The world currently relies on fossil fuels for 80% of its energy. All the time most UK people have a gas boiler, a diesel or petrol car, eat meat and rely on products that need plastics, steel, ceramics, cement and other components that need plenty of energy to produce we will help create CO 2. Our choice is do we use more of our own coal, oil and gas, or import more? If we import more that will entail more CO 2 being generated worldwide to fuel the transport of products. It will mean fewer well paid jobs in the UK and less tax revenue.
Importing more fossil fuel or fossil fuel using products is a kind of self harm, not a policy which saves the planet. Transition to a carbon free future will occur at the pace the public dictates by all our choices on what to eat, how to heat and how to travel. It is a strange argument that we should not allow onshore gas in the UK yet it is fine to import it from the USA to keep us warm. It is odd some think we can import coal to keep the lights on but should not produce specialist coal of our own.
December 8, 2022
Indeed, you have put the problem we have in it’s most simple of terms, which most people should be able to understand, but still the eco loons, and zero warriors will want more, and want it immediately, as they do not seem to understand that you cannot ban or cease anything, until you have reliable and cost effective alternative, so a sensible transition period has to take place, unless you want to accept chaos, shortages, rationing, or huge price hikes.
Has the Ukraine/Russian war shown them nothing with regards to gas, oil, wheat, grain, etc, etc.
More windmills are simply not the answer, as power production records already show
December 8, 2022
Great comment Alan. Nothing more needs to be said.
December 8, 2022
Snake and Hint has doubled its purchase of US fracked gas after banning it here. The UK does not have the storage capacity. So is this an underhand way of helping Germany through the recently announced inter connector to EU? It appears your govt. is doing everything as if it is an EU member JR, could you explain why? Worse they are doing it at much pace. This gives credence to a coup of Truss as there was a plan already made.
December 8, 2022
Yes. Good point. There is no doubt in my mind this government, seeing itself as part of a global elite, consider the ordinary people as fodder in their pursuit of total control of our lives, and they have the naive and foolish in their support.
December 9, 2022
Well summarised Alan.
December 8, 2022
Itâs time to stop listening to these flip flop wearing tree hugging cave dwellers , everyone knows itâs only big business that backs this net zero green crap , come 50 years into the future the public will be looking back at how gullible we were to fall for all this net zero rubbish, the planet will look after herself like she as for billions of years and not what we have done in the last 300 odd years, so letâs rebuild more coal fired power stations as well as fracking and stop ramming this net zero green agenda rubbish down our throats
December 8, 2022
Mick
Great stuff mate you bleeding well tell them. Rachel Reeves is on GBNews obviously ain’t listening. She may as well be in the green party for all the good she is going to do the country.
Must be progression. Labour to green and Tories to red. Is this madness ever going to stop?
December 8, 2022
Totally agree Mick, the greens have sawdust for brains
December 8, 2022
The CO2 science is a scam. It has evil intentions and will be used for nefarious purposes.
I doubt anyone believes that fossil fuels will last forever. We will need alternatives, but we need viable alternatives first and not the useless ‘ungreen’ environmentally damaging crap being sold to us currently. Why destroy 1st world countries for a scam? What are their evil intentions besides deliberately destroying nation states?
December 8, 2022
I suspect there will be applications for which it will continue to make sense to make fossil fuels. It may be that the starting point will not be crude oil in a refinery. But it is hard to see a real replacement for aviation fuel, for example. Battery power is never going to work for long haul or heavy lift air freight. Hydrogen is the closest alternative, but it is far too bulky: kerosene does an excellent storage job for all those hydrogen atoms.
December 8, 2022
Air craft carriers have a 50 year life span, they are diesel! The auxiliary ships that service them areâŠdiesel! Tanks will never be electric. In fact the numpties better work out quickly that without fossil fuels we have NO security! No way of escorting illegal criminals to the UK either.
How about all those missiles given away at huge taxpayer expense to corrupt Ukraine?
