DEFY LABOUR'S GREEN LUNACY, SAYS DAILY MAIL ARTICLE

I seem to detect a shift in the media here in the UK, or at least in the part that has traditionally been right leaning. This article is encouraging the continuation in the extraction of fossil fuels - not something I have seen in recent times, but welcome none the less. This is an admission that these fossil fuels are essential for our survival as a modern nation, and that renewables are simply not up to the job of supplying the reliable economical power that is needed. The penny has dropped, but I doubt it will penetrate the cloth ears of our new Labour government.

 Why BP and the other oil giants should defy Labour's green lunacy - and give Britain the power up it needs | Daily Mail Online

WORLD ENERGY OUTLOOK FROM THE IEA - VERY UNCERTAIN

 The International Energy Agency (IEA) shared some good news last week—clean energy is gaining ground, fossil fuel use is peaking, and carbon reductions look achievable.

But dig into the numbers, and a different picture emerges. The IEA’s forecast rests on shaky assumptions, wishful thinking, and contradictions that cast serious doubt on the credibility of its projections. 

Coal use—the largest source of global carbon emissions—will decline by just 0.5% per year through 2030, and only 0.8% annually from 2030 to 2050. Oil consumption will increase by 0.75% annually and natural gas use will grow at 1.6% per year over the same period. Clearly there will be a major role for fossil fuels for decades to come. Renewables have a part to play but they will not be a replacement for reliable energy.

Read more here:  IEA Optimism vs. Reality: The Contradictions in the Energy Transition | Art Berman

GULF STREAM CLAIMED TO BE "ON THE VERGE OF COLLAPSING"

This story was featured in the Daily Mail, one of the UKs best selling newspapers. There is no way to verify it, as the article does not actually give any reference to the source, instead it  simply states that it came from "leading climate change scientists". It then goes on to lists the horrors that might happen. I must say that even if this did happen there is nothing whatever that we can do about it. We simply would have to adapt to the climate we get. That means we would need more cheap energy to heat our homes. The government would have to abandon net zero and get fracking.

Interestingly I have not seen this story on the BBC, which seems a bit odd.

 The Gulf Stream is on the verge of COLLAPSING, leading climate change scientists warn - plunging the UK into a new ice age | Daily Mail Online

TRUE COST OF NET ZERO REVEALED

The new calculation reveals that the cost is likely to be around six times the previous estimate. which was £50,000 per household. So now it is £300,000 per household. That is an eye-watering sum even thought it is spread over 25 years. Where will it come from? How will it be raised? We will soon start to find out from the budget next week. This is not just a black hole, it is a vast cavern. People who have taken no notice of climate change until now will begin to realise that the cost will affect them in a big way and we will see how keen they are to support it.

 Net Zero could cost £300,000 per household

TEN QUESTIONS TO ASK CLIMATE ALARMISTS

Here is another great video from Paul Burgess. This one looks at ten difficult questions to put anyone who claims that we are facing a "climate emergency" due to human CO2 emissions. Just the sort of thing to throw out when you meet someone who thinks they know they are right! 

Ten Questions To Ask Climate Alarmists

CLIMATE: THE MOVIE

Have another look at this brilliant film if you have already seen it. If you have not seen it yet, then you really should. 

 Climate: The Movie (The Cold Truth) Updated 4K version

HOUSE OF LORDS DEBATE THE CLIMATE AGENDA

This debate was moved by Lord Lilley:  "That this House takes note of the impact of His Majesty’s Government’s climate agenda on jobs, growth and prosperity." 

This gets to the heart of what our government should be about. Looking at the effect of their policy on the British people.

There are several realists among the many alarmist speakers. Here is an excellent contribution by Lord Strathcarron:

"The main impact of the Government’s climate agenda is to import pollution and to export jobs, growth and prosperity, and the two are directly linked.

Turning first to importing pollution, since 1990 our share of CO2 emissions embedded in imports has risen from just over 10% to nearly 50%. The very fact that we import half our emissions should give us pause for thought, but, unfortunately, we are moving in the opposite direction. The decision to cease all new oil and gas licences can only mean that, in future, we will need to import even more oil and gas to make up for our own self-induced shortfalls.

