From the BBC:
Wilson row over green ‘alarmists’
The Environment Minister Sammy Wilson has angered green campaigners by describing their view on climate change as a “hysterical psuedo-religion”.
In an article in the News Letter, Mr Wilson said he believed it occurred naturally and was not man-made.
“Resources should be used to adapt to the consequences of climate change, rather than King Canute-style vainly trying to stop it,” said the minister.
Peter Doran of the Green Party said it was a “deeply irresponsible message.”
Mr Wilson said he refused to “blindly accept” the need to make significant changes to the economy to stop climate change.
“The tactic used by the “green gang” is to label anyone who dares disagree with their view of climate change as some kind of nutcase who denies scientific fact,” he said.
Hmmm where have we heard that before? read the entire story here
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Let’s hope he a) is not alone in politcal circles, b) isn’t sacked or, moved sideways out of the environment arena, c) subjected to ad hominem attacks by greens & the bbc until he resigns under pressure! Only time will tell.
I assume he does not plan to remain Environment Minister.
I wonder if this is the first trickle of the turning tide?
Common sense in government… in England? Will he last?
If that had been the UK Environment Minister (for a population of 60m) then this would be a big story! But it isn’t – it’s the Northern Ireland Environment Minister (for population < 2m). The BBC didn’t spell it out, but you might like to change the name of your story…
It is refreshing to see people with a “more balanced” view back in public office, the years from 2001-2008 were defined politically by a shift towards environmentalist sentiments in the western Governments. Germany, Austrailia, Japan,UK,Canada and the USA. All turning a different shade of green.
This fall here in Canada the Federal Government will be chosen by simply answering the Climate Change question. If you believe in AGW and want Carbon Taxes and a green hue on all policies you can vote for it, well you actually have 2 options on the green side as the Green Party plan is almost identical to the Liberals plan.
BTW the Liberal plan’s actual name is being challenged by another green group, apparently there is a copyright on the term “Green Shift” (they could just drop a letter) or as quoted in Parliment “Shift Happens”.
Oh dear – the report doesn’t make it clear but Sammy Wilson is the Environment Minister for the Northern Ireland Executive not the UK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Ireland_Executive
A bit picky but he’s environment minister in the Northern Irish assembly which sits at Stormont in Belfast. I don’t think he’d last very too long as the environment minister in the Westminister Parliament. The Labour, Conservative and Liberal party see global warming (climate change) as a fact, not to mention an excuse to raise taxes.
Incidental to this news story. The U.S. is being blamed for the rising cost of food in Indonesia. (soy beans) That is the answer from the businessmen in Indonesia and subsequently the Government. There are several reasons for this. One is that a decade or more ago the cost of production in the U.S. was less than now and there were no mandates to produce bio-fuels. Now that the U.S. has changed over about 30% of the soy crop to corn for fuel production and about 20% of the remaining soy crop for bio diesel and our own cost for fuel, In addition the cost for transport of the soy to the far east has more than doubled. Therefore the cost of imported soy in Indonesia has more than doubled in the past few years. then to compound the problem while the import cost were low the agriculture industries in Indonesia changed over from production of soy to other crops cutting their own soy production by 50%.
Associated Press writers Irwan Firdaus in Jakarta and Jim Suhr in St. Louis contributed to this report
This story came out this morning at 10:45 EDT This is more of the results of the Green Religion. I fear that before long we shall reap what the warmist/greenist sow. I hate to say it but this is what happens when you try go make wholesale changes in a short time frame to support the “cure” for a problem that may not be a problem. As the good minister said
Mr Wilson said he refused to “blindly accept” the need to make significant changes to the economy to stop climate change.
“The tactic used by the “green gang” is to label anyone who dares disagree with their view of climate change as some kind of nutcase who denies scientific fact,” he said.
The minister said he accepted climate change can occur, but does not believe the cause has been identified.
“Reasoned debate must replace the scaremongering of the green climate alarmists.”
I could not agree with Mr. Wilson more.
Bill Derryberry
The UK Environment Minister position is a breath of fresh air, but I believe that what is needed is for Governmental entities to charter independent scientific commissions to study/interpret the issue. There is some risk, but it is not at all hard to justify.
In the U.S. I hope that with McCain/Palin, they will be open to revealing the facts to the public. A presidential scientific commission appointed right after his election, and perhaps announced during his campaign is perhaps the only way ahead. There is a huge risk of McCain changing his position, although he would probably be very reasonable to hedge his position, and then rely on the science. I can’t imagine any circumstance where Obama (who is highly influenced by Gore) would ever do such a thing.
I understand that Palin trusts the science (and is therefore a skeptic), but they have to be careful on how she discusses this. I believe she is in a good position because she appointed some sort of Alaskan Climate commission. If they were chartered to openly consider the science and not pre-disposed to be searching for CO2 driven climate change like the IPCC, then maybe there is hope. If they come back soon with an objective assessment, then the interesting political question is how the McCain/Palin political campaign will ‘reveal” the results. One way is for them to let the report come out routinely and let the media go with it and then address it. The other way is to have a big news conference, but my sense is that that it is too loaded with risk (although I personally would massively respect them for it)
It seems to me that in the U.S. presidential election (and in other countries), the catastrophe of massively distorted legislative action against man made CO2 makes this a single issue election. The U.S. may be the most critical because the apparent Global Cooling is not of long enough duration yet to be slapping the politicians in the face yet.
