75 Comments

  1. Sakara Gold
    August 9, 2021

    Well done for receiving – and accepting – an invitation from the beeb to put your points across.

    Incidentally, the government does not intend forcing the public the rip their gas boilers out and replace them with heat pumps. However, new build domestic housing regulations do require electric central heating boilers to be installed. It is good to hear that Siemens are investing in new turbine blade capacity on Humberside and a new facility there to build the wind turbine towers. Not, I may add, the electric generators themselves. They will continue to be made in Germany.

    1. glen cullen
      August 9, 2021

      The investment cost of the Humberside new facility is Ā£200m and it just so happens that Ā£200m is available by this governments taxpayers in the way of subsidy

      1. Sakara Gold
        August 9, 2021

        Ok lets scrap it then and send the 450 jobs it would generate to Spain

        1. Peter2
          August 9, 2021

          Expensive per job even if the asset costs 150 million out if the total.

        2. Roy Grainger
          August 10, 2021

          Ā£200m for 450 jobs seems like a bad deal.

        3. Kenneth
          August 10, 2021

          How many more jobs will be sacrificed for those 450 jobs?

          Logic and maths dictate that this false economy will cost a lot more than 450 jobs

    2. No Longer Anonymous
      August 9, 2021

      Sakara Gold

      If the War on Motorists is anything to go by there will be punitive taxes and restrictions on gas and existing boilers long before transition.

    3. steve
      August 9, 2021

      Sakara

      “Incidentally, the government does not intend forcing the public the rip their gas boilers out”

      What they will do is make gas extremely expensive, as is the plan for petrol. That’s Johnson’s definition of ‘persuading the public’

      Shyster aint he.

    4. dixie
      August 10, 2021

      Frankly I wouldn’t expect Siemens to export their valuable generator skills and production here so blade production is the sop so politicians can claim job creation despite the relatively low value.
      Our establishment would never require high value components sourced here as they simply do not value STEM in any way, shape or form. Far too messy and complicated for the poor dears. So much easier to suck up to the money boys and lord it over the rest of us. It doesn’t matter what political stripe they are or simply profess, they are predominantly journalists, lawyers or politicos and the outcome is always the same.
      If the UK government were truly pro-electric they would, for example, be encouraging the establishment of electric motor, generator and associated systems development, engineering and production in the UK. A sustainable core capability to support indigenous development of robotics, energy generation and transport driving our own industries and exports.
      Instead, they think it so much better to blow Ā£100b plus on a glorified train set relying extensively on imported components and systems, that no-one needs than do something of actual benefit. For example, compare that 100b with the proposed Ā£200M+ investment in SMR, nuclear power that everyone will need if the country goes pure electric.

  2. Peter
    August 9, 2021

    It makes little difference what the U.K. does when other countries continue with current practice with no intent to change.

    On cars, Toyota, the worldā€™s largest car manufacturer, has repeatedly said that the infrastructure for electric vehicles simply is not there. Motorists will not be prepared to spend long times recharging in the course of their journeys either.

    It is understandable that a Conservative MP will welcome ā€˜initiativesā€™ but we donā€™t know the detail and many will be sceptical of what these measures will achieve.

    It is the nature of politics that many decisions donā€™t have an effect until the decision maker has retired. I think Johnson believes he will be elsewhere when it all hits the fan.

    1. steve
      August 9, 2021

      Peter

      “I think Johnson believes he will be elsewhere when it all hits the fan.”

      He’ll suddenly have to self isolate.

  3. X-Tory
    August 9, 2021

    A good interview – well done. You were only given a couple of minutes, but you managed to get some very important points across.

  4. MiC
    August 9, 2021

    I think that you expressed eminent good sense very well, John.

  5. Fedupsoutherner
    August 9, 2021

    Good interview John but disappointed you didn’t point out that renewables won’t be able to supply all our energy needs if Johnson insists we go down the electric route.
    We need to have our own supplies and not rely on Europe for back up. Small nuclear is the way forward.