December 8, 2022
Eleven US and one French aircraft carriers are nuclear-powered.
December 9, 2022
Hef,
Correct. UK chose not to. I think it was Portiloâs decision. Your point is?
December 9, 2022
As an addition to your original comment, the point was that the UK could have taken another decision around 1999 as it had the capacity to have them nuclear-powered. It would have made them not dependent on fossil fuels.
December 8, 2022
What I find unbelievable is that many of your peers fail to follow your reasoning.
It feels as if they are enveloped in this green myth, sadly along with the Monarch and his heir.
I do despair at their naivety.
December 8, 2022
Barrie Emmet
+1
December 8, 2022
Using logic with a government committed to the Green religion gets you no further than using logic to argue with any other religion. In effect, the country has a faith-based energy policy.
Also, I don’t think the public will be allowed to dictate the pace of change towards renewables – the government’s behaviour modification (‘nudging unit’) people wil see to that, as they did with Covid.
December 8, 2022
You’re correct, climate change is just another religion but with a police more evil than the spanish inquisition ….the media
December 8, 2022
This winter will test their faith! Letâs see how many true believers there are after a bit of cold-and-no-energy.
December 8, 2022
The Eco Nutters in the Establishment don’t give a monkey’s about the needs of the British people and the pathetic Pretendy-Conservatives in Government who aren’t personally Eco Nutters are too cowardly to “take on” the vested interests who are pushing the Climate Change scam and Net Zero.
Matt Ridley has a fine article in the Daily Telegraph pointing out that the so-called “green energy” windmills off our coast are slaughtering thousands of sea-birds and those onshore in the UK and elsewhere are killing large numbers of eagles and other rare birds, as well as thousands of bats ….. supposedly so protected that if you try and renovate a property and find even one bat you can’t touch it, but thousands killed by windmills is OK and somehow “green.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/07/sinister-truth-bird-killing-wind-farms/
But as Ross Clark says in the same paper “Wind turbines offer huge rewards to already rich landowners – but rather less for the rest of us.” And that’s the reason Sunak caved in (yet again) over onshore windmills: a stupendously wealthy man who works for other wealthy people.
Refusing to produce our own coal, gas, oil and shale energy and instead paying other countries to produce it and then shipping it to the UK is a policy of such moronic stupidity only the Senior British Civil Service could come up with it. But then, this isn’t about CO2 …… it’s about virtue-signalling, box-ticking and CONTROL of the “little people.
As the House of Frauds’ report made clear, they want to impose Net Zero on us and will do it using PsyOps, bullying, coercion, threats and the law. The one Labour policy I support is fundamental reform/abolition of Their Fraudships.
December 8, 2022
The founder of Cuadrilla has explained in detail why fracking is not the answer to the UK’s energy problems.
He knows his subject – I’d recommend paying attention to him.
However, there is a war on, and so as a matter of urgency the UK – like other countries – must look at doing whatever it takes to see that evil does not prevail, however unfortunate the short to medium-term environmental impacts of that might be.
December 8, 2022
‘like other countries â must look at doing whatever it takes to see that evil does not prevail, ‘
Yes – like Germany re-opening coalmines, burning it, relying on Russian energy….
December 8, 2022
Oh dear NLH – Cornelius left Cuadrilla 10 years ago and you didn’t mention that his main reason for thinking fracking wouldn’t work here was because of political interference. He did state that UK geology was “challenging” but that it could work in some locations (so why not allow fracking in those areas?)
No, these are not technical reasons giving, they are mainly political ones. Whether fracking in the UK makes economic sense or not, is a different question. I don’t know the answer but I think companies should be allowed to find out. That’s what happens in every other sphere of commerce – and some companies prosper and some fail – but why not let them try?
December 8, 2022
Ian – Remember the Covid crisis when NLH said we should go for zero Covid at all costs and hang the risks associated with lockdowns ?
Well. Apparently it’s OK for the same old people to die of hypothermia against the ‘risks’ of fracking.
