The collapse of the warmist position on climate change has not impinged on politicians in Britain or Brussels, says Christopher Booker.
Nothing more poignantly reflects the collapse of the great global warming scare than the decision of the Chicago Carbon Exchange, the largest in the world, to stop trading in “carbon” – buying and selling the right of businesses to continue emitting CO2.
A few years back, when the climate scare was still at its height, and it seemed the world might agree the Copenhagen Treaty and the US Congress might pass a “cap and trade” bill, it was claimed that the Chicago Exchange would be at the centre of a global market worth $10 trillion a year, and that “carbon” would be among the most valuable commodities on earth, worth more per ton than most metals. Today, after the collapse of Copenhagen and the cap and trade bill, the carbon price, at five cents a ton, is as low as it can get without being worthless.
Here in Britain, as the first snows fall, heralding what may be our fourth cold winter in a row, it is time we addressed one of the most glaring political “disconnects” in our sadly misgoverned country.
Complete article at the Telegraph, here
It would be a good idea to petition the PM via the No. 10 web site. Unfortunately even that democratic measure has been suspended so a petition to repeal the Climate Change Act is impossible. The system is being examined for a report to government by Martha Lane Fox, whoever she is, some e-millionaire I suspect.
This is how we are now treated in the UK. Government panders to Brussels and ignores the voters.
From Todays Guardian/Observer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/nov/14/climate-change-science-email-scandal
“19 Nov Rumours begin to appear on climate change denier blogs that a hacker had obtained emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) computers.”
Nice to see where they stand isn’t it..
‘Climate Change Denier blogs’ !
Have they not learned anything in a year….
This is so conter productive as the majority of the general public will question this rhetoric, with all of this years revelations (ipcc, etc)
The Guardian environment team, editors and other activists seem to think everybody else ,thinks like them. They just move in their own very small social and media and activist’s circles, believe their own PR. Which amongst themselves, means ‘denier’ is acceptable and leads to the groupthink that created the 10:10 Campaign ‘No Pressure’ video.
the Guardian time line…
what a strange distorted worldview they have (especially the inquiries)
“19 Nov Rumours begin to appear on climate change denier blogs that a hacker had obtained emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) computers.
20 Nov UEA confirms that emails and documents from CRU have been illegally leaked online.
23 Nov Climate change deniers call for an inquiry. Articles in the press allege that the leaked emails show that data are being manipulated.
1 Dec CRU head Professor Phil Jones stands down while an independent inquiry, commissioned by the Royal Society and chaired by Lord Oxburgh, is conducted.
3 Dec During the UN climate talks in Copenhagen, the Saudi chief negotiator claims the CRU controversy proves climate change is not caused by humans.
Meanwhile, the UEA commission former civil servant Sir Muir Russell is to chair a separate independent inquiry into the leaks.
4 Dec Dr Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), says the matter cannot be swept “under the carpet”.
2010
14 Apr CRU is cleared of malpractice in Lord Oxburgh’s report.
7 Jul Sir Muir Russell’s Independent Climate Change Email Review finds that CRU scientists ‘did not withhold evidence’, concluding that ‘their rigour and honesty as scientists are not in doubt’.
The Con-Lib government is to scared or too brainwashed to abolish Labour’s wholesale adoption of the AGW mindset. Chris Huhne, for example, is still totally supportive of carbon trading and carbon capture & storage.
So far the Coalition has shown some backbone in dealing with Labour’s legacy – the deficit – and they’ve had a good attempt at revising the welfare state and university funding. Now let’s hope they see sense and show the same strength of character and purpose in dealing with the idiocy inherent in carbon markets.
“Orders for wind turbines to fall by 93%”, source for Booker’s statement:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/nov/07/utilities-windpower
By analogy with other environmentalist scares, Global Warming still has a good 10-20 years to run. It does not matter that the science has been debunked, provided that the political and corporatist aspects of the movement can maintain momentum. Also by analogy, when the end of the movement comes, it will be marked by silence, and treated as a non-event by the establishment.