    1. lifelogic
      August 9, 2021

      Natural gas & fracking is the way forwards short term and better nuclear & then fusion in the medium term.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        August 9, 2021

        Hydrogen on the way to becoming viable.

        1. MiC
          August 9, 2021

          Yes – there’s no sign of the 100,000,000+K plasma of fusion being harnessed usefully either, even if it can produce more energy than that required to sustain it either.

          Most of it is radiated in the form of X and gamma rays.

        2. Lifelogic
          August 10, 2021

          VIABLE perhaps but uneconomic and largely pointless other than for a few special situations.

          1. MiC
            August 10, 2021

            Far from uneconomic, and absolutely perfect for mass demand things like generating electricity.

        3. Roy Grainger
          August 10, 2021

          Sure, but we donā€™t have enough electricity to make hydrogen.

          1. MiC
            August 10, 2021

            “We” have loads of methane to convert by pyrolysis into hydrogen though.

            And can use that to generate electricity instead of that methane.

    2. Margaret Brandreth-
      August 9, 2021

      Obvious points that many seem to ignore .

  6. Pdb
    August 9, 2021

    Well I think John there Mr Redwood, Sir; did anyone sensible left in country proud there. As usual. If there is anyone else sensible in Government, he he. Anyway, I am putting my bets on global cooling; be freezing, ice age job. Don’t worry about heat, Earth will sort whatever it is out, by freezing.

    So like, felt or stuff… You know for Parka type jackets, Captain hindsight; big stash of them somewhere is there like Rona ppe, wasn’t. But was. But wasn’t because the loops only went over the ears.

    Bet we don’t have this issue with parkas, buy them in I reckon.

  7. lifelogic
    August 9, 2021

    Well you did very well even to get onto the BBC so biased, wrong headed and one sided are they on this issue. Rather silly questions, designed to distract from the crux of the issue I assume. Could they not get hold of the deluded extinction rebellion dope, Chris Packham, the idiotic Prophet Greta Thunberg, deluded historian Lord Debden or Allegra Stratton?

    To be fair to Allegra she was perfectly correct and rational to keep her old Golf. This as doing so clearly saves net CO2 and about Ā£60k – compared to causing a new electric car and battery to be built (and then charging it for several years). A shame that (not being a scientist – Archeology and Anthropology Cantab) she perhaps did not realise this point to use in her defence.

    Given that this is clearly a fact why is this idiotic green crap government encouranging the scrapping of small older cars to be replaced by electric ones? If CO2 is really their concern why would they do this?

    Why too can you still drive and buy 6+ litre cars, fly private jets, helecopters or first class, fly planes half empty, burn wood at Drax, have bonfire night and fire work shows, fly thousands to Tokyo just for some games, race formula 1 cars ā€¦ they clearly care not one jot about CO2 in reality. There is another agenda driving it all.

    Net zero is a political disaster about 100 times worse than the poll tax, it is economic insanity and it will do nothing even for World CO2 let alone climate. For the cost of the net zero insanity you could construct about 15 million new small three bed detached houses – about half of one per UK household.

    1. glen cullen
      August 9, 2021

      Your last para is Spot On

    2. Micky Taking
      August 9, 2021

      but all of the above doesn’t match what China is doing every year.

    3. Fedupsoutherner
      August 9, 2021

      Great last paragraph LL. Rest of your post is spot on too.

    4. ChrisS
      August 9, 2021

      As the owner of an (almost ) 6 litre Italian sports car, I for one am glad that our government has understood that it cannot ban such cars or private jets, helicopters, motor yachts or first class air tickets, for that matter.

      Despite my addiction to fast cars, my carbon footprint is small. I am retired and spent the last 25 year of my career working from home. Very efficient and no time wasted commuting.

      Yet sooner or later I, and millions of others are going to come under pressure, which I will certainly resist, to buy an electric car and do away with our modern gas boiler.

      Like most of my compatriots, I will only consider green alternatives when they are at least comparable on price and convenience to our current equipment and vehicles. Being the same age as our host, I do not believe that will happen within the active portion of the remaining lifetime I hope we will both enjoy .