December 8, 2022
That’s quite a partial reading of his words. He actually welcomed the actions of the (then) Government to un-ban fracking, but said he didn’t think it was going to transform the country’s entire energy situation. It doesn’t really need to transform it though – any contribution would be welcome. Also worth mentioning that he no longer works for Cuadrilla and now represents other energy interests.
December 8, 2022
Good point
December 8, 2022
Yet Mr Chris Cornelius in his new company Nebula Resources discussed his plans to frack in the Irish Sea! So he now runs a competing organisation that still wants to frack. So it benefits him personally to run down UK fracking.
December 8, 2022
It seems the government does think that fracking is an important part of the solution – so long as it happens in the USA.
December 8, 2022
The Government assured me there is no war on. We are not at war.
December 8, 2022
NHL
Apart from this person you keep quoting, many other companies are keen to invest many millions into exploring gas in this country.
Some have said there is enough gas to supply us for decades.
December 8, 2022
Even if CO2 were harmful, the U.K. I believe, produces a mere nano droplet ( or puff) compared to just ChinaâŠlet along India etc. China emitted more in the last decade than we have since around 1730.
So why have the idiots ever listened to all the nonsense?
Sod the seat at the rotten stupid table!
December 8, 2022
If it were true China would be shunned and sanctioned. It is not. This is a ânudgeâ operation to transfer wealth, jobs and industry from west to east.
Disgraceful.
December 8, 2022
Correct â and if its all about saving the planet by stopping the seas from rising why havenât we put sea monitors, every mile around our coastline âŠif climate change was so real
December 8, 2022
You’re right, it is a strange argument that we should not allow onshore gas in the UK yet it is fine to import it from the USA. So strange that absolutely no one is making, or ever has made, this argument. Off you go, tilting at imaginary windmills trying to deflect attention from 12 catastrophic years of Conservative rule. You are fooling no one. Go now!
December 8, 2022
gary,
Euractiv 22 Aug 2022 â First, US gas is mostly produced by fracking, a technology which is widely banned across the European Union over environmental concerns.
forbes 26 Oct 2022 â The UK imports literal boatloads of U.S. natural gas, the bulk of which is fracked. ‘Here’s the truth about Britain’s energy situation. In 2021, the UK households used a staggering 109 terawatts hours of electricity about half of which got generated in gas-powered generators. But a significant portion of the UK’s natural gas gets imported from the U.S. as liquefied natural gas (LNG) in specialty ships.’
Investopedia ‘Fracking has led to substantial increases in U.S. domestic oil and gas production, thereby significantly reducing the need for oil imports.’
December 8, 2022
Has even one swollen headed, virtue signalling, agenda crazed, greedy hypocrite paused to think about our children? ( Oh part of the plan..a compliant future?)
What have the last years done to them? And now they are cold.
And how dare the NHS continue to enforce masksâŠeven to the point of insisting on making people remove their own and put on one of those blue surgical things.
BEYOND DISGRACEFUL.
December 8, 2022
Masks are part of the ânudgeâ agenda to make people comply through fear. The alleged experts (particularly VanTam) told us at the outset no significant difference. UK plan scrapped without notice or justification, China one through WHO accepted without a murmur or explanation!
December 8, 2022
Hope – I t wasn’t compliance through fear of disease but fear of being ostracised.
December 8, 2022
I attended for an MRI over a month ago – reception desk shrouded in plastic panels, staff wearing masks nobody could understand them. I was asked’ would you like to wear a mask?- a box pushed round a corner. I took one.
A month later called in for result, after I had enquired. I arrived with a mask ….A top specialist kindly welcomed me into a small area with a nurse ( in case I broke down?) – neither wearing masks, happy I took mine off.
Talk about mixed messages.
December 8, 2022
It does seem a very strange scenario indeed, one that on the face of it would seem to hasten the very catastrophe we are told we face.
