Is it Realistic to Think Government Will Abandon the Net Zero Commitment?

Most countries have now committed to reducing their CO2 emissions to Net Zero; Germany by 2045, the USA, Japan and Europe, including the U.K., by 2050, China by 2060 and India by 2070. Under these circumstances, I suggested in the Daily Sceptic on March 11th that climate sceptics should accept the direction of travel and focus their time and energy on trying to ensure the Government puts forward reasonable policies in order to achieve Net Zero.

From the comments on my article, it seems that some climate sceptics still believe it is realistic to persuade the Government to abandon Net Zero. I would certainly agree that the Government needs to slow down the timetable for Net Zero and it needs to ignore the claims about ‘climate emergency’ and ‘the clock is ticking and we are at one minute to midnight’. If these claims are true then we are all doomed anyway because it was clear from COP26 that China and the other countries of the developing world, which between them produce 63% of global CO2 emissions, have no intention of reducing their emissions in the near future.

Our Government needs to consider carefully which policies will work and which won’t. For example, I listened to Any Question on the radio on Saturday April 2nd and the panellists from all the political parties blithely talked about generating ever more energy from wind. This is madness. If we become too dependent on wind energy then when we have spells of weather with low wind speeds there will be power cuts and our homes will be without light and heat.

There is also talk of increasing the amount of solar energy, which at the moment is much less developed than wind. But there is a reason why solar energy is less developed and that is because it does not make sense in the U.K. Our maximum energy requirement is during the winter when we need to heat our homes and offices. But in the winter there is very little sun in the U.K., the days are short and the sunlight weak.

The only presently available option for both reducing CO2 and having a reliable electricity supply is nuclear energy and the Government should be upfront about this and commit to a major programme of new nuclear power stations. But successive governments have neglected nuclear energy and the industry has all but disappeared in this country. We cannot just wave a magic wand and new nuclear power stations will appear. Even if the Government decides tomorrow to go with nuclear it is unlikely that any new power stations will be operational until the 2030s and in the meantime fossil fuel power stations will still be needed.

There is also the issue of China, which is by far the largest emitter of CO2; it produces approximately 30% of global CO2 emissions. China and other developing nations have been quite clear that their priority is not climate change but improving the living standards of their population. So China has said it will keep increasing its CO2 emissions during the present decade but from 2030 onwards it will gradually reduce them until reaching Net Zero in 2060. Many people question how much we can rely on the word of the Chinese Government and would argue that the U.K., which produces only 1% of global CO2 emissions, should pedal more slowly until we are clear that China, and indeed the other countries with large CO2 emissions such as the USA and India, are keeping to their promises.

So there are practical reasons why the U.K. should move more slowly towards Net Zero but is it realistic to argue it should abandon Net Zero altogether? A point often made by climate sceptics is that throughout its history the Earth has shown variations in temperature. There were periods when it was warmer than now and periods when it was colder. But human beings were not around for most of these previous climate change episodes, whereas we are around now and we have the technological and scientific tools to better understand the Earth and its climate. The theory of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) has been proposed to explain the main observations. Firstly, the rise in atmospheric CO2 levels, from under 300 parts per million (ppm) before the Industrial Revolution to over 400 ppm now, is assumed to be due to human activity, burning fossil fuels and cutting down trees. Secondly, the increase of just under one degree Celsius in the Earth’s temperature over the same time period is assumed to arise from the increase in CO2 because CO2 is a greenhouse gas. Whilst I would completely agree that AGW is not proven, it is plausible and has the support of the majority of scientists.

Over the years, climate sceptics have made a number of criticisms of AGW, for example that CO2 absorption is largely ‘saturated’ and adding further CO2 will not greatly increase atmospheric warming, or that the correlation between CO2 density and temperature is imperfect and in the middle of the last century there was a period of 30 years when the temperature did not change. AGW supporters then counter these criticisms, for example by agreeing that the main absorption band in CO2  is ‘saturated’ but adding there is still absorption in weaker lines and the wings of main band, or that the Earth is a large and complex planet and when plotting CO2 density versus temperature you need to take a multi-decadal view such that you use the running mean over 20, 30 or 40 years. These and other technical issues have been widely discussed over the years but the majority of scientists still support AGW. 

Climate sceptics have also proposed a number of alternative explanations for the increase in the Earth’s temperature, for example it is caused by solar activity or it is a natural statistical fluctuation. But again, these explanations have not attracted widespread scientific support. Until there is either a show-stopping criticism of AGW or a compelling alternative theory to AGW it seems unlikely that governments will abandon Net Zero.

John Fernley is a retired scientist who was a Research Fellow at University College London working on Atomic Physics and subsequently a director of a wind energy development company.

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Grahamb
4 years ago

Corrupt gov influenced by China spends billions on good produced by China to help us get to somewhere that makes no difference while China pollutes on behalf of the governments they influence in the name of saving the planet. Nothing to see here..

Hugh
Hugh
4 years ago
Reply to  Grahamb

I remember a few years back when I went to a Labour deputy leader hustings for Caroline Flint (who would have perhaps been rather better than what has happened since) and a former coal miner was complaining about how his industry had been sold out. At this time, as I remember, Britain was importing masses of goods from the CPR, a country where ageing steam locomotives were hauling coal from filthy open cast mines. We really do need an alternative to the old, corrupt parties in future elections.

Rogerborg
4 years ago
Reply to  Hugh

The usual point of order: we get one vote, for one individual, in one constituency.

And we don’t cast that vote for parties, or for Dear Leaders (unless we happen to be in their constituency).

If voters understood that, if we actually voted for the individual that best represents our views through the way they’ve lived their lives, then we’d get the representation that we want.

As long as we cling to the follower mindset of putting an X beside a party logo – for a party stuffed with entryists, frauds and turncoats – then we’ll continue to get the representation that we deserve.

The problem isn’t with the parties, but with the electorate.

milesahead
milesahead
4 years ago
Reply to  Rogerborg

The problem is also with the MSM that launch a propaganda war against any fledgling political party that appears to be gaining traction!

jsampson1945
jsampson1945
4 years ago
Reply to  Rogerborg

For that, one would have to know the candidates personally, supposing anyone suitable stood. And one would have to ignore the issues that separate the parties, or who actually gets to govern. If what you say is valid, political parties with an ambition to govern should be banned from putting up candidates.

SomersetHoops
SomersetHoops
4 years ago
Reply to  Hugh

Hugh we congratulate ourselves in reducing emissions when all we are doing is exporting them. What should happen is that the emission resulting from each thing we import be added to our emissions rate, then we might not feel so smug and return some of the heavy industries to our country. But we would need to be prepared to pay the extra cost of designing proceses which reduce their emissions. Various factory act and emission regulations, due to the cost of implementing them, have driven many industies out of Britain and replaced them in countries where these things are much worse regulated and thus create a great deal more pollution than they did here. How does that help things in the world?

TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago
Reply to  Grahamb

“Government” is just a neo-feudalist way to funnel billions per year to the establishment.
Green rent-seeking is a new stream of looting us for their benefit.

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  Grahamb

“Ahhhh but “Carbon Borders” are shortly going to be a thing – to be introduced into trade agreements to solve that little niggle – it will be some kind of sleight of hand which will allow us to buy certain products only, guaranteed to cost a damn sight more than others, in order to immiserate and further impoverish the UK population reducing consumer choice and demand.

So that will be all right then, our climatey carbony consciences will be clear and those of us in power can sleep easy in our beds at night.”

7941MHKB
7941MHKB
4 years ago

There isn’t a sentence here that could easily be challenged.

