From The GWPF and Dr. Benny Peiser:
The European Commission is to order Britain to end wind farm subsidies. Officials have told ministers that the current level of state support for renewable energy sources must be phased out by the end of the decade. Taxpayer support for solar energy must also be cut, the commission will say. –James Kirkup and Bruno Waterfield, The Daily Telegraph, 3 January 2014
Scientists at the British Antarctic Survey say that the melting of the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf in Antarctica has suddenly slowed right down in the last few years, confirming earlier research which suggested that the shelf’s melt does not result from human-driven global warming. Dr Pierre Dutrieux of the BAS states bluntly: “We found ocean melting of the glacier was the lowest ever recorded, and less than half of that observed in 2010. This enormous, and unexpected, variability contradicts the widespread view that a simple and steady ocean warming in the region is eroding the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.” –Lewis Page, The Register, 3 January 2014
Fifty-two scientists and tourists rescued from a trapped vessel in the Antarctic still can’t get home. On Thursday, a helicopter flew the stranded passengers off the icepack in groups of 10 and 12. Their ship had been trapped in the ice for more than 10 days. Now, they’re stuck again, this time because the Chinese icebreaker that sent the helicopter fears it could get stuck as well. —CBN News, 3 January 2014
Yet another vessel has been trapped by global warming sea ice! The Xue Long icebreaker has sent out a distress call. Prof Turney tweets he is gutted by the news. I guess he can’t believe that climate warming could trap so many ships in sea ice. His communication manager just announced all the sea ice is caused by global warming. –Pierre Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, 3 January 2014
Climate experts say that global warming is melting sea ice faster than expected, which is why the poles currently have the most sea ice ever measured for the date. –Steve Goddard, Real Science, 2 January 2014
The Central England Temperature numbers for 2013 are now issued. Last year was the second coldest since 1996, second only to 2010, one of the coldest years of the last century. It has not been as low as this since 1990. –Paul Homewood, Not A Lot Of People Know That, 3 January 2014
If the IPCC reports were accepted for exactly what they are – exaggerated science with a large dollop of politics – this would be the end of the matter. Unfortunately, various bodies actively encourage us to believe the reports are entirely scientific, accurate and completely authoritative on all climate matters, this despite the IPCC’s charter and the political interference. –John McLean, The Age, 3 January 2014
With his gray beard, thick glasses, gentle laugh, and disarmingly soft voice, Richard Lindzen comes across as nothing short of grandfatherly. Granted, Lindzen is no shrinking violet. A pioneering climate scientist with decades at Harvard and MIT, Lindzen sees his discipline as being deeply compromised by political pressure, data fudging, out-and-out guesswork, and wholly unwarranted alarmism. In a shot across the bow of what many insist is indisputable scientific truth, Lindzen characterizes global warming as “small and … nothing to be alarmed about.” –Ethan Epstein, Weekly Standard, 13 January 2014
The public would hardly be aware of the statements made by all of the above if it wasn’t for the mainstream media. Journalists are supposed to be sceptical about all claims on all matters but that scepticism is usually absent when dealing with climate issues. Whatever the cause, journalists appear unwilling to question claims, unwilling to ask for the data so they might verify the findings and unwilling to follow-up predictions to see if they were correct. The silence on all these matters tacitly and falsely implies that the IPCC’s view is correct and it’s an authority on all climate issues. –John McLean, The Age, 3 January 2014
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As more and more years pass with no return to the warming typical of the end of the 20th century, more and more people of the 21st century are waking up to the reality that CO2 never was the Great Climate Boogeyman it has been claimed to be.
Finally we’re starting to see stories of even politicians (usually a pretty slow lot) catching on to the futility of panic-stricken and economically idiotic carbon strangulation policies.
Seems the EU is trying to have it both ways. Poor Europeans.
@philjourdan given the current relationship between the EU and HMG, it seems more likely they’re trying reverse psychology…
CET: Sadly the “pause” is still not understood in the MSM.
The number of articles that say this year was the fouthh warmes on record… as though that means temperatrues are still going up?
We need journalists to have training on the use of escalators. Eventually they reach the next floor.
Prof Turney’s “communication manager just announced all the sea ice is caused by global warming”
Did he make this announcement from Colorado where they just legalized recreational use of marijuana?
I am totally stunned – I never thought I would see the day when something sane and sensible came out of the European Commission.
I am at a loss to understand this new EU view and I am sure that the political class will be dismayed if, and it’s a very big if, this is put into practice. Personally, I do not think CO2 is a greenhouse gas although better educated minds than mine disagree. I was always struck by the ice core evidence (Vostock, I believe) that showed the rise in CO2 lagged rise in temp. and the time lag was 800yrs. 800yrs ago was the height of the MWP so if the ice cores are correct, we should see CO2 levels rising. Currently govts. are using the CO2 scare to enable new taxes and subsidies. This benefits the rich who have the land to erect the monstrous windmills and receive subsidy from my power bill. It certainly does not assist the poor or even the middle class who just pay through the nose. (Sorry – English expression which roughly means being ripped off). When I was young or youngish, I scoffed at conspiracy theory but having grown old and cynical, I am more inclined that to the view that those who have, rig markets so they can have more. This is why I question the intent of the EU. I do not think this proposal will come to pass. There are just too many snouts in the trough of ‘renewables’. We shall see.
Meanwhile, more power to your elbow, Anthony. Just keep this stuff coming. I believe enough people will eventually wake up to see reality. I only regret that I suspect it will not be in my lifetime.
Given the number of British politicians with vested interests in the renewables industry, I am willing to bet this will be one instruction from the EU Her Majesty’s Government will be willing to ignore.
By the end of the decade huh? That’s a long way away. Easily enough time for their destructive world government plans to have achieved fruition.