2 things made me realise that the current UK government is doomed on environmental issues:
(a) In the long run-up to the last general election, on the day that Lehmann Brothers failed, precipitating the global “credit crunch”, David Cameron was opening a week-long conference held to show that his party’s government would be “the greenest ever”. Ergo: “green” image more important than the biggest financial and economic crisis since 1929.
(b) I understand that the UK climate change minister, Tim Yeo, is himself a “green” technology investor, on the board of about 5 “green” technology companies, 2 of which he chairs. This is an egregious conflict of interest; that it is not only tolerated, but encouraged by the prime minister, speaks volumes about the UK government and its patronage of “green” corporates.
Whether reality will hit the UK government before the next general election, I somehow doubt.
Bernd Felsche says:
November 14, 2010 at 3:54 am
“Telegraph picture oddly underscoring Booker. The picture of the happy “dairy” farmer with his big, new solar system in Somerset.
Reaping a plentiful harvest of subsidies, no doubt.”
Bernd, the guy is a celebrity in UK, and a millionaire, as he is the founder of the Glastonbury music festival, the biggest festival in the UK. It was started during the hippy days, has multiple stages, music ranges from pop to folk and new age stuff. He’s a kind of figurehead for the hippy/eco movement in the UK. So he was one of the first to hop on the bandwagon when the PV subsidies in the UK started in April 2010, he’s got the millions to buy as big an installation as he likes to.
He doesn’t depend on his farming.
James Evans says:
November 14, 2010 at 3:47 am
quote
“The walk back will be slow. Too many egos and too much money.”
I agree. When was the last time you heard a politician say “oops, sorry I was wrong”?
unquote
That’s not a politically feasible statement. However ‘the scientists told us lies’ is very feasible. If you are a climate scientist and you have vigorously promulgated the idea of CO2 disaster, be afraid, because a politician in trouble is a politician in need of a scapegoat. My advice would be to put out a few anchors to windward, weasel words like ‘if so-and-so’s study is rigorous’ and ‘while this seems to indicate warming, account must be taken…’ etc etc.
Good luck, guys. I almost feel sympathy.
JF
John Peter says:
November 14, 2010 at 1:45 am
“The Scottish national government will not build coal, gas, oil or nuclear power stations but will rely on wind, waves and currents.”
That sounds like complete lunacy. Nobody can run on intermittent power sources without a spinning reserve of hydrocarbon power stations, or alternatively pumped storage, for the time being.
Oh, i forget – there’s always the whisky by-products…
“And recently, researchers took samples of whisky distilling by-products as the basis for producing butanol that can be used as fuel.”
http://www.theecologist.org/how_to_make_a_difference/food_and_gardening/677484/whisky_and_waves_the_future_of_scottish_isles_power.html
Eternal darkness…
BillyV says:
November 14, 2010 at 3:44 am
“Wait for the other shoe to drop when they start actual groundbreaking in the desert for PV farms and dismantling the fossil fueled steam plants to reach the goal mandated by AB32.”
Actually, the other shoe will drop when California cities experience regular rolling black outs and brown outs. Of course, the ruling class (and climate elites) will find a way to absolve themselves of any responsibility…after all, brown outs are for the little people…
After another year of wind farm construction, including much heralded offshore arrays, a glance at today’s consumption chart reveals the total contribution from wind to be 0.5%, and that we still need to import 5.1% from the French through the interconnector.
Hydro meanwhile, after a very wet and recently snowy fortnight in Scotland, manages 2.0% plus 1.1% via pumped storage.
Coal, much of which is scheduled to be closed under EU emission law, and nuclear, much of which is too aged to continue, are currently providing 47% of demand.
Yet our politicians seem oblivious to these facts, available to all on http://www.bmreports.com/bsp/bsp_home.htm
and continue their mindless dash into the fantasy land of renewables, incapable of the thought that with today’s geographically representative spread, doubling the number of turbines would today produce just 1% of demand.
And why are the press so quiet? Yesterday’s Daily Telegraph carried the answer in the form of an advert for, of all things in this country, Photo Voltaic installations guaranteed by the government to yield £1000 p.a. inflation linked for 25 years.