For example H2O is a far more important and far more concentrated greenhouse gas than CO2 which has Fernley clutching his pearls.

Let’s just point out that Wind Turbines are enormously expensive and it has been pointed out for 20 years that they are not fit for purpose at any significant scale to power a modern economy.

Anyone, like Fernley, who has been involved in this mamoth scam should be ignored.

watersider
4 years ago
Reply to  7941MHKB

Yes, sometimes Toby really annoys me.
It’s like Farrage on GBNews.
Farrage lays out a case stating how useless and impossible this NUT Zero nonsense is.
Then (I presume who ever is running GB News) brings on some pro global warming nutter to argue against him?
There are dozens of real scientists who know this whole global warming hypothesis is a vast fraud – bring them on.
Carbon Dioxide is plant food and we need lots more of it to stave off the upcoming Marxist inspired world famines.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  watersider

Debate is the foundation of both science and democracy. Encouraging it by inviting pro CC advocates to be examined on a public forum is the very means of destroying their arguments.

watersider
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

I could not agree more if that were true.
For instance the lying bee bee seas idea of a ‘debate’ is 2 or more talking heads sharing the view of their propaganda. Old Farrage is fine and good in so far as goes, but he is no expert.

What I would wish for is when Nigel brings that plonker Bob Ward from the Grantham institute on when Nigel has had a rant about windmills or Nut Zero.
We should have someone like Paul Homewood or our own Global Warming correspondent to put Ward in his place.

That is the type of debate we rarely see on air.

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  watersider

It is the same with the evening Wooton/Dolan shows. I think they do it so that they can achieve the necessary “balance”.

To me it just dilutes their brand. Rest of MSM is either “doing balance” or completely abandoning any sense of it in order to promote a “narrative”.

I certainly doesn’t qualify as any kind of ‘journalism’ (or what used to pass for it) as far as I am concerned.

7941MHKB
7941MHKB
4 years ago
Reply to  7941MHKB

Typo allert!

“There isn’t a sentence here that could NOT be easily challenged”

Dammit!

watersider
4 years ago
Reply to  7941MHKB

it’s ok I got it. Thanks.

Bobby Lobster
Bobby Lobster
4 years ago
Reply to  7941MHKB

Turbines will also need replacing every 20 years or so, and can’t really be recycled. They also need Co2 to produce the blades and Oil!?! to lubricate the turning, when the wind is just right.

Effingham Hall
Effingham Hall
4 years ago
Reply to  7941MHKB

At the moment wind power is at 15 GW solar at 3.3 gw, gas 10.5gw.
https://energynumbers.info/gbgrid

huxleypiggles
4 years ago
Reply to  7941MHKB

Hear, hear.

Dave Bollocks
4 years ago

Net zero is a form of slavery. We are being put to work to solve a problem that doesn’t exist and therefore will never be resolved.

What we are seeing now is the thin end of a very big wedge.

Grahamb
4 years ago
Reply to  Dave Bollocks

Yes and the social conditioning and tech to control has passed initial testing now as well.

Aletheia of Oceania
Aletheia of Oceania
4 years ago
Reply to  Dave Bollocks

I totally agree.

Global warming and CO2 net zero are to ‘saving the plane’ what Covid19 was to health.

The plandemic has brainwashed the majority, allowing the foundations and infrastructure for Phase 2 to be implemented.

CO2 net zero > carbon credits~energy credits + CBDCs + UBIs + total surveillance = complete control

“You will own nothing, and be happy.”

Abandon smart phones, grow your own veg, and spend cash.

lorrinet
lorrinet
4 years ago

On the other hand, large numbers of us no longer believe a word that issues from government lips, or from any other of our formerly great institutions. The war in Ukraine, for instance, just seems to me like the phase following covid.

Rogerborg
4 years ago
Reply to  Dave Bollocks

Hmm, bird mincers really are a modern form of pyramids – nothing more than massive monuments to the ego of God-kings. And they’ll never be big enough.

TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago
Reply to  Rogerborg

Pyramids didn’t funnel money to royalty like the offshore sea bird mincers do.

Marcus Aurelius knew
4 years ago
Reply to  Rogerborg

Point of debate: what were the pyramids for, actually?

RedhotScot
4 years ago

Allegedly as burial chambers. But some are convinced it would be impossible to build them without advanced technology.

Atters
4 years ago

A global system to receive cosmic energy and distribute around the world, maybe.

Emerald Fox
4 years ago

Landing bases for the Goa’uld spaceships.

landing.jpg
Josh
Josh
4 years ago
Reply to  Dave Bollocks

This is a great metaphor! I might steal it for a cartoon, in which case hat tip to you, sir.

BJs Brain is Missing
4 years ago

John Fernley… “a director of a wind energy development company” supports ‘Net Zero’ and clearly thinks mankind’s 3.5% contribution to the overall atmospheric CO2 level is somehow more potent than the naturally occurring 96.5%…

Does anymore need to be said?

7941MHKB
7941MHKB
4 years ago

And that 3.5% is of the 0.04% of the atmosphere that CO2 represents. CO2 is essential for all life on this planet (other than the weird and rare tiny critters that live around sub-ocean sulphurous volcanic plumes). So, CO2 is a pollutant? We must be at “Net Zero”? How might that work out? Every time something new shows up, we apparently need to delay, or better, ban it. Because Precautionary Principle. (Note this doesn’t apply to locking down children, novel vaccines etc etc). So who considered the Precautionary Principle before spending tens, hundreds of Billions on whirligigs? Or Solar “farms” (which are not even financially viable in the Sahara), never mind at 54° North? Remember, there never was a wind turbine, anywhere, that produced enough energy to create another wind turbine. Think about that. You don’t need to be an expert in Physics to understand that the merry team promoting Ruinable Energy tell lie after lie after lie, whilst refusing to discuss their get-rich-quick schemes with any rational Engineer or Scientist, let alone mere intelligent adults. The fact that many Scientists allegedly support “Net Zero” is a perfect example of Group Think. They have NEVER looked at the evidence, preferring… Read more »

huxleypiggles
4 years ago

As a director of a wind energy company would he have been in receipt of public money by any chance?

Aletheia of Oceania
Aletheia of Oceania
4 years ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Huxley-cuddly-piggly dude, you accurate cynic. 😉

Shimpling Chadacre
4 years ago

Very sensible. And totally wrong. Which is par for the course with the true believers.

Higher CO2 is a net benefit. Higher plant growth and crop productivity is a benefit. Warmth is a benefit.

The whole shaky edifice is built on laughably dodgy modelling, what-ifs and maybes, and defended by billionaires and the meanest, nastiest, poor excuses for scientists their money can afford.

Science advances one funeral at a time, and knowing human nature, at some point in the not too distant future a new generation of scientists who don’t have established careers and pensions to defend will throw out the current climate paradigm and it’ll end up as an historical relic and a subject of ridicule.

Vaxtastic
4 years ago

Exactly this. It is a fad and history will judge it as such. Our focus should really be on the psychology of it, not the ambitions. Our elites seem to lack any self-awareness whatsoever. Our current leading lights will soon be classified as outright cranks and lunatics. Are they unaware of this?

Trabant
4 years ago

In “The Olden Days” probably from 1973 to sometime later ( nineties ?) as I recall the purpose of “RENEWABLE” energy sources was because:
“The oil is running out, and we still need to power our modern economy”
Which to any sane person seems sensible as there is almost certainly only a finite amount of fossil fuels.
But somewhere along the line it has transmogrified to this screeching woketard “Climate Catastrophe” bollocks, taking in along the way
Climate Change
Then
Climate Emergency
🤦‍♂️

stewart
4 years ago
Reply to  Trabant

The oil is running out, climate change, climate emergency all really mean the same thing: we are losing control of the critical natural resources.