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        August 9, 2021

        Chris

        Boilers and ICE cars will be punitively taxed and restricted making them less economic than the alternatives.

        1. Roy Grainger
          August 10, 2021

          But what is amusing is that electric cars will also have to be heavily taxed to replace the Ā£20bn in fuel tax the government collects every year.

  8. Nigel
    August 9, 2021

    Sir John Green? I love it!

  9. Bryan Harris
    August 9, 2021

    Excellent in places – a little Weak on enforcement

    8.5 out of 10 (:

  10. Everhopeful
    August 9, 2021

    JR managed to make all the points he wanted to which is very unusual for the BBC.
    He came out on top as he usually does in interviews.
    Interviewer managed to not greet him properly and to get his name wrong at the endā€¦Good Grief!!
    (Why was the word ā€œGreenā€ on her mind? And why so combative?)
    Determined as ever to twist what was said.
    I really hope the greencrap agenda comes a huge cropper!

    I wonā€™t put what my mother would have said about the interviewer.

    1. steve
      August 9, 2021

      Everhopeful

      “I really hope the greencrap agenda comes a huge cropper! ”

      It will.

      There has to be a general election before net zero, Johnson will go down and take the party and all his master’s green crap with him, even if we have to vote Labur to get them out. They’re pretty much the same thing anyway……it’s going to be about revenge for our betrayal by this current bunch of deceitful shysters.

      1. Mike Wilson
        August 10, 2021

        The opposite is true. Most people buy into ā€˜net zeroā€™ and accept that ā€˜things are going to changeā€™. Not necessarily the climate, but how we heat our homes and transport ourselves.

        If you think ā€˜net zeroā€™ is a vote loser, you are out of touch. Most people agree with it.

        1. Dunedin
          August 10, 2021

          @ Mike Wilson – “Most people buy into ā€˜net zeroā€™ “.
          I an not at all clear how the “net” bit of “net zero” is going to work. “Net” suggests that there will be pluses offset by minuses – who will benefit from the pluses/ pay for the minuses? Perhaps the PM could shed some light on the detail behind the slogan.

  11. Iain Gill
    August 9, 2021

    bbc is just broadcasting to the guardian reading, indoctrinated lefties, now. hardly worth bothering with.

  12. paul
    August 9, 2021

    Half hour slot on GB news maybe for you John.

    1. jerry
      August 9, 2021

      @paul; Our host might as well shout into a vacuum as waste time with GBNews, the idea surely is to preach to the unconverted?

  13. lifelogic
    August 9, 2021

    You side-stepped her silly question about one particular project rather well.

    The main point is we need R&D until we have products that make sense in economic, practical and consumer convenience terms. Rolling out duff and expensive technology before it works using subsidies and legal bans it idiotic. It just mean lots of expensive duff and unwanted technology littered all over the place. Most of the technology being pushed does not even save any or any significant CO2 anyway after manufacture and instalation is fully considered. World co-operation is also needed & just will not happen anyway. Plus CO2 is not actually a significant problem. This has been hugely exaggerated. So three reasons the policy is mad and anyone will suffice to make this case.

  14. glen cullen
    August 9, 2021

    Good words SirJ, I’d be interested at how many other Tory backbenchers support your views

    I’d suggest the majority of Tory voters support your views

  15. Mark
    August 9, 2021

    Greenwood? An interesting Freudian slip there.

    The reality is that neither the CCC (now proven in court), nor BEIS, nor National Grid, nor any of their consultants have begun to estimate the costs of this folly. Graham Stringer was entirely right to ask for an impact assessment when the net zero SI was laid before Parliament. It is still missing.

    Would Parliament really vote to impoverish us all and make us cold and hungry if it actually understood the consequences of these proposals?

    1. steve
      August 9, 2021

      Mark

      “Would Parliament really vote to impoverish us all and make us cold and hungry if it actually understood the consequences of these proposals? ”

      Yes, they have a misguided faith in their security.

  16. lifelogic
    August 9, 2021

    Heartcare NHS operation waiting list will take five years to clear I read. But also I see the NHS are buying electric ambulances at over Ā£100k to get down to net zero.