Whether we like it or not, fossil fuels are here to stay for the foreseeable future. Even the Government’s own assessment suggests that, by 2040, the demand for natural gas will decrease by only 4%. This simply means that any domestic reduction in emissions will be made possible only by offshoring the production, and of course the jobs, to other countries. Furthermore, the imported fuels will need to be liquefied—itself a polluting process, alongside the emissions caused by shipping them here—and then there is further pollution from processing them after they have landed here.

While Ministers may be able to stand up at international conferences and proudly proclaim that our domestic emissions have reduced, these same policies have in fact only contributed to increasing global emissions. One might say that, as we produce only 1% of the world’s emissions, it does not really matter and that the gesture is more important than the reality. However, it is a mighty counterproductive gesture with a direct, negative impact on our standard of living and quality of life.

Turning to jobs, growth and prosperity, as has been well publicised, the UK now has the highest industrial electricity prices in the developed world, which is directly caused by artificially penalising industrial and domestic consumers with subsidies for renewable energy, carbon pricing and the extra infrastructure costs as a direct result of the policy. The OBR suggests that subsidies for renewables will add £12 billion to our bills for this year alone—and it will only get worse as we factor in future renewable subsidies and the £100 billion grid upgrade needed for decarbonisation.

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To give an indication of the wishful thinking by net-zero advocates, in 2014 the current Secretary of State for Energy promised 1 million new green jobs. The outcome is somewhat less impressive. Since then, official government data shows an increase in employment in the low-carbon sector of just 40,000. Against this must be offset the manufacturing jobs we have already lost in other sectors. Moreover, there will surely be many more to come, not least in the steel and oil and gas sectors. We now have the worst of all worlds: high taxes to pay for job losses.

The other great beneficiary of all this wishful thinking is China. It is now the world leader in two seemingly contradictory energy policies: green energy, by securing the global supply and demand lines for lithium-ion batteries, solar panels and wind farm components; and brown energy, by building the equivalent of two coal-powered power stations a week. However, the Chinese famously take much a longer-term view of events than we do. They would agree that, due to recent advances in paleoclimate science, we know that over the last 400 million years the earth’s climate has been changing constantly and often dramatically. Relatively speaking, we are now in one of its cooler periods—the late Cenozoic ice age—meaning that we are at the tail-end of a 50-million-year cooling period.

On our own continent, even very recently we can see climate change in action. In Roman times, it was far warmer than it is now, followed by a brutal cold period in the Dark Ages. Then came the medieval warm period, when vines were growing even in Scotland. That was followed most recently by an especially cold period called the “little ice age”, the coldest period in the last 10,000 years. The statement we heard today that 2023 was the hottest year on record is quite simply not true—far from it.

This long-term view of the earth’s climate changes puts the whole net-zero delusion into a much greater perspective. It suggests that we are taxing and bankrupting ourselves domestically for absolutely minimal global benefit, if any. This whole worldview of climate change should be the subject of another debate, and a very fruitful one it would be too."

 Climate Agenda - Hansard - UK Parliament

WIND FARMS AND DEAD WHALES AND DOLPHINS

For some reason more than a thousand whales, dolphins and porpoises died around the UK’s coastline every year for the last eight years. This is roughly twice as many as in the 25 years before that. What could it be? 

 The big environmental pressure groups like Greenpeace – which in its early years, remember, ran a Save the Whales campaign – don’t believe in waiting for evidence. They revere the ‘precautionary principle’, the whole point of which is that industries should be assumed to be guilty until proved innocent. Lack of definitive evidence must never be used to excuse a potentially devastating environmental vandal.

Fifty years ago environmentalists would have raised hell about a thousand dead whales and dolphins. Today they are a part of the cover up.

 The mystery of a thousand dead whales and dolphins « JoNova

RISE IN METHANE DUE TO MICROBES NOT FOSSIL FUELS

Researchers have found that between 2020 and 2022, the drastic increase in atmospheric methane was driven almost entirely by microbial sources. Since 2007, scientists have observed microbes playing a significant role in methane emissions, but their contribution has surged to over 90% starting in 2020. Methane from fossil fuels has a higher carbon-13 ratio, but even though fossil fuel use was rising, the carbon-13 levels of atmospheric methane was dropping.  So it could not be due to fossil fuels after all! 