I’ve always had a fascination for strange cults and religions, being enthralled as to how so many reasonably intelligent people can be suckered into such drastic and outlandish beliefs and claims.
Not least when you see the top echelons of the new cult/religion blithely ignoring that which they dictate as a must in order to escape the clutches of the devil in others.
December 8, 2022
Perhaps we should put it to the vote, âdo you want one world governance, communist style, whereby you will lose your democracy and be run by unelected people. You will ultimately live in a 15th century style lifestyle, eating insects and lab produced meat, with no real way of heating your home? You will not be allowed out of your 15 mins zone.â Whoâd vote for that?
At the moment this is not a choice weâre being given⊠the fossil fuel debate is semantics⊠The government are either blind, cowardly or complicit in whatâs going on around us. But whichever it is, net zero must cease!!
December 8, 2022
Complicit for globalist groups, leading it in UK.
December 8, 2022
Er, there are a few more options between that bizarre fantasy, and the other one that you do want, aren’t there Sharon – or don’t you get that?
That’s the range of aspirations of normal people.
December 8, 2022
It’s your fantasy though NHL.
Come on eh.
December 8, 2022
Energy policy isn’t about our well being or the country’s. Powerful people (beyond reach of government) have decided it’s someone else’s turn to eat.
Politicians really are superfluous.
December 8, 2022
But I thought your position was that UK should make fracking (and on-shore wind, and coal mining presumably) subject to local approval ? No-one will approve fracking in their area so in reality you don’t want it either. Same on housebuilding, you’ve managed to ensure it is left in the hands of local councils so far fewer houses will be built due to local objections.
December 8, 2022
Local objections never stop anything! And on the other side when a reasonable permission was sought even The Planning Inspectorate dismissed local Planning 4 of 5 objections to a new house! End was to support Planning – house rejected.
December 8, 2022
Here you go again Roy. House building is going ahead at a phenomenal rate in most areas. Too much is needed for an ever exploding population and we all know why that is unless you’re one that buries your head in the sand.
December 8, 2022
We do not need more houses we need to stop mass Immgration!!
December 8, 2022
Well, the people of Whitehaven seem pretty happy to get their new coal-mine Roy and they have been supporting having it for many years – presumably for the 500+ jobs it will bring to the area.
No-one in Westminster seemed too interested in their views until now. Maybe Mr Gove has finally realised that they need policies people will actually vote for, which strangely enough doesn’t seem to include climate posturing at this time.
December 8, 2022
Sir John, the elite left who control the UK just want to show that they are not responsible for generating CO2 and can prove it on paper and tick a box. They can say we only contribute 1% or 2 % to the Global total. They don’t actually care about CO2 generation just that they are seen not to be doing it.
Whilst the focus is on fossil fuel use no one gets too concerned about the destruction of the world’s forests, over population, and using more and more energy (clean or otherwise) which heats up the planet.
Just heating up the plant releases trapped CO2 from the sea and other natural carbon capture stores. Something to think about.
As we contribute about 5% of CO2 to the planet’s annual recycling process you have to question is our generation of CO2 causing climate change or something else ?
It is true that that CO2 will reflect radiated heat (electromagnetic energy) but not convected heat. The old electric bar fire/ water heated radiator comparison. The increase in CO2 will also reflect the Sun’s radiated energy to earth so will it get colder ? If we reduce CO2 will it get hotter ?
The Government sent out a paper to everyone to support not leaving the EU so perhaps they could do the same to justify NET ZERO CO2. No plant food, no life on earth don’t forget
December 8, 2022
Yes very dumb. Apparently the govt are introducing a new employment law to give people the ârightâ to demand to work from home – a Conservative govt! I donât suppose this very foolish measure will see a backbench rebellion. The only backbench rebellions we have seen have been from (mainly Brexit supporting MPs) scuppering the modest planning reforms and wanting to re-impose onshore wind farms. The Conservative party – not just the govt – seem to have a death wish.