    Not that these vans would actually save any net CO2 after manufacture. Still if you do not die within the five years you might get to ride in one eventually. Probably without heating on though, as that would cut the range down too much hope they makes it without needing a 5 hour recharge in route.

    Have the NHS got their priorities right?

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      August 9, 2021

      Do the NHS ever get their priorities right?

    2. dixie
      August 10, 2021

      In 2018 HMG announce funding of Ā£36.3m for 256 ambulances. That’s Ā£142k per vehicle so the Ā£100k you give may actually represent a saving, it is so hard to tell from the lack of detail in you post.

  17. Alan Jutson
    August 9, 2021

    Points well made JR given the limited time you were given.

    I do not think they will ask you back any time soon, far too sensible for the BBC, but I live in hope !

  18. Peter2
    August 9, 2021

    On the BBC at last Sir John !
    Very impressive the way you calmly sidestepped the opening question and got your sound points across.
    I felt the interviewer was unusually good in allowing you to speak without the current fashion of constant interruptions

    1. MiC
      August 9, 2021

      Well, since the Chairman of the BBC Richard Sharp donated over Ā£400,000 to John’s party, and its DG Tim Davie was deputy chairman of the Hammersmith and Fulham Conservatives in the 1990s, perhaps that is not altogether surprising?

      1. Peter2
        August 10, 2021

        It is surprising that he isn’t on more often if your slur was correct.

        1. MiC
          August 10, 2021

          It’s simple, documented fact, Peter.

          Otherwise they could sue me, couldn’t they?

          1. Peter2
            August 10, 2021

            Then why isn’t Sir John on more often?
            Your logic fails MiC
            If there was Conservative bias then the majority of presenters and especially guests would also be Conservatives.
            But they are not.
            Question Time is a classic
            A majority of left leaning remainers on the panel over a long period.

          2. MiC
            August 10, 2021

            Wrong, and big time as ever, Peter.

            Nigel Farage featured more prominently than any other politician on QT during the run-up to the referendum.

            But maybe the BBC also caters – to a degree – for the 54 million UK people who did not vote Conservative and for the 50 million who did not vote Leave?

          3. Peter2
            August 10, 2021

            Wrong again MiC0
            Check the numbers of remain versus leave guests since 2015 and get back to us.

  19. rose
    August 9, 2021

    The radio 4 goose is still calling you Sir John Greenwood! But you managed to keep her quiet for most of the interview and we were allowed to take your point.

    The most irritating thing about the UN panel this morning was that they never mentioned China, and when asked about China’s part in all this, they avoided the question. The other noticeable thing was that they still pretend the history of the climate begins in the 19th century. Sadly, millions of people will be taken in by this dishonesty – which amounts to assertion without demonstration.

  20. No Longer Anonymous
    August 9, 2021

    25 years ago my friend and I went on holiday to Greece and ended up helping locals to fight fires for the week.

    The BBC are now a campaigning organisation.

    They are not meant to be a campaigning organisation. If they want to be then BBC presenters and executives must be prepared to lead by example on personal austerity.

    After all, if the UK thinks it can lead China by example then BBC presenters and executives must take severe and visible cuts in their standards of living to lead our people by example.

    Driving a luxury Tesla does not cut it. Ditching a perfectly servicible ICE car and smugly driving around in a brand new car gouged out of the earth by enslaved black children is hypocritical, barbaric and most definitely NOT green.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      August 9, 2021

      I think the young need a dose of 1970s austerity to fully understand what is being asked of them.

      Why did we sacrifice our economy to save the old from CV-19 only to kill them by hypothermia ?

    2. dixie
      August 10, 2021

      Yes Cobalt is used in some EV battery chemistries but acedemia and industry is working to replace it while attempting to establish a more sustainable and responsible extraction process. However, you should be aware that refinement of crude oil for petrol, diesel etc also relies on Cobalt as part of the desulphurisation process.
      So I suggest “not smugly driving around” in your ICE vehicle as every single drop of the fuel you burn up each trip has also relied on those same minerals “gouged out of the earth by enslaved black children”.
      Also, when you press the accelerator it is probably best not to think about the death and mayhem associated with oil in the middle east and elsewhere.