By we i mean the west.

That is what climate BS is all about, what it has always been about. Power and control.

In a previous era, a country or group of countries who were under threat from another country or group of countries would just go to war with each other. They can’t do that these days for various reasons. So instead they wage economic wars.

The effect is similar. Ordinary people pay the cost of pursuing the power ambitions of the few at the top.

Vaxtastic
4 years ago
Reply to  stewart

But we are only hamstringing ourselves in the West. The enemy is building coal fired power stations. That’s not war it is suicide.

Rogerborg
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

China built 38.5GW of brand new coal generation in 2020.

Our entire national grid draw is currently (checks gridwatch…) 36.39GW.

To be fair, we’re going to need to get that closer to 150-200GW peak capacity in order to power electromobiles and reverse fridges. But we’re not going to do that with bird mincers, even ones made with cheap Chinese coal energy.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

“The enemy”? Because China takes advantage of the west’s stupidity?

China is no more an evil empire than Britain was when it was colonising the world.

We are hardly in a position to condemn their desire to elevate their population from poverty.

Vaxtastic
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

I don’t view them as enemies. It was in response to the fellow’s comment, which in turn focused on the powerful and their ambitions. They view china as an enemy to their ambitions, not me. Hope that clarifies.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

Yes, but the point is that the UK (and other countries) has stopped trying to colonise the world because we realised it was a bad idea.

Simply handing over the baton to a new coloniser is not a good thing.

stewart
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

You think we stopped because it was a bad idea or because the old fashioned form of colonialism became untenable and we came up with more sophisticated, less obvious way of doing so through global institutions like the IMF, the banks and large corporations?

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  stewart

Because it was a bad idea.

There was a symbolic moment in 1931 when Gandi visited London to campaign for Indian independence. India was of course ‘the jewel in the crown’ – one of the few colonies that was actually profitable, Yet he was well received by the public. Hard to see Zelensky getting a similar welcome in Moscow, or Tsai Ing-wen in Beijing.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

Because it was a bad idea.

Bwahahahahahahahah………

You’re going to tell us next our bankers have a heart.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

I didn’t mention bankers.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

I didn’t say China was attempting to colonise the world. Once again, you inert your distorted opinions into an argument and present them as read.

…….the UK (and other countries) has stopped trying to colonise the world 

Just the most incredible expression of naivety on this blog so far.

Have you never thought it strange that a country with a population of 60m ranks as one of the wealthiest in the world?

How do we manage that with virtually no industry? We control money, that’s how, across the world.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

Have you never thought it strange that a country with a population of 60m ranks as one of the wealthiest in the world?

Luxembourg, Ireland, Switzerland, Brunei, the Cayman Islands. All great colonisers in your bizarre world view.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

And their wealth relative to the UK today?

Didn’t bother thinking of that, did you?

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

Didn’t bother thinking of it and neither should you – it doesn’t mean anything. This is a really uninteresting line of argument that has drifted way off topic.

stewart
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

This kind of maniacal self harm isn’t without precedent.

Look at what Germany embarked on twice in the 20th century. Did that result in anything but huge misery and untold destruction?

We really have to wake up the fact that leaders will sometimes destroy everything around them to hold on to their power and position. For them, losing their power is like losing everything and if they are psychopathic enough they’ll take take everything around them down with them.

Vaxtastic
4 years ago
Reply to  stewart

I agree. Cult-like behaviour in many respects, which was also a feature of the later stages of the Third Reich. Groupthink, shared interests and a rapidly changing world don’t help either. And of course, a large centralized bureaucratic state cannot cope well with change, so that complicates things too.

Here in the Northern Wastelands Her Imperial Highness, Sturgeon, is an exemplar of the type. It is apparent to many she will happily preside over a pile of rubble as long as she is in charge.

Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

The majority of people must like Queen Nicola – otherwise they’d have got rid of her. It really is that simple.

Aletheia of Oceania
Aletheia of Oceania
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

No, it’s not that simple.

They have less than 50% of the seats in the Scottish Parliament and need the Greens for a majority.

Their supporter base is both enthusiastic and energetic, kids are indoctrinated at school with independence rhetoric, as well as other nonsense, and they keep lowering the voting age. Bribes have been used come election time, for first time voters, (those not old enough to drink, smoke, marry, or join the armed forces – without permission), in the form of free laptops and/or bicycles.

Proportional representation doesn’t help, especially with a 63% turnout.

But the real problem is the split opposition.

And, of course, all of this suits the Tory Party to a tee, because without a Labour majority in Scotland, they will be unable to regain power in Westminster.

Moist Von Lipwig
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

No, the opposition is virtually non-existent, which is why she is still there.

Please call the First Minister by her proper name of Nicola Ceausescu.

Moist Von Lipwig
4 years ago
Reply to  stewart

Correct, sir.

German philosophy was behind all of what you describe, Green ideology originated in Germany and is also Brown ideology, after the shirts of the National Socialists, an anti-industrial political party.

Alter Ego
Alter Ego
4 years ago

Although the Nazis were fond of rhetorical idealisation of the countryside, their economic practice was, in fact, anything but anti-industrial.

Moist Von Lipwig
4 years ago
Reply to  Alter Ego

On the contrary, they were nihilists and, as such, anti-industrial except for weapons of destruction.

DanClarke
DanClarke
4 years ago

Wind turbines and Insulation take a lot of oil to produce and maintain, just 2 things they want to increase without oil

pjar
4 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

Volvo recently released data which suggested that an electric vehicle would have to travel between 54,000 and 80,000 miles, just to break even against an ICE vehicle, and that’s without any battery change.

I’ve never seen a proper breakdown of solar or wind tech, but the fact that the blades apparently have to be swapped out every 5 years or so and go straight into landfill suggests their credentials are unlikely to be any better?

mikec
4 years ago
Reply to  pjar

Not only can they not be recycled they produce tonnes of VOC emissions during manufacture (fibreglass + resin). Having worked around the wind industry it knows it’s on dodgy ground, they know the damage they cause to the seabed, they know the amount of oil loss each turbine suffers, they know how many/type of birds the blades kill – because they count them.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  mikec

Impossible to count the number of birds/bats killed by offshore turbines. The bodies sink, are swept away by the seas, or they are eaten.

Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  mikec

How do the windmills kill birds? Bonking them on the head as they fly past? I find it hard to believe that birds can’t see the blades and can’t manage to avoid them. They don’t spin around like a blender!

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

The blade tips of the larger turbines are moving at several hundred miles per hour.

Dodge that.

TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago
Reply to  pjar

plus the supporting infrastructure to construct them then supply power from windy areas!

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  pjar

Volvo doesn’t suggest it. They are very specific.

stewart
4 years ago

I really don’t see the logic for conceding defeat.

Firstly, the consequences of pursuing absurd energy policies are only going to increase which means the pressure to abandon them will increase. Up to now climate policy has been mostly posturing and lip service. Why give up precisely when real policies are going to bite and get people angry?

Secondly, why would you stop arguing against a lies and deception. The day you abandon your pursuit of truth, you’ve lost your soul.

Lastly, is there an opportunity cost of arguing against crazy climate policies? Do you think people who are in a deluded fantasy about humans being able to alter the global temperature as if turning a thermostat are going to listen and accept more reasonable policies?

I couldn’t disagree with the author more. In my experience, when something is clearly wrong you speak up against it and never stop because eventually it pays off. Resilience can be pretty seductive. It can also be pretty demoralising to the other side, as clearly the author is demonstrating by his own demoralisation.