We really may as well rejoin the EU where this kind of stuff can be opposed by the supranational govt and at least we can all moan about that.
December 8, 2022
i meant imposed
December 8, 2022
R,
UK will not technically rejoin EU but will mirror and copy everything EU does to be closely aligned not to cause public outcry.
December 8, 2022
Richard 1 – ‘Tories’ have also delivered an inflation linked ‘pay’ rise for the unemployed whilst being about to criminalise ambulance drivers for having to withdraw their labour to get the same.
Tattoo parlours have boomed since lockdown and in the inevitable economic crisis and the Tory party is avoiding the withdrawal of benefits from people who tattoo their faces to intimidate and to deliberately make themselves unemployable in many roles.
The Tories have also legalised cannabis on the sly but won’t admit it.
December 8, 2022
This is so blindingly obvious that I am confused as to why the Government does not implement it?
Are they so afraid of the Green and, indeed, media reaction, that they prefer to keep us in hock to foreign supplies?
What a shower!
December 8, 2022
It is not that they are afraid of the Green shower, but that they actually believe in it and are a leading part of it.
December 8, 2022
“Are they so afraid of the Green and, indeed, media reaction, that they prefer to keep us in hock to foreign supplies?”
And the short answer would seem to be YES – they are!
December 8, 2022
Indeed and less than 2% of total human energy (including heating, transport and industrial use) comes from Solar and Wind so largely irrelevant. Also about 75% of the energy price rises occurred before Putins war caused by this governments insane net zero lunacy. Coal is still very cheap and you can make easily stored on demand electricity from coal for about 10p per KWH so why are we paying about 35p? Let us hope very few people freeze to death this winter. A bit miserable sitting under and electric blanket for the winter.
Whitehaven coal mine finally approved. The socialist dope Gove finally gets something right, this the Man who like socialist Starmer wanted VAT on private school fees, This so user pay four times over. The complete opposite is what is needed which is real and fair competition. So make nearly all schools private and give people vouchers they can choose to top up. The same is needed for healthcare where private healthcare users already have to pay four times over with income taxes and NI x 2, the insurance premium and then 12% IPT tax on top.
December 8, 2022
Four times over as you pay tax/NI on the income you need to live on, then tax on the income you need to pay the insurance premium, then the premium then IPT tax 12% on the premium. Similar for private schools if they put VAT on the fees.
Already someone using private schools for two children will have to earn far more and pay perhaps ~ ÂŁ60k in tax per annum yet have the same disposable income left after school fees as someone earning average wage, paying just ÂŁ5k in tax and using âfreeâ state schools. Yet Starmer âliesâ that they are getting some unfair tax advantage! He is surely not so stupid as to believe this is he? So his real agenda must surely be just to tax these many excellent schools out of existence or out of the country. Needless to say both he and Gove went to private schools.
December 8, 2022
Lifelogic, you’re not in the UK, so perhaps you don’t know what happened when most of our dentists became private under Blair. We get to pay extra for them great for wealthy people like yourself; the few dentists still giving NHS treatment can’t give you an appointment for two months unless your teeth are literally dropping out or you have an abscess. Then they pull the tooth because charges to do anything else are now too high for average-wage families.
December 9, 2022
Well I was in the UK until about 14 years ago so suffered the dire Major/Blair/Brown governments. Of course people who really cannot pay should have some safety net. But if those who can pay do then this takes the pressure off the state system but it clearly must be sensibly means tested.
December 9, 2022
But it doesnât take the pressure off the State system. The State system starts to evaporate.
State dentists are now very difficult to get on the lists of. The safety net is very droopy and still expensive. People who canât afford dental care plans are basically not having annual check ups never mind 6 monthly check ups. This is then resulting in lots of tooth decay.
Emergency treatment is usually pulling teeth out without replacement, in the case of a lot of the back teeth, for people I know.
December 10, 2022
Can I add that this was all during Blair and Brownâs government before people start saying thatâs what you get with the Tories.