 Mysterious record methane surge since 2020 was not fossil fuels but “90% due to microbes” « JoNova

THE CASE AGAINST NET ZERO

The linked essay with comprehensive back up articles makes a powerful case for abandoning net zero. It should be compulsory reading for our politicians.

 The Case Against Net Zero – A Seventh Update – Climate Scepticism

BACK TO THE FUTURE? "THE COMING ICE AGE"

The video linked below has an old documentary in it from 1977 called "The Coming Ice Age". It is very interesting to listen to the commentary and hear how the data is used to persuade the viewer to believe the narrative of cooling having been occurring for the previous 30 years. In another decade it became clear that cooling was no longer happening and so there was a switch to a warming scare and so the old data no longer fitted with this. The video looks at how this was done in a completely shameless way.   

To the heart of Climate Deception

NO SURGE IN GLOBAL TEMPERATURES SAYS NEW REPORT

This new report says there have been a number of plausible explanations given for the recent temperature spike, with attention focused on the massive Hunga Tonga submarine volcano adding 13% extra water vapour to the stratosphere, a strong El Niño and even the reduction in atmospheric particulates caused by recent changes in shipping vessel fuel. Several “changepoints” were used by the mathematicians and it was found that “a warming surge could not be reliably detected any time after 1970”.

 Scientists Find No Change in Global Warming Rate Since 1970 Despite “Hottest Year Ever” in 2023 – Watts Up With That?

EX MP POINTS OUT THE UTTER FAILURE OF UK NET ZERO POLICY

Along with other realists I have been saying for years that a unilateral net zero policy would simply lead to our own industries becoming uncompetitive causing to us to import the products we used to make, while the CO2 emissions simply carried on being made abroad. Our jobs are being exported.

 Former Conservative MP, Miriam Cates has now openly criticised the net zero policy. This is welcome news, but a pity she was not more vocal when they were in power. The problem then was that her party was pursuing the same policies. It is much easier to criticise the other party, easier still when you are not even an MP.  As the inconsistency between the aims and the actual results become more apparent we will soon get an open debate which may just burst the net zero bubble and reveal the hopelessness of the climate alarmists dreams.

Miriam Cates slams Net Zero targets as map shows Britain’s carbon emissions farce | NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT (wordpress.com)

GERMANY - A LESSON IN ECONOMIC DECLINE WITH CLIMATE POLICIES

You can read it all in the article below. The Germans are on the same path as we are in the UK, only a little further ahead. So why can't the UK government learn some lessons from this? 

Green New Deal Accelerates Germany’s Economic Decline…Growth Forecast Revised Downward (notrickszone.com)

THE DRAWBACKS OF USING HYDROGEN AS A REPLACEMENT FOR FOSSIL FUELS

Another interesting video from Paul Burgess explains the limitations of hydrogen.

 The Hydrogen Delusion (youtube.com)

ARE WE FINALLY GETTING A POLITICAL LEADER WHO IS PREPARED TO CHALLENGE THE CLIMATE EXTREMISTS

It is interesting that no leader of any major UK party (other than Reform) has challenged the orthodox position on climate change, that we must reach net zero by 2050 no matter what the cost, until now. If you read the link, below, you will see that Robert Jenrick is not exactly abandoning net zero, but he is clear that we must not keep to a timetable which ruins the economy. That there is a real possibility of ruining the economy is an admission that has not been made before, though I am sure it has been in the minds of our other leaders. A shift in the timetable would be an important start towards abandoning it. It will, no doubt cause an outcry from those wedded to this ideology, and a huge sigh of relief from the rest of us! 

A new dawn for Net Zero policy? (netzerowatch.com)

ROAD PRICING PER MILE DRIVEN IS INEVITABLE IN THE UK

Get ready to pay for every mile you drive on Britain's roads. That is certain to come according to senior government advisors. Big brother will be watching us all and recording every mile we drive. 