Vaxtastic
4 years ago
Reply to  stewart

I would argue articles like this signal the beginning of the end. It is the author, a member of the sect if you will, who is arguing we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water. That is, he senses the end and is arguing to at least temper our determination to discard these policies. But the piece concedes the total destruction of climate alarmism is at least being discussed and considered in some circles.

They are being found out. For those invested in this scam, psychologically or otherwise, that is painful. We must expect them to fight their corner, but their explicit need to fight at all in a defensive manner like the article above is a positive sign.

stewart
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

I’m inclined to agree. It’s certainly often a feature of failed ideas and regimes that they harden as they face their end.

Net zero madness can only collapse under the weight of the terrible consequences it produces. How far we are from that, though, who knows..

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  stewart

We are heading for inflation not seen since the 90’s. In a matter of months we have reached 6.2% and the jump in energy costs in the last week aren’t calculated in that.

When we reach levels of 15% we are looking at years to bring that back down to manageable levels, but if NetZero costs are heaped on it we will never deal with it, in fact it will increase.

We will get back to home repossessions on a scale beyond that of the 90’s. The knock on effects for employment and business survival are obvious because they are all within living memory.

Civil unrest may well break out because people have nothing left to lose.

Moist Von Lipwig
4 years ago
Reply to  stewart

The logic is he wants environmentalism to win, an utterly irrational and anti-life position.

He therefore must promote Piltdown Man hoaxer balderdash as science.

pjar
4 years ago

And, lest we forget, all this is to reduce a currently miniscule emission rate of less than one percent to a trace gas that makes up 0.004% of the atmosphere… with a technology that was producing 3% of our electricity needs just a few days ago.

watersider
4 years ago

I got as far as “the concept of agw”.
Can this person come back to us when he can show us scientific proof of this “concept”
Thank you Toby.

pjar
4 years ago

A director of a wind energy development company… says… it is not realistic to expect governments to abandon it altogether. While he fills his boots… colour me shocked.

Marcus Aurelius knew
4 years ago
Reply to  pjar

I somehow managed to miss that little fact in the intro! Thanks.

TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago
Reply to  pjar

In other news a Bank robber says banks shouldn’t secure their vaults.

FrankFisher
4 years ago

Fine, then we need to remove the government.

Vaxtastic
4 years ago

The author assumes the government will always be in its current powerful position to dictate terms to the population. I would argue it is this assumption that is unrealistic, not the end of climate change alarmism.

Poverty will end western government ambitions in this area. Our preoccupation with cosmic ambitions, while ignoring everyday problems, is a consequence of affluence. There will be fewer scientific papers on climate alarmism when climate scientists are on the dole looking for work.

The bureaucratic class cannot imagine a world without themselves in it running everything. But they forget their wages are paid by the productive sector which is shrinking and being distorted through colossal immigration of people who are less productive and expensive to maintain; immigrants contributing little, but producing large families, are a much bigger drain than we account for. Just one example from many.

Reality will stop climate alarmism because it is an invention to satisfy existential angst among the unproductive class. Real life will move on. It will eventually occupy the same mental place as alchemy and astrology; how could any rational person ever have taken this seriously?

chris-ds
chris-ds
4 years ago

Deleted

chris-ds
chris-ds
4 years ago

Gigatonnes of carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere every year, 4% is man made. 30% of that 4% is from china so 1.33% of net global co2 emissions is from china and 0.04% from the uk. the rest is from natural emissions like volcanoes, the land, sea, wild fires, decomposition etc etc. https://skepticalscience.com/human-co2-smaller-than-natural-emissions.htm effectively they are saying that the tiny amount of human CO2 accumulates and is what is causing the bother, no allowances for more natural carbon absorption or emission is permitted, it’s all man made -allegedly.  before we start getting het up about CO2 we should evaluate the problem again, sadly it’ll be hijacked by those interested in finding excuses to support their own causes and will possibly just cause more problems. Until there is either a show-stopping criticism of AGW or a compelling alternative theory to AGW there is already show stopping criticism and compelling alternatives, their voice has been drowned by the propaganda onslaught over the last 20+ years to the extent that school age climate prophets skip school to make headline news while those promoting her get rich. Those school age prophets have no scientific basis for what they are espousing yet universities are… Read more »

Aletheia of Oceania
Aletheia of Oceania
4 years ago
Reply to  chris-ds

0.04% – that number sounds vaguely familiar… 🤔

Covid IFR for >75s?

RTSC
RTSC
4 years ago

The Government (what you really mean is the British Establishment) didn’t intend that we would ever leave the EU. But we did.

Ultimately, the electorate will decide about Net Zero as well.

Mumbo Jumbo
4 years ago

I hope the scientist will give us the scientific basis for the claim that the majority of scientists support AGW. I am not sure that an atomic physicist is the best qualified to assess anything regarding climate science other than CO2 absorbtion. He might be better turning his attention to the effects of cosmic rays on cloud formation in the upper atmosphere; cloud formation has a much more immediate effect on global temperatures and climate.
AGW sceptics (NOT climate sceptics, Mr Fernley – I fully accept that there is a climate) have put forward a lot more criticisms than the saturation characteristics of CO2. I think it is fair to say that the utter reliance on temperature modelling is probably the most egregious, since the models being changed year on year yet still cannot accurately hindcast the actual temperatures, let alone forecast the future.
Sooner or later it must become obvious to even the most blinkered AGW cultist that temperatures are not accelerating, and if the experience of the last decade of satellite records are to be believed are turning downwards.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago

If a majority of scientists rejected the onset of climate change, sceptics would point to that as proof.

As only a minority agree with them, sceptics say these are the scientists who know best and the others are ‘corrupt’, ‘influenced’ or ‘sheep’.

For climate sceptics, every fact will always be adapted to support their point of view.

Marcus Aurelius knew
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

Except that, according to the scientific method, those who make the assertion that AGW is real are the ones who need to prove it.

Yet I find “climate sceptics” to be the ones who provide scientific debate, even when they are not the ones making the assertion of AGW.

The AGW crowd are usually reactionary and emotional.

Odd, eh?

PS I don’t deny climate change. It’s pretty obvious. It’s the AGW crowd who are denying climate change, by saying that there is some “correct climate” which we humans need to preserve.

watersider
4 years ago

Indeed Marcus, I would love some Einstein of the Cult to tell me what the “correct” world temp is.

Marcus Aurelius knew
4 years ago
Reply to  watersider

Indeed. Same with sea levels.

I asked an AGW person if they know that the sea level on one end of the Panama Canal is some several metres below that at the other end. He glazed over.

watersider
4 years ago

Yes Marcus as ahold seafarer having traversed both major canals, that was well known to us 50 years ago.
Ah! Dem was de daze!

RedhotScot
4 years ago

Sea level rise would not be a tsunami. Holland has been reclaiming land from the sea for hundreds of years. SLR is an engineering challenge, ultimately humanity will gradually move inland over hundreds of years if it’s not possible to mitigate it.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  watersider

There’s no such thing as a correct temperature, but there are certainly temperatures which would be hostile to our continued existence.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

Name them and precisely where on the planet they would prove disastrous.

The IPCC informs us that warming will occur largely across the hemispheres, at night and in winter. The tropics will be left largely unaffected.

What, precisely, would be the effect of a warmer northern hemisphere, apart from longer growing seasons and a milder winter climate which might alleviate some of the 25,000 – 50,000 excess winter deaths we endure in the UK every year?