They also introduced the 2004 GP contract that ended GP services as we knew them and funnelled us all into hospital outside of 9 till 5pm. The Tories wrestled a bit back but it is under risk again and Labour back in charge will just allow this to slide, which all puts extra pressure on ambulances and first responders in poor areas.
December 10, 2022
Local NHS dentists routinely do not accept ‘non-referred’ new patients, never mind getting on a waiting list for an appointment.
December 8, 2022
Agreed, all parents should have a voucher redeemable by their chosen school for an amount that is equivalent to around what the least funded schools get per pupil with all schools privately run and if they wish commercially run so as to make what profit they can. Then the cost of school education for the taxpayers would fall substantially (even before dismantling the out of school local authority education bureaucracies), and because schools would genuinely then have to compete to stay in business (and generally make profits) discipline in schools would improve and academic standards would soar. So it would be a win-win for everybody except of course those committed to perpetuating our inefficient public sector.
December 8, 2022
JR: “Transition to a carbon free future”
There you go again buying in to the net zero scam. Incidentally, “a carbon free future”, taken literally, means the end of life on earth as we know it which is based on that demonised element Carbon.
December 8, 2022
Suggest Sir John watches (Princetown University Emeritus Professor of Physics) William Happer talking about carbon dioxide and it’s positive effect on global ecologies.
He is absolutely detested by the ‘Climate’ lobby, which may be viewed as a badge of honour by some. However, I don’t think anyone can argue with his physics – although no one is likely to get that opportunity on our own mainstream media. He’s simply dismissed as a “Denier” (and that’s it – end of a debate that never occurs)
December 8, 2022
I too read maths and later physics and the many physicists I most respect are not climate alarmists, at most they are lukewarmers. CO2 can indeed warm the earth but it is only one of millions of factors and feed back mechanism that affect the climate and not even the major one.
The idea you can predict the climate in 100 years when you cannot even predict the climate for next January is clearly idiotic as is the idea that CO2 is some kind of magical world thermostat. No sensible scientists that I know think that an irreversible climate catastrophe is imminent. Most also think slightly warmer and a bit more CO2 is, on balance, a net good in greening the planet. We are in a relative dearth of CO2 historically. Load of factors that affect the climate long term are not even predictable or knowable.
December 9, 2022
Letâs keep a bit of perspective. No-one is predicting the climate for next January – it will be exactly as it is now. The weather, on the other hand âŠ
No-one can predict the weather in January, but that does not invalidate the attempt to predict the climate in a hundred years time. What if they are right? That never seems to occur to you.
December 8, 2022
Is that the William Happer who was saying that the ozone holes seen over Antarctica in the â80s and Arctic in the â90s were overestimated based on UV-B radiation measurements made in continental US airports?
He might have been detested by the âClimate Lobbyâ but there were also atmospheric scientists saying he was talking bxxxxxks already in those days.
But he got back at 77 years of age in 2017 as one of PotUS Trump science advisors.
December 8, 2022
Yes that one heffy.
Detested by the believers.
Amazing how that hole is not referred to any more after a few aerosols were banned.
December 9, 2022
Youâre funny P2: âafter a few aerosols were bannedâ. It took the Montreal Protocol signed in 1987 and effected in 1989 to start a decrease in the production of CFCs, and it was relatively easy because there was at the time mainly one major producer of them, Dupont (de Nemours), which ârapidlyâ was able to develop and replace CFCs by their new HFCs.
December 8, 2022
Well, he was very well regarded by the Bush adminsitration but fell out with Al Gore once Clinton took over. He’d been very critical of Gore’s then best selling book (‘Earth in the Balance’) whilst at the Department of Energy. He’d called it “alarmist”.
There is an informative article in Physics Today (June 1993) “Happer Leaves DOE Under Ozone Cloud for Violating Political Correctness” (the title gives a strong clue to why they thought he’d been fired). It’s well worth reading and can be found online.