It seems a token gesture to play for time in case the temperatures don’t rise.
The EU is owned by the architects of the scam, the central bankers. They don’t ever give up and there’s always an angle.
Is this true or am I in Colorado?
Lots of people backing slowly away from the consensus, so in the near future they will be able to deny they were ever really in that camp. Meanwhile the die hards are still manning (or is that personing) the Alamo and firing off inane statements like that from Turney, above; my money is firmly on the Mexicans!
didn’t know the EU had the authority to tell countries what they could and could not tax or subsidize.
To me that’s as troubling as the subsidization itself.
“Climate experts say that global warming is melting sea ice faster than expected, which is why the poles currently have the most sea ice ever measured for the date. –Steve Goddard, Real Science, 2 January 2014”
I assume that the above statement is meant to be sarcastic, because it otherwise makes no sense to me at all.
dmacleo says:
January 3, 2014 at 9:22 am
“didn’t know the EU had the authority to tell countries what they could and could not tax or subsidize.
To me that’s as troubling as the subsidization itself.”
The EU has the authority to kill people.
(Lisbon treaty)
Peter Miller says:
January 3, 2014 at 8:23 am
I am totally stunned – I never thought I would see the day when something sane and sensible came out of the European Commission.
Me too. What the …. is that all about. The UK gov have said al along that it was the EU that demanded it including the closure of 2 coal powered generators in 2012 and more in 2015.
WTF?
CD (@CD153) says:
January 3, 2014 at 9:22 am
“Climate experts say that global warming is melting sea ice faster than expected, which is why the poles currently have the most sea ice ever measured for the date. –Steve Goddard, Real Science, 2 January 2014″
I assume that the above statement is meant to be sarcastic, because it otherwise makes no sense to me at all.
NO! Steven spends his time (and a lot of it) pointing to the stupidity of climate science and it’s proponents.
We need journalists to have training on the use of escalators.
M Courtney says:
January 3, 2014 at 8:19 am
It is not that they don’t know… MSM often blocked people with other views, or remove their comments. So it is much more worrying than being ignorant.
The EU mentions removing subsidies only for solar and on-shore wind by the end of the decade, by which time subsidies for the huge planned off-shore wind farms will be the real killers for UK taxpayers.
Peter Miller 8.23: Don’t applaud too soon, Sabretruthtiger @ur momisugly 8.57 is right, “there is always an angle”. This EU move seems to contradict the “renewables directive” which requires, for the UK, 15% of ALL energy use to be from renewable resources by 2020. If confined to Electricity Generation this is about 30%. If the feed in tariffs are held to be “subsidies” how are the grossly uneconomic “renewables” to be sustained? Catch 22 – the only obvious answer is a carbon tax on fossil fuels raising their prices above the economic price of wind and solar. The EU has always wanted a carbon tax but has been thwarted previously. This is the backdoor entry – in all meanings of the phrase.
No matter, Timothy Wirth has a ready back up answer and goal as needed, and he’s not the only one with this general pollution mantra as fill-in-the-blanks mentality if global warming turns out wrong or anything short of an obvious ice age.
dmacleo says:
January 3, 2014 at 9:22 am
There are two possibilities:
1) the EU has already claimed that power, but not exercised it under the principal of subsidiarity, in which they lay claim to an area of legislative authority but allow member states to continue to generate their own legislation in limited parts of it.
2) The EU is making a grab for a new tranche of legislative powers. Under the various treaties that have created the EU, once the EU legislates in a particular arena, it assumes the sole prerogative over that area of law. The subsidiarity condition is then often brought into effect, but behind the scenes the EU’s civil service attempts to encourage member states toward a harmonised set of laws, occasionally issuing statements and “guidelines” toward the goal they want. Eventually the EU issues directives to complete that process of harmonisation, after which that area of law is off-limits to the national legislatures – the only legislation they can create in that area is to implement EU directives. That’s assuming the EU doesn’t simply create regulatory directives, which bypass the legislative process entirely.
In either case, it’s likely that the EU will assume some level of control over the regulation and subsidy of power generation following this announcement. Either they’ll just issue a directive, or they’ll “guide” the member states to a common position on the topic. Part of that process is overriding the efforts of the member states in that area – often quite brutally, and often in ways that allow it to look like the good guy to EU-sceptics. Then, over the course of a few years, it will implement its own version of the thing it just removed on an EU-wide basis.
As a small business person, our energy bills are crippling. We are also charged 20% VAT on those bills, plus a Climate Change levy. We are seriously having to consider whether we can afford to remain in business. If prices continue to soar, we will have to sell up.
To overseas readers, yes it is truly shocking that we are now at a stage where the EU dictates everything our government does, and our quisling politicians willingly comply. Britain is a hollow shell of a democracy.
@ur momisugly tomkcook says: January 3, 2014 at 8:11 am
My comment was mostly sarcastic, and woefully too short. The EU is dealing with a conflict here. They cannot allow subsidies as that is akin to a tariff against other countries. But I am sure they would love to get rid of evil fossil fuels. So what to do? In this case, the pure role of government feeding on itself won out over the need to promote a subsidiary agenda – climate change. The effect is that indeed, the UK is screwed. Damned if they do, and damned if they do not.
Ending subsidies?
How about the taxes that funded those subsidies? Oh, silly me … they need those taxes to keep their subjects trained and under control; being a ruler is such a demanding job … noblesse oblige and all the rest of that garbage.
And the poor souls they keep under their control? How can they afford electricity from windmills? They’ll need all the cash they can get just to afford food which is so expensive because of food to gas programs.
caz jones
if you were to install solar panels at your company as an alternative energy supply would you get the feed in tariff subsidy? A large store near us has done that and I calculate they will pick up around £30000 a year from the taxpayer.
tonyb