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

A bizarre comment. The earth hasn’t always been able to support human life – we’ve only been around a short time.

Marcus Aurelius knew
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

Do you realise you’re disproving AGW, Fingal?

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago

No

RedhotScot
4 years ago

He’s a socialist. Knows f*ck all about anything. Complete waste of space.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

Is this site mainly right wing? Seems like it from the comments.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

Where did I even allude to when the planet couldn’t support human life?

Typical socialist, just making shit up once again.

Alter Ego
Alter Ego
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

Lots of days reach temperatures of over 35 during the Australian summer. I guess some people would find that “hostile”, but we manage fine.

In Wyndham (northern Western Australia), the coolest month has an average maximum of 31; the hottest month has an average maximum of 39.5. They’re proud of it. If that’s too hot for you, you don’t live there.

There are far more options than people are suggesting.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Alter Ego

Far too many people in the UK who believe that two weeks in Benidorm is the hottest experience evah!

Puerile, small minded trolls who have never travelled extensively and never witness real poverty and real wealth.

Nor have they ever witness real generosity exhibited by some of the poorest people on the planet.

They believe there is poverty in the UK. They have never seen real poverty.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  Alter Ego

The vast majority of earth’s history was not suitable for human life. Civilisation has emerged during a brief stable spell.

The notion that you can burn that many hydrocarbons without any effect on climate is, to say the least, counter intuitive.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago

I don’t agree with your observation. There’s poor behaviour on both sides.

Marcus Aurelius knew
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

What do you mean by “poor behaviour”?

And what “sides”? All I see are a lot of hysterical predictions of doom, and pronouncements about all the crazy things we must do to avoid said doom.

And then, yes, some quiet/underrepresented voices asking, “What, exactly, is the problem?”

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago

Within the climate change sceptic group are many people who hold a whole panoply of conspiracy theory views. They are difficult to debate with because they are prone to simply saying everyone is lying/in the pay of a world elite.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

Conspiracy theories? Like Klaus Schwab declaring that Covid was the launchpad of a New World Order?

You can scweam conspiracy theory all you want but they have all been articulated quite clearly by those with the influence to affect change.

This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the industrial revolution. That will not happen overnight and it will not happen at a single conference on climate change, be it COP 15, 21, 40 – you choose the number. It just does not occur like that. It is a process, because of the depth of the transformation.

Christiana Figueres, former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

But it’s all just a conspiracy according to you. Will you ever wake up and look at what these people actually say. It’s in your face!

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

The problem with the world-elite conspiracy theory (besides being untrue) is that it makes it impossible to debate any other subject cleanly.

Any view you don’t like can be dismissed by saying “you’re just part of the conspiracy” (something I’ve experienced a number of times). They reply: “well you would say that”, and so on. End of useful debate.

Now, I happen to know for sure I’m not part of any conspiracy, so this is not exactly persuasive.

Moist Von Lipwig
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

There is no elite conspiracy theory, no elite conspiracy practice but there is German philosophy and it dominates the world.

Green ideology began in Germany, it is Kant, Hegel and Marx stripped of all pretense.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago

Well, there most certainly is a theory and I keep seeing people referring to it on this website. The identity of the elite varies, but it’s the same principle.

Moist Von Lipwig
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

There is no conspiracy, nonetheless, no theory qua theory.

Alter Ego
Alter Ego
4 years ago

Marx saw industrialisation as an inevitable and progressive development. He complimented the bourgeoisie for its creation of enormous cities, increasing the urban population as compared with the rural: which had “thus rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life.”

He was not being ironic.

Moist Von Lipwig
4 years ago
Reply to  Alter Ego

Marx was a moron, he denied what made industrialisation possible.

That is why the new left, after seeing that they had to choose between socialism and abundance, chose socialism.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

So Klaus Schwab writing a book on the subject is just a fantasy, is it? The fact he boasted about having infiltrated almost every government in the world with his young leaders is just made up. Other than the list of people like Ardern, Macron and Merkle who were members of his young leaders organisation is well documented.

The Club of Rome never existed, did it?

What rock have you been living under for the last 20 years?

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

Sooner or later, every international think tank or forum gets cited as a ‘world elite’ vehicle.

People who believe in a controlling world elite/new world order/great reset answer every question with the same explanation. It’s not interesting and it doesn’t go anywhere.

It would be great if everyone who believes in the world elite story could congregate into a single site, because it messes up every other debate.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

Right, so the proposition of a New World Order is just an inconvenience to your desire to impose socialism on the world.

As you’re a socialist the NWO plays very neatly into your political objectives, top heavy, authoritarian government. No point in denying it, that is the objective of all socialist organisations.

In which case, it’s quite true that you are part of the process promoted by the likes of Schwab and his cronies because that’s precisely what they propose.

Laughably, you still consider this a conspiracy.

PartyTime
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

The agreements on climate policy are indeed being decided over our heads by a world “elite”; it’s odd to suggest otherwise. Where in the world has Net Zero been subject to a referendum? The Greens come nowhere in UK elections. Climate change mitigation has pretty consistently been an extremely low priority with electorates.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  PartyTime

Do you think Boris is seriously aiming for net zero by 2050?

Not in his policies he isn’t.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

Which policies, precisely, usurp NetZero, which is now Law!

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

Net Zero is a target. To reach that target requires more policy commitment than Boris has yet been willing to give.

I imagine he plans on being out of office before we start crashing through those deadlines.

PartyTime
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

Do you think Boris is seriously aiming for net zero by 2050?

It’s possible to do immense damage in the name of climate change mitigation AND fail to hit the Net Zero targets. In fact that’s exactly what I would expect to happen. No authoritarian system ever delivers what it promises to its adherents. The Germans never got their Lebensraum, the Soviet Union never got its workers’ paradise, the Chinese Great Leap Forward led to famine on a vast scale. And yes, even the intention to hit the targets is likely a sham; the measures are a pretext for social control.

Moist Von Lipwig
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

Within the climate change sceptic group” – people who believe the Earth’s climate is static.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

And you dismiss arguments as conspiracy theories, despite them being documented.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

This is a bottomless pit, but it depends what you consider to be conspiracy theories.

For example, I don’t accept the most famous of them all (9/11).

The idea of a world elite/new world order/great reset is an overarching conspiracy theory that can contain many others under it – as you can see on this website.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

Show us the climate sceptics equivalent of Extinction Rebellion, Greenpeace, Insulate Britain etc. who exhibit, at best, low level violence toward the public, businesses and the law.

Where are the sceptic facebook and twitter organisations who ban comment contrary to the catastrophic climate change narrative?

On the contrary, we invite you fanatics to debate, but you never do.

As usual, your head is up your backside.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

QAnon

Moist Von Lipwig
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

Observation: those you name behave like the SA.

Green ideology is also Brown Ideology, judging by the shirts worn by the National Socialists.

huxleypiggles
4 years ago

Marcus, can we refrain from rising to Fingal’s bait? He is just a troll like tree.

Nearhorburian
Nearhorburian
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

For 25 years all UK governments have had a policy of rapidly increasing the population through mass immigration of people overwhelmingly from countries with lower, often very much lower, per capita emission rates.

This would make absolutely no sense if they were convinced that hugely reducing emissions was needed to avoid catastrophe.

Watch what they do, not what they say. As with the parties during lockdown.

Vaxtastic
4 years ago
Reply to  Nearhorburian

Same goes for their apparent concerns about women’s rights and homophobia; the last people you’d be importing are sub-saharan Africans, Asians and Muslims from anywhere. None of it adds up.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  Nearhorburian

High immigration was not an intention, it was an undesired consequence of other policies and commitments.