  21. steve
    August 9, 2021

    JR

    Thank you for speaking up for us Sir Redwood.

    If I may : you are not entirely correct in your view that we were not forced to embrace digital technology. I say this as a parent – a certain very big software house muscled it’s way into the schools, the consequence being that homework could not be done without a PC, internet access, and ‘Office Suite’. So parents were forced to shell out. Moreover, said office suite was suddenly obsolete and required futher expense…..the usual trick of that infamous company.

    Secondly – digital consumer items were foisted upon us by industry, via deliberate obsolesence in services, targetted advertising and so on.

    Thr digital revolution was never about enhancing quality of life, it was to get money from people by making them fork – out or be left out…..and still is.

    Ref heat pumps: decent of you to highlight our concerns, but as is proven by so many aspects of life these days, if you give industry a hand in matters we will end up in a situation where industry dictates what we will have, rather than us deciding what industry should be offering us. Remember that no industry likes standardisation unless it’s theirs.

    Better to be telling industry ‘this is what you will make, and at this or that price ‘ Leave industry to it and you can guarantee lobbying and laws designed to shaft consumers. For example cars have to be fitted with catalytic converters for no other reason than a certain company has a monopoly on platinum.

    In short – No Sir Redwood we are not having heat pumps, or EV’s….period. Sorry the answer is no and all green & net zero arguments should be taken to China and the big Incs that financed it with their uncontrolled greed for maximum profits from cheap labour and shoddy useless goods, without a thought for the consequences of their actions.

    On the bright side, Johnson will be kicked out anyway at the next election, and with him his stupid green fantasies and the entire conservative party. I shall not be voting for someone who is of European ancestry, is a republican sympathiser, and doesn’t know one end of a spanner from the other.

    Again, thanks for your support on these and other matters Sir Redwood, but I think you will find we’ve been pushed too far by this government. Personally I think you should deservedly put your feet up, ….it’s over for the conservatives.

  22. DOM
    August 9, 2021

    This is not about electric heaters, changes in climate, electric vehicles and all the rest of the green bullshit. This is about the State asserting total control over how we live our lives. I don’t expect one single dependent politician to draw attention to this very fact

    We are seeing nothing less than Marxist western governments and their parasitic vested interests aiming their guns at the civil, free world to undermine our freedoms, destroy who we are and splinter our culture. Talking about heaters etc is simply missing the point.

    All and issues are now being politicised to justify criminal intervention. It stinks, it reeks and it is a cancer

    1. steve
      August 9, 2021

      DOM

      Yes I held that view for a while, but couldn’t fugure out why they would do it.

      I have to admit I did wonder if there’s something they’re not telling us, like for instance oil is about to run out much sooner than previously thought. Incidentally the oil companies don’t seem to be kicking back do they ? in fact some even promoting a non-oil world…..suspicious in itself.

      If the above were true one can imagine a snide arrogant establishment deciding not to tell us and come up with a BS scam rather than admit they pissed the oil down the chinese drain, no doubt with a plan B excuse along the lines of “we couln’t tell people because of the risk of mass civil unrest when it does finally run out” In other words we might be going for their throats.

      My point would be how dare they not tell us, who do they think they are ?

      It all seemed to fit except when you consider one fact – actually the world is awash with oil. So my money is on your explanation, but quite how they’ve tamed the oil giants I haven’t yet figured out.

      It’s all definitely some kind of scam that’s for sure.

      + 1 to you Sir.

      1. dixie
        August 10, 2021

        @Steve – If you are an oil company consider how much easier it would be to extract and distribute hydrogen than extract and process oil. They would use the same distribution network and still have the consumer under the same control as you’d have to go to a “gas” station, but their source material is easily accessible for free. No more exploring and drilling just convert your sea rig engineering to offshore wind or tidal stream generators.