Small correction: Wilson is Environment Minister for Northern Ireland under their devolved government, not for the whole of the UK. Secretary of State for the Environment for the UK as a whole is Hilary Benn.
REPLY: I made a notation in the title that will help delineate that, thanks – Anthony
Speaking of Scientific “Fact,” has anyone posted the August UAH number, yet?
Good to see Politicians with spine. About time too.
He’s in the Northern Ireland government rather than the UK government, so he’s less closely monitored by the Beeb and the Guardian. Warning: this may result in blurting out truth sometimes.
Although Wilson’s comments are right on, it will be too difficult for Labour to stomach and he’ll be sacked
Yesterday I read the original article on the newsletter.co.uk site. Beaut. Immediate reaction in the forum was tobacco centric just like he said it would be.
See if you can find it now……
….Nothing to see here citizen. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.
Also did you notice the photograph the BBC published along with the story? Deliberately chosen to make him look like a crack-pot.
Maybe a tad off-topic, but can anyone see a U.S. Racketeering and Influenced Corruption (RICO) lawsuit against some portion of the A-CO2-GW “advocates”? My gut says that this is almost idiotic to consider (guess what that makes me?) unless some smoking gun could be found, but if massive “stop the CO2” legislation was passed, might it have to be put on the table?
And then there is this from Barak Obama a few days ago “Global warming is a serious problem. Uh, i-it’s not just some tree hugger, you know, uhhh, sprout eatin’ liberal thing.
“Ironically, if we listen to him Northern Ireland will suffer economically as we are left behind by smarter regions who are embracing the low carbon economy of the future.”
I was under the impression that a low-carbon future was only meant to help save the planet, not advance us economically or technologically. Yet that seems to be the assertion that this man makes. I am prone to be skeptical of this attitude because surely the only job losses that will occur would be in Green-dependant industries and the economic damage will go only so far as regions and nations invest in them and how deeply they have absorbed them into their economic infrastructure. Otherwise, they are quite negligible.
So once again AGW can be anything you want it to be – even a way to advance economically and technologically. But only if you believe. Once again we see that if you deny the faith, you are “deeply irresponsible” and a threat to the economic well-being of the nation.
At least they have a minister who has his eyes open. That is hopeful. What is up ahead will take a pair of those, and probably more.
Bill in Vigo,
Our Soybean Exports were “Way Up,” This Year.
So was Worldwide Demand. Brazil’s crop, on the other hand, was Down. They export about as much as we do.
Why don’t we blame higher demand, and weak exports from brazil?
Nice to see this, but to clear up a few misconceptions posted here – Northern Ireland is not Ireland, Ireland is not part of the UK, and being a minister of Northern Ireland is not the same as being a minister of the UK.
Hopefully Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales will all get their independence soon, so that they can defend their cultures. I was in London a few weeks ago, and it was almost impossible to find anyone who speaks English. Red Ken and decades of Labour government left their mark.
Thanks for changing the title, Anthony, but “Irish (UK)” still isn’t right! You could try “Northern Irish (UK)” instead…
REPLY: It’s close enough for government work.
“Maybe a tad off-topic, but can anyone see a U.S. Racketeering and Influenced Corruption (RICO) lawsuit against some portion of the A-CO2-GW “advocates”?”
I doubt it. I would guess that between the First Amendment and the Noerr-Pennington doctrine, the warmists have free reign to lie their asses off to the public and to the legislatures.
However, when you think about it, this is a preferable situation. Otherwise, guess who would jump at the opportunity to use RICO suits to silence their opposition?
Some reasons why the ministers views might resonate with UK residents:
* The vast majority of UK homes, (and busineses) use Natural gas for heating and cooking.
* A significant amount of UK elecricity generation uses gas fired power stations
* Because the price of gas is closely tied to the price of oil, consumers in the UK have just received notification of >20% increases in the price of gas and electricity.
* Partly because of this, the popularity of the Labour government has plummeted in the opinion polls.
* Although many consumers, (voters), are not fully aware of this, our reserves of North Sea gas are running out and we are increasingly importing gas from place like Russia and Azerbaijan and, since our Kyoto commitments will soon be coming on line, we will have to buy carbon credits to burn this gas. Since Russia has lots of carbon credits for sale, we will soon be in the situation of buying gas from Russia and then paying them to let us burn it.
As these facts begin to dawn on the UK voting public, the Greens are working harder and harder with ever more lurid apocalyptic prophesies to try and convince us to change our ways. The recent dismal summer has not helped their cause.
While Mr Wilson is ahead of the curve, expect to see more of this type of sentiment in the future.
(As an aside, despite my admiration for the stance of Mr Wilson on this issue, I really wonder if we need to be paying for quite as many Environment Ministers, and all their bureaucratic departments, as we do.)