It had nothing to do with emissions and that’s certainly an original reason to oppose immigration.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  Rogerborg

The Mail and the Telegraph are Tory papers, so you have to read everything in that context. (By the way, this is one of the positives of MSM – at least you know where they’re coming from.)

Blair made a big mistake when the EU expanded eastwards. When negotiations started, most EU countries planned to allow open immigration from the start. But closer to the deadline everyone except the UK and Ireland withdrew. Crucially, this included Germany, which would otherwise have soaked up most of the people who came to the UK.

Blair should have changed policy in line with the new reality.

However, this thread is not about immigration so perhaps we should leave it there.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

LOL. Climate sceptics are conspiracy theorists and ‘Tory’ media needs to be read with caution.

Could legal immigration be considered a sensible policy?

The birth rate to sustain a community is 2.1 children per couple. The UK’s birth rate is 1.8.

When people object to immigration they usually mean illegal immigration.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

They might mean illegal immigration, but they often don’t.

Or, they might want to restrict legal immigration to white relatives of the people already here.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

Or, they might want to restrict legal immigration to white relatives of the people already here.

There goes that socialist practice of seizing a personal belief and broadcasting it as a likely scenario.

Almost* everyone I talk to about immigration who condemns it as unnecessary and/or bad, corrects themselves when I point out the difference between legal and illegal immigration and the obvious benefits of the former.

*I say ‘almost’ but I can’t think of a single person who has disagreed with me.

Vaxtastic
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

When people object to immigration they usually mean illegal immigration.

When people object it is usually because of who we are allowing in and their evident unwillingness or inability to assimilate.

The illegal aspect doesn’t help of course. But it is the changes to our culture that matter.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

All cultures change over time. It’s a bit like the climate, ever evolving.

Aletheia of Oceania
Aletheia of Oceania
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

What’s the birth rate within the LGBTQ+*# community?

What’s the birth rate in the UK going to be in 10 years time when the long term effects of mRNA become known?

https://www.fhi.no/en/news/2022/menstrual-changes-following-covid-19-vaccination/

RedhotScot
4 years ago

The LGBT community is a tiny minority, inconsequential in terms of procreation.

The question of birth rates following the mRNA vaccinations should be of concern to everyone. If it seriously affects it negatively there will be competition to invite immigrants into countries across the world.

It’s a nice theory to imagine the elites want all us pond life dead, but who then do the elites live off? No one to pay the taxes they plunder, no employees for their factories/businesses, no one to buy their goods and services.

How about infrastructure if there is no one to maintain it? The national grid, water supplies, energy, the internet? Who would build the armaments to protect them, far less man the armies they would demand?

milesahead
milesahead
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

The elites will live very comfortably with 500 million serfs! And, increasingly, robots will be doing work (see the 4th Industrial Revolution). What the elites don’t want are an extra 7 billion ‘useless eaters’ using up all the finite resources. I’m astounded that people refuse to see what is staring them in the face!

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

The Mail and the Telegraph are Tory papers, so you have to read everything in that context. (By the way, this is one of the positives of MSM – at least you know where they’re coming from.)”

Oh dear – must be hard for you to try to negotiate your way though the DS BTL comment section then.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  Milo

I can see where the DS is coming from. The problem is the sources that get quoted here. So long as it’s not ‘MSM’, it gets believed.

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

wonder why that might be?

TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago
Reply to  Nearhorburian

That policy would however be the best way to increase rents and lower wages.

Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  Nearhorburian

I see Sadiq Khan isn’t taking in any Ukrainian refugees into his own home – he knows the cost of electricity!

“Ukraine: Sadiq Khan says UK should do more to help refugees”
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-60887157

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

If reports I hear are accurate, Ukrainians don’t want to move anywhere beyond immediate access to their country. They all want to get home and begin to rebuild their country as soon as possible.

It’s all another media fantasy scare (along with the congenital idiot Gove). The idea that these people want to move thousands of miles to America or even the UK is just complete fantasy.

Some may be forced to, but its not by choice for most of them.

Did the British abandon the UK en mass during or following WW2? Of course they didn’t.

I despair that even the sceptical amongst us are still falling for this propaganda crap!

ImpObs
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

Are you actually sceptial of any governent narrative?

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  ImpObs

The government itself was highly sceptical of climate change in the past. Even today, a significant proportion of the Conservative party are essentially sceptics – at both national and local level.

It’s a battle that goes on within the party at all times. For example, in 2006 the Labour government committed to zero carbon standards for all new houses, to be introduced in 2016 (giving industry time to prepare). But in 2015 Cameron abruptly reneged on the promise. As a result, another 2 million houses have been built with inadequate insulation etc.

This happened because the Tories are too close to developers.

ImpObs
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

So are you actually sceptial of any governent narrative?

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  ImpObs

As I just pointed out, since the Conservatives are to some extent climate sceptics, your question doesn’t make sense. It’s impossible to always follow the government narrative as the government isn’t consistent.

I disagree with the government on all kinds of issues. Perhaps as many as you, but just not the same issues.

Rogerborg
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

The question is in the present tense, and refers to the government, not to the party.

It’s not complicated, unless you don’t want to answer it.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  Rogerborg

I’m opposed to the government on a host of issues – taxation, the NHS, social care, planning and the environment to name a few.

I think Boris is a serial liar and should resign.

I hardly think this means I follow the government’s narrative in the present tense or any other tense.

(NB Not sure how to separate the ruling party from government in an answer. If you mean, am I opposed to all UK governments, then the answer is no. But I can’t be either consistently supportive or opposed to different governments, because they have different policies.)

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

Which government are you opposed to, the incumbent or the shadow? And isn’t it strange that whilst no other country in the world has copied our failing NHS, when the Tories want to improve it, by whatever means, the labour party insist on retaining the failing edifice in its current parlous state, or make it worse by simply chucking more money at it. Kindly name me another PM who wasn’t considered a serial liar. Laughably, Starmer and the rest of his woke organisation don’t know what a woman is. That makes them them either incredibly stupid (in which case why would anyone consider voting for the imbeciles) or it makes them all liars. As Boris is the current leader of the Tory party and the principle advocate for NetZero, sadly you are in the same boat as him, irrespective of whether other Conservatives are climate sceptics or not. You are singing from the same songsheet as so i’m just shocked you’re not voting Conservative as climate change is apparently the biggest issue of our time. It was a Tory PM that passed NetZero into law and a Tory leader running with it, so unless you don’t think it’s an important… Read more »

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

Which government are you opposed to, the incumbent or the shadow?

Don’t know what you mean. There is only one government, which I oppose on most issues.

Kindly name me another PM who wasn’t considered a serial liar

There are degrees of lying, and Boris exceeds all of them. (He’s also lied to the House which should mean resignation under the Ministerial Code.)

The Conservative party is only reluctantly subscribing to Net Zero (because its popular) but is so half hearted in policy making that they’re unlikely to get close to any targets.

watersider
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

As pointed out above by Mumbo, I doubt if you will find anyone with a positive IQ who is a “climate sceptic”
We are all too well aware of climate or weather – it is freezing and sleeting here now in East Scotland – what we are sceptical about and I for one DENY categorically is the unproven theory of Catastrophic Man Made Runaway Global Warming.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  watersider

Climate change sceptic, I should say. Or whatever shorthand you prefer.

Moist Von Lipwig
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

Climate Change Sceptic – someone who believes the Earth’s climate is static.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

This is funny…….

a significant proportion of the Conservative party are essentially sceptics

And no one on the left is a sceptic? And that’s the way you want to live your life, simply conforming to a government narrative unquestioningly.