Thus through the Carbon Trust Quango our Renewable Obligation taxes are used to subborn the Press and to transfer money from society at large to the Landowners, a group once considered anachronistic but revealed now to be still very much in control of our pockets.
Bye the bye, my neighbour has just aborted a trip from the Scottish border to Glasgow, having been forced by SNOW to turn back at Harpenden on the M74, the main motorway into Scotland. The ski runs are open at Aviemore. I wager this will not be reported by press or TV as usual.
The markets are starting to have their say:-
“Clean Energy Poised for Mergers on $400 Billion Slump”
“Global annual manufacturing capacity for solar panels may reach 23,500 megawatts next year, exceeding demand by almost 40 percent, according to John Hardy, a solar analyst at Gleacher & Co. in Connecticut. Wind turbine makers will increase capacity to 64,200 megawatts, 30 percent more than expected orders, Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecasts.”
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-11-10/clean-energy-poised-for-mergers-on-400-billion-slump.html?campaign_id=europe_related
Typical outcome of a susbsidised market.
Paul Deacon
“(b) I understand that the UK climate change minister, Tim Yeo, is himself a “green” technology investor, on the board of about 5 “green” technology companies, 2 of which he chairs. This is an egregious conflict of interest; that it is not only tolerated, but encouraged by the prime minister, speaks volumes about the UK government and its patronage of “green” corporates.”
I think it would be a good idea if we all tried to research the MPs and pro scientists who have financial interests in green technology companies. All those that are seen to exercise a conflict of interest should be exposed. How do we set about it?
I am sitting back, rather smugly at the moment, having had two very pleasant days in the 60’s (that’s fahrenheit), we are expecting quite a vicious cold snap soon. The woodburning range has been going since mid-October, and all the cooking is being done on it for the winter. The woodburning stove has been on and off in keeping with the ambient temperature, but looking forward to 24 hour burning soon. Plenty of wood in reserve, a tank full of oil should I need the back up central heating, the gas bottles are full (all five of them, at 40 Euros a throw – one lasts between 12 and 18 months), and we have plenty of candles. We are used to the odd power outage because we live out in the sticks.
I hope you are all equally prepared for a few icy winters, with an increasing reliance on windmills and solar panels instead of REAL generating infrastructure, and that you are able to cope with what the climate throws at you, because sure as eggs is eggs, it ain’t gonna change it’s historically cyclical (and often fickle) ways for you, politicians, “scientists”, Al Gore, etc., etc. Good luck.
Look here for Britain’s Climate Change secretary’s interests:
Register of members interests
As you can see, Yeo has received £41,250 from AFC Energy (fuel cell technology developers), £51,749.92 from Eco City Vehicles plc, has a shareholding in AFC Energy and Eco City Vehicles and has a family holding/investment company that I wasn’t prepared to pay £18 to see the accounts thereof :p.
Potential conflicts of interest, yes. I wonder if ECV or AFC receive any government grants?
It has been interesting reading Chris Huhne’s (UK Minister for Energy and Climate Change) speeches over the last few weeks (see http://www.decc.gov.uk). Climate change barely gets a mention; the justifications being put forward for de-carbonising energy production are increasingly focussed on energy security/independence, and job creation. The save the world rhetoric is quickly becoming extinct. Evidence, were any needed, that, for politicians, this has been a case of policy-based evidence-making: detemine your policy and then find the evidence to support it.
Beg pardon to the Right Hon. Chris Huhne – Secretary of State, of course, not Minister….
The communists used to say that capitalism would be brought down by a mass of internal contradictions, but it was communism that collapsed under the mass of its own contradictions. A point was reached where everyone, including the most die-hard communists, realised that they just couldn’t carry on under their system for much longer, and that everything had to change and re-connect to the real world again if they were to stand any chance of ever making a better life for themselves and their children. Then the whole system imploded and liberated hundreds of millions of semi-brainwashed slaves from their various oppressive regimes.
