, and the EU has increased financial funds to combat it. (Germany has doubled it’s funds). The Red Cross is calling for volunteers to go for Africa and fight it, and a lot have come, also within the German Army. But more are needed, as they come back after four weeks.
In the media climate is very seldom heard of, and only from some greenish organizations or people who are looking for attention, Normal people are not taking it seriously. Some days ago in an Austrian mass newspaper (BLICK) there were a critical report about the missing warming and 97% of the commentators said that the global warming hype is nonsense and the already knew it (but being mass media readers they do not belong to then enlightened circles…) but even some more elevated media like SPIEGEL and WELT have their critical corners and commentators.
Angela Merkel didn’t attend the last UN climate meeting, She was very sorry, she had more important things to do – a meeting with some industrial and business managers…. And we German can understand the polish point of view with the coal. Nearly everywhere citciens are protesting against wind mills and new electric power lines. All local Politicians are supporting the protests, and laws have been made to restrict the Building of new windmills. The subsidies for new Renewable Energy Plants went down. And producers of green Electricity have even to pay a part of the normal Eco-Fees. Politicians all confess they are for the Energie-Wende, but everybody has his foot slightly on the brake pedal. I would not be surprised when the time for Atomic Power Plants will be prolonged. And the Energy Companies are suing the government for for stopping some Atomic Power plants during the Fukushima Hype.
What else to say? RelaXXX! We are already…
Johannes, I’m glad to see some youthful(?) optimism in Europe. But remember you still have clowns running the show in the EU – witness the new commissioner, Bulc. Read her blog and weep when you see who will be making policy – I knew it was bad but how I underestimated the situation!!:
http://www.violeta.si/2014/09/the-vibration-of-white-lions-in-new-era.html
to fight against ebola is not possible with soldiers – did you heard about NIGARI and of the professor QUINTON and his famous plasma ?
http://www.mondialisation.ca/la-privatisation-de-la-lutte-contre-lebola-comment-loms-est-dirigee-par-des-fonds-prives-tels-que-la-fondation-gates/5409807
I think we actually need a few big economies to resolutely step off the “carbon pollution” cliff. If what the various masterminds behind the green movement say about transforming the economy is correct, the EU should experience a lasting economic boom ushering in a new golden age.
After all, the fossil fuel starved countries will have to “invest” in massive alternative energy production, massive new efficiency upgrades, and perhaps even restructure their societies around high density, high efficiency population centers. All of that “investment” will stimulate economic growth, right? If they burnt down every structure built before 2005 and forced them all to be rebuilt using modern high-efficiency components and techniques, just think of how much “economic activity” that will require.
It will be an interesting experiment to watch from afar. My guess is they just bankrupt themselves further and those at the bottom of society that the masterminds demand need “climate justice” are the most likely to suffer as a direct result. But until someone actually tries it, we can’t point and laugh, right?
Binary solution set for a cold sun: Freeze to death or burn carbon based fuels.
here a flaslight what really happened: A realisitc media report from
http://www.dw.de/prima-klima-bei-der-eu/a-18018098
Perfect climate in the EU?
40 percent is the magic number. As far as Europe is expected to shrink greenhouse gas emissions. As the first world region, the EU writes its climate target before the big UN conference on climate laid in 2015. An example for others?
At the end made - as so often with EU summits in Brussels – the fatigue, the leaders after ten hours of continuous session crumbly. EU diplomats who were able to observe the negotiations on climate policy on the top floor of the Council building, reported that after a few hangers finally the will triumphed resolve the months-long dispute over the climate protection targets and to demonstrate to the public in Europe’s ability to act.
The result is a complex compromise in the marathon session. The essential elements summarized the outgoing EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy, his five-year term still may end up with a landmark decision: 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030. 27 percent share of renewable energy and 27 percent higher energy efficiency. “It was not easy,” said Van Rompuy, “but this is an ambitious, fair and cost-effective completion.”
The Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopaczk fell to a key role in the summit in Brussels. Kopacz, only a few weeks head of government in Warsaw, threatened to veto the climate protection goals. She was satisfied with the goal of saving 40 percent of harmful exhaust gases by 2030. But a 30 percent share of renewable sources in energy production it was too high. They also insisted that the savings target for improving energy efficiency should also be less than the originally proposed 30 percent. Most importantly the Pole was that the coal-fired power plants run in their country further and can be modernized with billions in aid by the other EU countries. Poland produces 90 percent of its electricity from coal and lignite.
Chancellor Merkel: “Deuschland is with the European regulations will have no trouble”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, which is located on ambitious climate protection targets, Ewa Kopacz participated in a small group in prayer. They stood her to the desired aid to be granted on exemptions and subsidies to trade in emission rights. Each of the 28 EU Member States must have a different contribution to the overall target of 40 per cent pay reduction of greenhouse gases, depending on the economic performance and condition of its energy sector. The younger eastern member countries are less stressed than the old ones in the West.