Cameron didn’t “renege” on a promise he didn’t make. He changed policy because the alterations in building codes were ruinously expensive and harmful to house prices as the housing crisis was biting. You can’t have it both ways.

Labour never committed to “zero carbon standards for all new houses” as they didn’t propose an alternative to gas boilers, without which a zero carbon house is impossible.

Don’t we all just love the lying left. Distort every circumstance to suit their argument of the moment.

PartyTime
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

The most reliable climate sceptic MP is Graham Stringer, a Labour MP and one of the few MPs with a science degree. He’s also a trustee of the GWPF.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

The Conservatives had also committed to the pledge but Cameron reneged.

They’re in the process of introducing new building codes now but it’s 6 years later than it could have been.

By the way, it would also have helped with the present energy crisis. UK homes are, on average, very poorly insulated. Better insulation is an absolute no brainer policy at every level.

The best way to reduce house prices is not lower building standards but land purchase at existing use rates.

Labour has its sceptics but not to the same extent as the Tories, where it is arguably the dominant opinion, although not officially.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

The labour party made the pledge, not the Conservatives mate. Blair the murderer to be precise. Everything is always 6 years too late if you’re a card carrying labour supporter and a policy by the Conservative is passed. Sorry, we’re sick hearing that old whinge. The limited number of new homes built to modern standards over the last 20 years or so are but a drop in the ocean of houses built in the UK that simply will not benefit from insulation. Its a pathetic argument trotted out by every socialists believing it’s convincing. I trust you don’t live in an older building as it will cost you well in excess of £100,000 to make it NetZero compliant, and it’s very doubtful it could ever be achieved. Who will benefit from tens of millions of householders borrowing £100,000+++++? The Banks of course, no one else. It won’t make a jot of difference to the miniscule CO2 emissions emitted by householders, which is well below the 1% the whole country emits. …….but land purchase at existing use rates. Have you any idea what that ridiculous concept means. Fundamentally the nationalisation of land and property. It will scare off any investment in… Read more »

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

Full on passive-haus standard would be a tough ambition, but greatly improved insulation and sustainable energy is not.

The UK has a relatively old housing stock and the challenge of retrofit is indeed enormous. But again, lets not make the perfect be the enemy of the good.

The main reason for house price inflation since the 70s is land value. When agricultural land gets planning permission for housing, its value jumps by 100-200x. The value is conferred by the public planning authority, but the reward goes to the landowner/developer. Most government actions (stamp duty relief, mortgage tax relief, First Homes etc) only subsidise continued inflation in house prices.

If land could be acquired at or near existing use rates (eg 2x value) then the landowner would be amply rewarded, while we could get on and solve the affordable housing problem.

Rogerborg
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

Hello. What’s a “climate sceptic”, and what is our collective point of view?

I may feel that I have some opinions on that, but clearly you’re better placed to tell me what I really thing.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

Kindly present us all with one single, credible, empirical, peer reviewed, scientific study which demonstrates atmospheric CO2 causes catastrophic global warming.

I’ll save you the trouble, there are none.

On what basis, therefore, are scientists supporting the cause of climate change?

It couldn’t possibly be for the money, or the fear of being cancelled, sacked or marginalised.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

There was a point at which global warming was the fringe view, so he positions were reversed.

There’s plenty of money in climate change scepticism.

I’m not qualified to make the scientific argument one way or the other. All I said (at the start) was that climate change sceptics here seem to take every fact as proof of their pre-existing conviction.

If scientists oppose them: that’s positive, because it proves they’re avaricious etc.

If scientists support them: that’s positive, because it proves their case has merit.

Doesn’t matter what happens – absolutely no-one here is listening to any view that contradicts the opinion they started with.

ImpObs
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

and there’s you listening to every view being swayed this way n that by new evidence all the time…

^.^

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  ImpObs

On the covid issue, some of the arguments I’ve read here have been interesting and have influenced me.

On climate change, I simply stated in relation to this thread that sceptics take absolutely any fact as being supportive of their claim, even if the facts are opposite.

The thing that counts against this site is that:
a) In looking for allegedly unreported news, it leaves out the main point of view whether or not it might have merit. It’s default position.
b) The credibility of the site is severely undermined by the presence of so many fringe conspiracy theorists, who frequently contradict each other on their alternative world view explanations, but don’t even notice it – because of their kneejerk response to ‘down with MSM’.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

On climate change, I simply stated in relation to this thread that sceptics take absolutely any fact as being supportive of their claim, even if the facts are opposite.

Utterly astonishing remark from anyone but a fully paid up CAGW cult member.

With not one single empirical scientific study available to you demonstrating atmospheric CO2 is principle in causing the climate to change, you people concoct an entire fantasy around the whole subject, then accuse climate sceptics of ignoring ‘facts’.

Facts are not the problem for us, it’s the fantasy you people introduce to support a wholly unsupportable hypothesis.

Pleas point me to where temperatures have tracked rising atmospheric CO2.

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Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

To repeat, I’m not a scientist and and I didn’t make an argument about the science. I simply said that climate change sceptics on this site treat every fact as proof of their convictions, even if it’s opposite.

It’s not a good thing for your argument that a majority of scientists disagree – it’s a negative.

RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

Global warming was never the fringe view. It evolved from climate cooling in the 70’s and convinced people there was a problem when there was a perceptible change in NH climate over a short period. Show us the money in CC scepticism. I can demonstrate plenty in the AGW scam. Apart from the above, 25% of your energy bill devoted to renewables which goes straight into the pockets of wealthy landowners. How do climate sceptics make money if they don’t erect wind turbines? Nor did I ask you to make scientific arguments. Read what I posted: Kindly present us all with one single, credible, empirical, peer reviewed, scientific study which demonstrates atmospheric CO2 causes catastrophic global warming. No discussion necessary, just present the documentation. All you did was attempt to duck the question by distorting the response. You are full of it. ….absolutely no-one here is listening to any view that contradicts the opinion they started with. Once again, present your belief as a credible argument. I began my journey through the climate quagmire as a believer in AGW well over 20 years ago. The difference is, I asked questions of by own beliefs and sought the truth. Cleary you… Read more »

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

25% of your energy bill devoted to renewables which goes straight into the pockets of wealthy landowner

No, it’s 25% of your electricity bill and circa 15% of your whole energy bill. And it’s not just a green levy, it includes social payments to help low income families.

Most of our wind farms are at sea.

 If you don’t look you can’t find it

I just googled ‘climate change co2 peer reviewed article’ and got a stack of answers, so I don’t know what you’re basing this on. Clearly you have some reason to dismiss lots of info – perhaps you could share it in advance?

Moist Von Lipwig
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

There is no such thing as a climate sceptic, no one doesn’t believe there is a climate.

What is obviously false is the Net Zero idea that implementing the energy and economic policies of North Korea can make the Earth’s climate static.

Every day is Earth Day in North Korea.

Fingal
Fingal
4 years ago

Should have said ‘climate change’ sceptic, I abbreviated too far. But I’m sure you get the idea.

Moist Von Lipwig
4 years ago
Reply to  Fingal

A climate change sceptic believes the Earth’s climate is static.

Marcus Aurelius knew
4 years ago

There’s plenty of evidence to support the idea that CO² has increased because of warmer temperatures. Not the other way around.

Protect the planet? From whom? CO² is life! We and almost all other life on this planet are carbon-based life-forms!

Mumbo Jumbo
4 years ago

I think it is important to separate out climate change from Net Zero.
Net Zero is simply a consumption tax intended to generate vast amounts of extra money for the government and climate change is the justification for the simple minded.
It is an indulgence to ensure our place in the heaven of perfect climate.