A similar fate awaits the human-hating Eco-fascists running the Climate Change Religion. One day it will all be over for them, and future generations will laugh at us for being so stupid as to believe in their idiotic junk science, and for letting them get away with it for so long.
The climate change racket relies upon denying access to the main channels of the media to anyone capable of challenging any tenets of the “carbon-dioxide-is-evil” religion, which means, in turn, politicians and regulators can carry on stripping away our freedoms and bleeding us white with “carbon” taxes without being troubled by any awkward questions or ideas that might undermine their sanctimonious self-righteous hypocrisy.
The truth is that the peak of public acceptance of the climate change religion has passed, so a sort of panic has gripped those with the most to lose when the whole thing blows up.
One way to extend the life of the global warming fraud is for the authorities and broadcasters to act as if “everyone” believes in it, and anyone who declares that they don’t is either some sort of puppet for “Big Oil” or is just plain mad. That’s the way debate (and therefore change) is suffocated in a so-called “free democracy”. The global warming liars worked out long ago that arguing their case in any open forum and exposing their ridiculous assertions to detailed scientific scrutiny would do them more harm than good. This explains why there is never any debate about AGW between scientists on any national broadcasting network such as the BBC. Even if the BBC wanted such a debate (which they don’t), the global warming liars would never agree to appear on it with any real scientist that disagreed with them. One of the biggest jokes about AGW (well it makes me laugh) is that the global warming fraudsters dress up their statements in “scientific” jargon but when any real scientist challenges them they either ignore it or just resort to their usual tactic of insulting the scientist.
When will it end?
When all political support has been destroyed and the taxpayers’ money runs out.
I may just be me but there seems to be a reporting blackout on the upcoming Cancun climate conference. The only site I can find addressing this void seems to be
http://ourmaninsichuan.wordpress.com/
which is running a Cancun week of blogs.
Pointman
I’m not a betting man – except that I’m betting we get power cuts during the Olympics, because Chris Huhne seems to be totally ignoring the ‘Department of Energy’ part of the so-called ‘Department of Energy and Climate Change’.
My local supermarket is doing a nice line in 3200W generators for under £150 – 3200W is sufficient to run the average house quite comfortably – so this would seem like a pretty cheap insurance policy.
On the main point – do you REALLY think that this government, or any other British government, is in the business of saying: ‘You were right, folks – we were duped. This was all just funding-chasing hype’.
Not a chance – the Japanese are amateurs when it comes to ‘losing face’ alongside British politicians.
For you readers in the UK, understand that with the new Congress, it is now guaranteed that the US is never going to pass any climate restrictions. (the EPA is going to have it’s teeth pulled very soon, also) Thanks to this, neither will China or India, or anybody else outside of Europe.
What this means is that every extra cost you add by either limiting energy availability or raising it’s price will simply shift your jobs to the US, China, India, or elsewhere. It will do absolutely nothing for the climate; it will simply impoverish your country to no good end. Well, one good end: foolish people and foolish governments deserve to be unemployed and broke. Keeps you from having anything more to squander.
They will know:
D-Day invasion by climate realists coming
http://notrickszone.com/2010/11/13/d-day-invasion-by-climate-realists-coming/
James Delingpole wins Bastiat price for Online journalism
http://notrickszone.com/2010/11/12/james-delingpole-wins-bastiat-prize-for-online-journalism/
They should be voted out of office because they were willing to support the fraud and put all that was intended on their own people.
I see people making the same mistake – over and over.
Politicians are not wrong and they are not stupid.
It’s not a question of being right or wrong.
It’s not a question of politicians being stupid or ignorant either.
We need to all get a grip on this.
They know what they are doing.
They are using global warming, the economy, etc as a tool,
to accomplish their goal.
They know exactly what they are doing……….
Green Sand – so basically, according to the Bloomberg article, all these much-vaunted ‘green’ jobs we were promised are going to go to China….
*****
BillyV says:
November 14, 2010 at 3:44 am
*****
Hopefully, there will be some budget cutting in Washington, including money to the States. That would hasten Cali’s trip back from the ’60s.