UK resists binding targets
Only in the far west of the EU-skeptic David Cameron has set a further requirement. The UK insisted that a part of the climate change targets is committed not legally binding. Each country should decide which types of energy it uses and how much climate change can be achieved by saving of electricity, gas and oil.
The countries that actually wanted to put more and binding requirements, such as Sweden, swallowed at the end of the toad, so even an agreement was called off, an EU diplomat after the meeting. The intricacies of the political compromise must now be negotiated. A conversion into binding EU legislation is also pending. The EU countries also agreed to develop their cross-border energy networks for gas and electricity on.
From Kyoto to Paris
The French president Hollande had said at the beginning of the long summit night that Europe must give other regions of the world an example that were not yet so far on climate change. “We have to convince the Chinese and the Americans.” China and America are the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases worldwide. Europe pushes only ten percent of the greenhouse gases, the EU Commission.
Hollande it depends mainly on the success of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in autumn 2015. There, a new climate treaty to be negotiated, which can replace the 1,997 agreed and become quite riddled “Kyoto Protocol”. The US had the Kyoto Protocol, which provides for a reduction of greenhouse gases by 20 percent compared to 1990, never ratified. China acceded to the Protocol in only after a long delay. “With our decision, we remain at the forefront of the movement,” said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said happily.
Green criticize the climate targets
The European Parliament, which has a say even a word in the climate-policy calls by Heads of State and Government, to make the proposed objectives authentic. The parliamentary leader of the Greens in the European Parliament Rebecca Harms, told Deutsche Welle, from this requirement, Member States increasingly remote. “The farewell not only of ambitious goals, but also on the binding nature of these objectives, means that we actually ever have any high profile European climate policy more. Our goals have become so weak that the 2-degree target is clearly abandoned” said Rebecca Harms. The United Nations is to limit the rise in global temperatures to two degrees Celsius.
Conservatives want to reconcile climate protection and industry
European industry associations and energy-intensive industries such as the steel industry fear that too sharp climate targets would reduce the competitiveness with other regions of the world. Industries could migrate to other regions of Europe. The head of the Christian Democrat Group in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber wants to take the interests of the economy more consideration. “We need an ambitious approach of the European Union, but we also need a more intensive debate in the EU, so we bring these climate goals in line with our growth objectives.”
After seven years of economic crisis in the euro area, many leaders at the summit argue that economic growth must go before climate change. Environmental groups argue that just also create investments in climate protection and new energy jobs and would create export opportunities on the world market. The European Commission believes that would at least 1.5 million new jobs through increased climate protection. By 2050, the European Commission wants to reduce the emission of harmful gases by 80 percent.
EU Commissioner for Ebola: Christos Stylianides
Ebola-appointed coordinator
While there was haggling at the climate long, the Heads of State and Government agreed relatively quickly to a Personnel. The future EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid is also the EU Special Representative for the control of the disease Ebola in West Africa. A native of Cyprus Christos Stylianides to coordinate the aid of the 28 Member States better. Overall, the EU Commission and several Member States have pledged about 618 million euros for the fight against Ebola. Part of it has flowed as direct budgetary assistance to the affected countries in West Africa. In Europe hastened nurses and doctors are now to be trained to deal with Ebola patients and sent in infected areas.
British Prime Minister Cameron invited other governments to provide more funding for the Ebola-containment. Great Britain is around 150 million euros the most money available, followed by Germany. We need one billion euro, Cameron claimed. However, the EU experts point out that actually had enough money. It lacked mainly personnel and isolation on site. “We have a race against the clock,” said outgoing President Barroso. The EU had finally woken up, after they have done too little for too long.
Johannes:
Thanks for your reply. I would guess that if the “Green” scare has subsided in your country, then the handwriting is on the wall, in regard to the EU. Does that sound right?
Meeting these goals won’t be difficult if they don’t turn their economies around.
Read between the lines:
… EU-skeptic David Cameron has set a further requirement. The UK insisted that a part of the climate change targets is committed not legally binding. Each country should decide which types of energy it uses and how much climate change can be achieved by saving of electricity, gas and oil.
After seven years of economic crisis in the euro area, many leaders at the summit argue that economic growth must go before climate change.
European industry associations and energy-intensive industries such as the steel industry fear that too sharp climate targets would reduce the competitiveness with other regions of the world. Industries could migrate to other regions of Europe.
A conversion into binding EU legislation is also pending.,,,,
China, India and the rest must be laughing their heads off. They shouldn’t be. The EU is a market of 350 million people. As it goes so the rest of the world goes,,,,, to some extent. I don’t think suicide is too strong a word though. Bloody amazing to watch this from the outside and thankful that our Canadian Prime Minister is a tempered man.