        The only fly in the ointment would be the consumers they lost to battery EVs being cheaper than hydrogen-fuel cell vehicles and domestic solar which makes the consumer independent of their H2 business. You may not be aware that BP now owns a major chunk of UK public EV charging business so they are trying the best to protect their monopoly.

        In such circumstances a BEV is more a guarantee of independence than ICE or H2 …

        NB: as far as I am aware oil companies have described themselves as “energy” companies for quite some time and have been hedging their bets for decades – Shell were publishing articles on fuel cells in the 70’s.

    2. No Longer Anonymous
      August 9, 2021

      A continual rotation on the BBC. BLM, climate, Covid – either terror or shame or both.

      What is this doing to young minds ?

    3. Oldtimer
      August 10, 2021

      Politics by the jackboot in all but name will and is being introduced via regulation, legislation and taxation. The police will then be used to arrest and charge those breaking the law. We saw evidence of this during the lockdown. Fear is the persuasive tool of choice to ensure acceptance and compliance.

    4. MiC
      August 10, 2021

      The entities which have almost total control over people’s lives are their private sector employers, landlords, and lenders.

      Many employers suppress utterly free speech by their employees – both in and out of work – don’t they? If they tweet something which would make ANY of their customers critical of their choice of employee then it’s the push, isn’t it?

      Many have to work any hours, at any place, at any notice too – having “voluntarily” opted out of the WTD’s protections.

      Labour would pass laws to address these very one-sided relationships, but no one pretends that they could ever be truly fair.

      And yet you – almost comically – rage against the only entity which can afford these modest protections.

      1. Peter2
        August 10, 2021

        This post of MiC should get a prize for the year’s most ridiculous left wing post.
        Try living in Cuba Venezuela China North Korea and see how your human rights are considered Marty.

        1. MiC
          August 11, 2021

          The False Dichotomy Straw Man rides again!

          1. Peter2
            August 11, 2021

            Totally valid against your hatred of this country and its elected government.
            The thought of a referendum you lost and the worst general election result for your beloved socialist Labour party since 1935 is making you more angry as each post of yours is written.

  23. Micky Taking
    August 9, 2021

    Interesting that a major news item on the BBC website about an ex-PM ā€¦ā€¦If this news item was attributed to an ex-PM and a current PM of the Labour Party would you have removed it?

    Reply Yes I would

    1. Micky Taking
      August 10, 2021

      The BBC published the allegation on share sales from a company with ‘unusual’ activities within Government, why would you suppress it? People in severe hardship in UK face a reduction in Universal Credit of Ā£20 a week, they are likely to think there is something intolerable going on. You don’t.

      Reply I was not able to check it. This site is not designed to pursue allegations against individuals or companies. Better resourced and funded media can do that for us.

      1. Micky Taking
        August 10, 2021

        But you chose to not provide the news item from BBC, still supposed to be THE broadcaster for Great Britain. The news provided to you and hence your readers, some who won’t go near the BBC, was there for you to assess any concern and was an allegation, not produced as checked fact.

  24. dixie
    August 10, 2021

    Good interview and you made excellent points.
    In this country home heating is the critical issue and I don’t think heat pumps are the answer even in new builds if economics is a key criterion.

  25. Dunedin
    August 10, 2021

    There is a project underway in Glasgow looking at how to retrofit a currently empty Victorian era tenement https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-58112938.

    The air source heat pumps could only be used on the first two floors, with gas boilers being needed on the upper floors ā€“ the article does not address how these flats would be heated in future when/if gas boilers are eventually phased out.

    The cost to install in a 1 or 2 bedroom flat is Ā£12,000. However, the article writer points out that the fitting creates a great deal of mess and disruption so the owners or tenants would probably have to move out during works. The costs of re-instating flooring/plastering/decor and costs of alternative accommodation would add considerably to the installation cost.

    The article concludes that ā€œthey may find it cheaper to provide a lot of renewable power to leaky old homes than to seal the homes and cut the amount of power requiredā€.

    I hope the COP26 attendees will be looking at the reality of what they are proposing for the rest of us.