Pay-Per-Mile Road Pricing is "Inevitable", Drivers Warned – The Daily Sceptic

CARBON CAPTURE - THE DRAWBACKS

"CCS divides a green movement riven with disagreements as its climate crisis grift starts to fall apart in the face of reality. Capturing CO₂ and burying it in the ground has been described by one influential green think tank as a “colossal waste of money”

 Earthquakes, Leakage, Expense, Death by Asphyxiation – Is There No Beginning to the Advantages of Carbon Capture? – The Daily Sceptic

HOW DOES THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT WORK?

 Many people have difficulty in understanding the Greenhouse Effect, which is why the idea that CO2 controls the Earth's temperature is so hard to refute. Sabine Hossenfelder has produced a large number of videos on physics which have helped people to understand a range of concepts. However Sabine admits herself that she finds understanding the Greenhouse Effect difficult which she has explained in a video. The article linked below explains the problems and has links to her video within it. In fact she still has a little confusion in her understanding and the scientists at Clintel explain the finer points.

Some comments on the Sabine Hossenfelder video - Clintel

Once the Greenhouse Effect is fully understood it becomes clear that CO2 is not the major source of our planet's heating. While it is vital that there is CO2 in our atmosphere at the sort of concentrations that exist at present, adding a little more (even doubling it!) will make very little difference to the temperature of the atmosphere. That is a fact that politicians need to understand.

GLOBAL TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTS HAVE SYSTEMATIC ERROR

According to a new study the method used to measure the temperature of the air is subject to a systematic error which leads to them being higher than they should by 42%. I bet this never makes the main news!

 New Study: Systematic Error In 1880-2020 Global Temperature Measurements Inflates Warming By 42% (notrickszone.com)

USA GOVERNOR SHOWS DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE ON HURRICANES

Ron De Santis, the Governor of Florida has given a reporter a lesson on the history of hurricanes that have landed in Florida. We could do with some UK politicians who would do the same to our reporters when they ask spurious questions about climate change. The clip starts about 4 minute in to the video: 

 “Ouch!” DeSantis Savages Reporter Who Questions If Hurricanes Are Tied To Global Warming | NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT (wordpress.com)

IF ONLY THE IPCC WOULD LINK EXTREME WEATHER TO CARBON EMISSIONS

If they did it would give credence to the claims of the media who continue to make these links based on extremely dodgy press releases.

It is probably only a matter of time before they change their minds, but at this moment in time they still do not claim that there is any clear evidence that increased CO2 has caused an increase in the quantity or severity of storms, droughts, or floods.

 Climate Activists Frustrated by IPCC's Refusal to Link Extreme Weather With Carbon Emissions – The Daily Sceptic

Paul Burgess has made some videos on this:

The Met Office Exposed! What is the Agenda? (youtube.com) 

Debunking Weather Event Alarmism (youtube.com) 

ARE BANKING CARTELS DESTROYING AUSSIE COAL POWER STATIONS

 Extraordinary news from Australia that bankers are threatening to close down a perfectly viable coal power station while the government stands by and does nothing. Read it here;

Nanny-state rule and banking-cartel may crash out coal plant and 4% of our electricity after Christmas « JoNova (joannenova.com.au)

SOLAR FARMS ARE TAKING US BACK TO THE DARK AGES, SAYS MATT RIDLEY

"It is debatable whether we need home-grown electricity more desperately than home-grown food these days: reliance on imports of both are increasing sharply. But you cannot currently make bread or lambs any other way than by using land; the same is not true of electricity." Read the full article here:

 Solar farms are taking us back to the dark ages - Matt Ridley

ICE CORE RECORDS SHOW GREENLAND WAS WARMER THAN TODAY MANY TIMES

Reconstructions of past temperatures are a vital piece of data to help us to understand whether today's climate is unusual or even unprecedented as some alarmists try to make out. The graph in the link below shows a reconstruction from an ice core from Greenland, taken as part of the Greenland Ice Sheet Project (GISP) which covers the past 10000 years. This ice core temperature reconstruction is viewed as a gold standard when it comes to proxy data-based reconstructions, unlike other proxy data reconstructions based on dubious  tree ring analyses.  