Continental Europe has been circling the drain for some time but it’s fall into deflation hell is the most “factored in” financial story since Low Doc. The consumer market is big yes but squillions are joining the middle class every decade.
The impoverishment of Europe will be just a small blip on the radar in fact it will actually be an orgy of foreign buy ups at fire sale prices !
No one will go anywhere, no market will disappear. No need to rival the climate alarmists with EU-sceptical alarmism. As some have commented already, this is not binding EU law. It is a pre-emptive move for the upcoming Paris meeting. No body will remember much about the climate crises in 2030 anyway.
Paris meeting is a bad joke – and also we do not appreciate A. Scharzemberg or Al’Gore – and not even di caprio –
the economic suicide for the moment is TAFTA – and most of our towns and regions are signing and declaring they do not accept to be included into this project – it is going to be very serious – (Somme – Correze – Vaucluse – and the towns of Strasbourg, Vitry-sur-Seine, Tarnos ……….) the revolution is there and soon we will be in the street –
As scientists remember also : Poincarré and Louis de Broglie … among others ……..
Remember also that we want to get rid of “european union and of the euro” – we never wanted it and we know who decided it for us
Le testament politique du Président François Mitterrand qui, dans le livre de Georges-Marc Benamou confiait aux Français :
« La France ne le sait pas, mais nous sommes en guerre avec l’Amérique. Oui, une guerre permanente, une guerre vitale, une guerre économique, une guerre sans mort apparemment.
Oui, ils sont très durs les américains, ils sont voraces, ils veulent un pouvoir sans partage sur le monde.
C’est une guerre inconnue, une guerre permanente, sans mort apparemment et pourtant une guerre à mort. »
..it’s like they are competing to see who can destroy their economy first but we must not underestimate their ability to talk their way out of any disaster besides name one Communist that was ever charged for negligence resulting in death.
They know they will get away with it.
this is our suicide :
http://olivierdemeulenaere.wordpress.com/2014/04/04/qui-etaient-les-peres-fondateurs-de-leurope-f-asselineau/
http://stoptafta.wordpress.com/2014/10/19/a-trade-storm-is-brewing-tpp-tafta-tisa/
It is indeed a shame that Mr. Maxim failed.
A mad hatter hatchet attack on their own heads, after one or two solid hits between the eyes with cold winters they will come together and bury all the wind mill powered hatchets.
If Europe can find enough “holistic individuals” who believe they can replace fossil fuels with self-willed “positive energy” they might stand a chance at meeting these new commitments. Well, not really.
I give this agreement one year, maybe only 6 months, before it falls apart.
This article is wrong in every aspect it describes. You can have an opinion but it never hurts to be factually a bit acurate. I would trust ukip whose party leader is an admirer of president Putin of Russia for nothing. Any parliamentary member in the EU can propose legislation and contrary to the authors claim they also do. Every commisioner has to be approved by parliament. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violeta_Bulc I guess no different from the US. The EU wants to spend €178 Billion in energy preservation. It will save €400 billion in energy imports over the coming 5 years. This can easily be achieved if you know that 50% of energy consumed is used for warming homes and water. Poland is twice as inefficient with energy as Germany. Ukraine is five times as inefficient as Germany. If Ukraine reaches Polands level it no longer needs energy imports. Saving energy allows the EU to reach the bulk of its CO2 targets. I dont get why anybody can oppose this. The efforts to isolate homes, place double glass and remove the central city heating systems in eastern Europe that lose 90% of the energy they produce is just common sense. It will not destroy the economy it will just stimulate it.
TKS – a study has shown that the roofs non isolated is the main way to loose warming, so energy
Insulation is a no-regrets policy all can support. (As long as installers are well-trained, which they weren’t inAustralia.)
I believe the time has come to let the EU self-destruct with its economically damaging CO2 emissions target and its climate change policies. It is as though ‘the Spanish Model’ has not taught the EU any lessons … the EU wants to go a step further by applying the model across the EU. I say let them do it.
Everyone has a right to commit suicide. The same applies to democracies … they have a right to destroy their economies and even destroy democracy itself, which is actually what is occurring in the EU slowly but surely. EU bureaucrats rule … that is just the way it is. Meanwhile, Sir Winston Churchill must be turning in his grave!
What we are seeing with this global warming nonsense spearheaded by Europe is an attempt to impose a form of European imperialism on other nations of the world in the mythical fight against a non-problem.
http://stoptafta.wordpress.com/2014/10/27/world-trade-organization-rules-against-popular-u-s-country-of-origin-meat-labels-on-which-consumers-rely/#comments
we are not in democracy !!!