  26. Ian Pennell
    August 11, 2021

    Dear John Redwood

    Some ideas that you can knock around with your fellow Conservative MPs. Trying to force the electorate to spend Ā£15,000 to get a green heat-pump and to rip out their gas boilers will cost Ā£Ā£ billions. Higher bills and higher taxes to fund renewable energy, expand the electric grid which will be needed to run millions of electric cars- and to build more off-shore wind-farms to provide more electricity to power the expanded electricity grid will make the Tories unelectable. Moreover, if China and India do not cut their emissions drastically (because they do not want to impoverish their populations) Britain will be spending an extra Ā£1 Trillion by 2050- for what?

    Whilst rising CO2 does have a warming effect, the influence is perhaps not as great as the IPCC insists- and the IPCC does not take into considerations natural influences on the Global Climate- like there being a quiet and slightly cooler Sun for the next thirty years (the effect of which is liable to counterract some or most of the effect of rising CO2 levels). The Earth was up to 2C warmer than today in the last interglacial to our own some 125,000 years ago and the ice-caps of Greenland and Antarctica were still there- and it was then warm enough for lions to roam southern England.

    A full examination of the effects of 1C or even 2C Global Warming on the UK must be rigorously analysed. Warmer climatic conditions (as in the Viking era) meant longer growing seasons, less extreme winter cold (cold is much more of a killer than heat) and more reliable monsoons in West Africa and India (and London was not under water). Carbon dioxide also helps crops grow better.

    If- and only if- more severe Global Warming results in more people being killed from heat than cold and sea-levels rise two metres or more (necessitating the evacuation of some coastal areas) should more drastic measures to cool the Earth (and buy more time for countries to realise they must finally act) then be undertaken: Man has the technology, for instance, to explode a couple of H-bombs over an uninhabited desert island (to put enough dust and ejecta into the Statosphere to cool the Earth for a decade or more) or put millions of tonnes of white salt into the Exosphere to reflect the Sun’s rays.

    In the mean-time, Boris Johnson needs to be persuaded to back off from crushing the UK Economy with expensive Green policies. We need Economic growth to pay down the huge National Debt incurred from the Pandemic Lockdowns. We need growth to produce the Tax revenues to fund Levelling up, sustaining the NHS and also paying for Social Care- and we wont get growth with these onerous Green measures! Nor will the Tories win the next Election with these expensive Green policies and the crushing taxes to fund them.

    Ian Pennell

  27. Ian Pennell
    August 11, 2021

    Dear John Redwood

    As a postscript to the post that I have made questioning the wisdom of imposing great costs on the voters- for questionable gain you and your Conservative colleagues might like to check out the Electroverse website and the Ice Age now websites. Google them and you should find them.

    These websites provide ample evidence from observation of snowfalls, temperature records and changes in the Greenland ice-cap to suggest that the World may not be warming as alarmingly as the IPCC suggests. There are findings to indicate that cooler, not warmer times lie immediately ahead and that the sensitivity of the Earth’s atmosphere to rising CO2 levels is not as great as the IPCC and other AGW researchers suggest. And, as I indicated in my earlier post, a little Global Warming- less severe winters in the North, longer growing seasons and more reliable monsoons in tropical lands would be beneficial (not harmful) to mankind.

    You and your colleagues should only let the Government trash the UK Economy and impoverish families with expensive Green Schemes if you are convinced that the climatic changes from (gradually) rising CO2 levels will be really harmful to the country and put folk in danger (and in a fairly short time-scale). If you look at all the evidence from multiple sources, keep an open mind and evaluate how great the Global Warming Threat really is- and only if it is going to be over 2 to 3C warmer by 2100 and the overall effects significantly worse than a natural drift back towards Little Ice Age conditions then that justifies expensive action.

    However, if there is no clear cut case to Tax and Spend Ā£100 billions- because there is no real concrete evidence that a 2 to 3C warmer Earth will mean millions more deaths overall (severe cold in the North in winter kills far more than heat today, so warming will mean less deaths)- then you and your colleagues need to mobilise to stop Boris Johnson and his ministers before they cause more economic damage in Britain and make your Party unelectable!

    Ian Pennell

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