Not About CO2…Greenland Still Much Colder Today Than Much Of The Past 10,000 Years (notrickszone.com)

HOW CLIMATE PROPAGANDA HAS SUBTLY ALTERED THE DATA TO FIT WITH THE CURRENT HYPOTHESIS

The video link below is to one which shows an old TV science programme from the 1970's when scientists were predicting the coming of a new ice age. There is no doubt that this was a genuine concern and interestingly the film shows how the data pointed to this. Now, of course, the narrative is one of dangerous warming and so the data from the 1970's simply does not fit, and so what has happened is that the current scientists who are pushing this have actually altered the old data. 

It can be seen quite clearly, but only by looking at historical films and manuscripts, which, fortunately, have been preserved. This revised temperature data has resulted in temperatures now showing quite cool times in the 1930's, when historical accounts show that it was exceptionally hot. George Orwell could not have predicted it better!

 (1) To the heart of Climate Deception - YouTube

Another excellent video on this theme is linked below:

1986 - The Movie A Tribute to Insulate Britain Heroes and the basis of their protests. (youtube.com) 

UK WEATHER STATIONS NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE?

 I am shocked by the findings of Ray Sanders on the subject of UK weather stations ability to provide accurate data on the temperature of the location in which they are situated. Here is a recent post by Ray:

Cavendish DCNN 3122-Anatomy of an ongoing challenge – Crop Circling? | Tallbloke's Talkshop (wordpress.com)

There is a lot of interesting information in his article, but one thing particularly caught my attention, which was the claim that the Met Office thermometers were capable of recording the temperature to no less than five decimal places! Here is a short quote about a table supplied by the Met Office:

"This shows that over a period from 12:33 at 25.48038°C the temperature rose to 26.41959°C i.e. 0.93921°C in just 4 minutes to then reduce by almost as much in the following 4 minutes." 

What is extraordinary is that the site itself has been assessed by the Met Office as class 4, which is defined as being accurate to within +/- 2 degrees C. It is a schoolboy mistake to give a measurement which claims to be more accurate than the margins of error. The correct way to report the reading would be to include the margins of error. 26+/-2 

TIDAL ENERGY IS NOT THE ANSWER TO OUR ELECTRICITY NEEDS

Many people have suggested to me that we ought to harness the power of the tides to get a reliable source of electricity, but there are many problems to doing so, including the corrosive environment of salt water. But there is a more fundamental problem, which is that it is very expensive and does not produce enough nor is it constant. See the details in this new video from Paul Burgess:

The Delusions of Tidal Energy (youtube.com)

NEW GOVERNMENT BLACK HOLE ANNOUNCED

Considering the new Labour Government claimed there was a £20 Billion black hole left by the previous government, it is a strange coincidence that they have managed to find £22 billion to spend on schemes to capture and store CO2. These are highly controversial schemes, as we know down here on the South coast in the New Forest, where a similar scheme proposed by Exxon has suddenly been dropped after attracting some opposition from local people, including the local Green party. What we are starting to see, is that there is now a debate on the effectiveness of the policies to reach net zero, even if there is still very little debate on whether there is a need to reach it in the first place. 

 Govt To Waste £22bn On Unproven Carbon Capture | NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT (wordpress.com)

SO MUCH FOR WIND PRODUCING CHEAP ELECTRICITY

Kincardine produced 144 GWh last year, so the total cost equates to £562/MWh. I wonder what point is there for producing electricity at such inflated prices. Far better to continue using methane and wait and prepare for the extreme weather, which has always happened anyway.

 Floating Wind Farm Lost £30m Last Year | NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT (wordpress.com)

ARE HURRICANES MORE NUMEROUS OR STRONGER?

Both these trends are not happening according to the official data.

 Are Hurricanes Getting Stronger? | NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT (wordpress.com)

WILL FRACKING BE THE KEY ELECTION ISSUE IN THE USA?

It is interesting to read the way Kamala Harris has reversed her policy on fracking from wanting to ban it to claiming to support it. How can such a change be credible?

 Fracking and the Election: It’s Not About Pennsylvania – Watts Up With That?