7941MHKB
7941MHKB
4 years ago
Reply to  Mumbo Jumbo

I think Net Zero is a lot more evil than just a consumption tax (although it certainly is that as well!).

Christiana Figueres, the Costa Rican Marxist who headed up the United Nations UNFCCC that runs the IPCC, freely admitted that whole scam was to abolish Capitalism.

But also note that “Climate” is normally considered to change (or stay the same) over a period of 30 years or more.

Note even more that the justification of a “Climate Crisis / Emergency / Breakdown” is always justified by an “extreme” weather event that lasts for a day or two. “Unprecedented!!!”

And when you look at these “Unprecedented” events, almost always there have been bigger problems within living memory, let alone within the established weather records!

7941MHKB
7941MHKB
4 years ago
Reply to  7941MHKB

Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 14 November 2010:-

“Climate policy has almost nothing to do anymore with environmental protection, says the German economist and IPCC official Ottmar Edenhofer. The next world climate summit in Cancun is actually an economy summit during which the distribution of the world’s resources will be negotiated.” – Ottmar Edenhofer

For those who may not know, Ottmar Edenhofer is the co-chair of the IPCC Working Group III.

TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago
Reply to  7941MHKB

bad link

7941MHKB
7941MHKB
4 years ago
Reply to  7941MHKB

Let us have a REALISTIC evaluation of the NEED to “tackle climate change”

Nut note the evaluation helpfully provided by Chritiana Figueres, the Costa Rican Marxist Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), who at a Brussels press conference (UN Regional Information Centre for Europe, February 3 2015) explained that “This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the industrial revolution.)”. Or at COP 18 in Doha, Qatar, November 26, 2012 “..the whole climate change process is the complete transformation of the economic structure of the world.” (Again Figueres.)

PartyTime
4 years ago
Reply to  7941MHKB

Net Zero is like Mao’s Great Leap Forward, which led to possibly the largest famine in history; the number of fatalities is not accurately known. There’s a bait and switch between “scientists agree on climate change” and actual policies that are to be implemented without cost-benefit analysis, that is to say regardless of how much damage they do.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago

No they should not,

They should fight the destructive life threatening stupidity and its dark and sinister population-cull motivation!

lds001
4 years ago

current CO2 levels = .o4%
of which monstrous man produces 4% (ie 1/25 th of CO2 “emissions”)
Plants die when CO2 < .028%
Plant growth up 14% in recent years
Surface temperature flat for last 20 years
No increase in storms – normal fluctuating weather for last 170 years
Climate system far too complicated to “model”

etc
etc

Are people so stupid to believe that if “Man” changes the the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere by a tiny fraction – yes one or two parts per million that the entire planetary system will collapse? Just think how stable it is? Been within a small range of temperature for 2.5 billion years.

Please – where has common sense gone?

DanClarke
DanClarke
4 years ago
Reply to  lds001

Extremists get too much air time now, those brainwashed into shouting we need to do it for our grandchildren etc….

ImpObs
4 years ago

Yep, globalist shills who profit from the narrative, gonna shill globalist shillyness.

Until there is either a show-stopping criticism of AGW or a compelling
alternative theory to AGW it seems unlikely that governments will
abandon Net Zero.

Regardless of the number of competing hypothesis, the AGW hypothesis (for it is not a proven theory) will be used by globalists to consolidate global power. Until the Swiss bankers decide to drop it, it seem unlikely governments in their debt trap will abandon Net Zero.

watersider
4 years ago

NUT ZERO

The Nut Zero cultists
Wish to put us back in caves,
By destroying grown up energy
Make us New World Order slaves;
They want to limit plant food
Yet we must live on greens,
They’ll ban God given protein
But feed us on vaccines.

Voltiacs and wind mills
We know only work part time,
They need fossil fuelled back up
To deny this is a crime;
Its time to get afracking
And digging up more coal,
We have plenty carbon energy
What we own we can control.

Old and poor can heat or eat
They no longer have a choice,
Social Media gangsters
Deny realists a voice;
Allied with the Lugenpresse
They feed us propaganda,
Sourced from the Davos eunuchs
A marxist memoranda.

Patrick Healy

BTW the first of the inevitable food riots have started in Ceylon/Sri Lanka.
Several MP’s have resigned and the government is on tender hooks. Soros, Schwab, Gates and the Prince of Whales are happy no doubt.

milesahead
milesahead
4 years ago
Reply to  watersider

Interesting. Thanks Btw, it’s tenter hooks!

watersider
4 years ago
Reply to  milesahead

Yer Miles ahead of me! Thanks.

MikeHaseler
4 years ago

The government will abandon Net Zero … because as the costs mount exponentially, the public will force them to abandon them.

johnthebridge
johnthebridge
4 years ago
Reply to  MikeHaseler

Seeing just how pathetic “the public” has been over Covid, I think it far more likely it’ll be the costs mounting that will force the government to abandon Net Zero!

Lockdown Sceptic
4 years ago

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johnthebridge
johnthebridge
4 years ago

“…with MOST scientists supporting the concept of anthropogenic global warming it is not realistic to expect governments to abandon it altogether.”

Oh yeah?
(My caps.)

Vaxtastic
4 years ago
Reply to  johnthebridge

Just like all those scientists offering empirical proof of the benefits of eugenics a century ago, all enthusiastically backed by presidents and prime ministers. Things change.

ImpObs
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

Yeah, they renamed all the Eugenics societies to things like “Planned parenthood” and “The Welcome trust” and carry on with their eugennic nonsense behind closed BSL-3 lab doors.

TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago
Reply to  ImpObs

I would suggest the “welfare” state is an exercise in genetic meddling for the opposite of eugenics, i.e. fertility redistribution to the worst.

watersider
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

And so called Princes dead and alive.

Moist Von Lipwig
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

Good observation about 2 strands of genocidal fake science.

TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago
Reply to  johnthebridge

When the grants for scares stop the “support” for scarience will too.

Rogerborg
4 years ago

He says that while there are clear reasons for the U.K. to pedal slowly to Net Zero, with most scientists supporting the concept of anthropogenic global warming 

Thanks for letting me know that it’s not worth reading in part, let alone in full.

Matt Mounsey
Matt Mounsey
4 years ago

I can understand the defeatist sentiment in publishing an article like this, because it’s true. Western governments are never going to give up their Net Zero ambitions.

But that gives me a certain amount of hope, because it’s make or break for us now. We need to get rid of this form of government, this Empire of Lies as Putin called it. Representative Democracy is dead and must be replaced with a direct democratic alternative that is able to question and test the technocratic assumptions the lies are built on.

peyrole
peyrole
4 years ago

Mr Fernley, this is very poor. Just because a lot of people choose to believe in something doesn’t make it right. If you are a scientist you should know this. It only takes one to disprove something to destroy its basis. AGW is not proven, its actually impossible to prove. And the onus has to be on the people advocating it rather than those not doing so. Especially as assuming its true leads to energy poverty for billions. Nuclear power has not been built in the past in great numbers because its very expensive in capital requirements and can only run as baseload. That is, as it gets old, it just has to be retired with a lot of more cost implications, rather than move up the merit order and produce load following generation, which has and remains the component of generation being able to be supplied by flexible plant. Despatchable generation, that which can increase/decrease output second by second to meet fluctuating demand from consumers is necessary for functioning electricity supply. without it the lights will go out, irrespective of the mount of baseload generation. Indeed have too much wind/solar/nuclear and you have exactly the same situation as too… Read more »