With regard to uv-B measurements, Happer wanted an atmospheric monitoring network established away from built up areas. He believed that as previous measurements had been mostly made at airports, readings were unreliable, being subjected to pollution & aircraft fumes. He wanted this new network to monitor actual uv-B radiation levels at ground level, which could then be compared against the ‘predicted’ ones. His real sin was that he asked difficult questions, ones that his critics didn’t seemingly want to answer.
December 9, 2022
Indeed, and when UV-B and total O3 column measurements were started to be made around the mid-â90s thanks to the BSRN (Baseline Surface Radiation Network) with stations in Alert, Barrow, Georg von Neumayer, Ny Alesund, Syowa and South Pole (all stations poleward of 70N or 65S) it was shown that Harperâs concerns were not correct and that the relationship between a decrease in total O3 column and increased UV-B were roughly consistent with what the original scientists had said.
December 9, 2022
Perhaps you can explain how his calculations of the effects of GHGs are wrong. Or perhaps you can’t, because they are based on the proper physics. Unlike climate models.
December 9, 2022
Hee hee hee, Although a physicist more particularly interested in atomic physics Harper did not produce any paper on the spectroscopy of Greenhouse Gases as such. He wrote a few papers on climate change, but not strictly speaking scientific papers. As a founder of the 2015 CO2 Coalition, he has produced as much âscienceâ as the GWPF, ie zero.
Do you have any idea what a climate model is? How do you think the motions in the atmosphere and the oceans, the hydrological cycle, the formation/dissipation of clouds, the radiation transfer, the representation of vegetation, ⊠are handled if not based on laws of physics (including dynamics)?
December 8, 2022
JR refers to the transition to carbon free energy as being driven by public demand through everyday choices rather than government diktat. However, he has overlooked the influence of foreign banksters running
investment management companies who use their control of shares to foist ESG on English businesses.
This activity needs to be criminalised or there needs to be a new companies act to ensure that foreign beneficial owners either directly or indirectly of English company shares are excluded from voting and being represented on boards. Wall Street style capitalism is harmful, a fact which more intelligent continental politicians have understood.
December 8, 2022
The government has been completely taken over by the lunatic green mob.
Last night an idiot woman from Friends of the earth said the Cumbrian coal mine wouldn’t create any welk paid sustainable jobs. It’s a myth she said.
Do you know of any enterprise that runs without staff.
Sheer hypocrisy is the only thing Westminster has in spades.
Yesterday we we’re generating maximum and all the filthy STOR generators we’re running negating any savings of CO2 made by renewable.
December 8, 2022
+1, the less science they have the more deluded these religious green loons are. Like that English graduate MP for Brighton Pavilion and indeed all the 95% + of MPs who supported net zero and the climate change act. Group thing deluded religions are very damaging indeed.
December 8, 2022
The biggest threat to the UK is the population growth, and to the rest of the WORLD causing demands for all those polutimg products
we can’t keep up with the demand on health services or the housing needs losing green fields and cutting down trees.
December 8, 2022
Too many people! But not enough doctors, nurses, fruit pickers etc Strange situation we find ourselves in.
December 8, 2022
I read an article about fruit pickers from Indonesia in the UK and they were in trouble because there wasn’t enough fruit picking work for them.
“Over 200 Indonesian fruit pickers in the UK have asked for diplomatic assistance because they are facing difficulties finding a job. Quoted from The Guardian on Friday 2nd December 2022, their request was made in July.3 days ago”
December 9, 2022
That’s a good thing then, fruit and jobs for all.
December 9, 2022
Hmm all is not what it seems, the NHS is so large that when they quote big vacancy figures they are never explored. It averages about 38 vacancies per hospital, Iâm sure some areas have bigger shortages than others, we need to be told which areas. We arenât told what grade of workers are short. How long their training course is to be offered that position at that grade. Why have the training numbers in UK hospitals and universities failed?
Doctors take many years to train, if they can scoot off to America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand after training and not have to pay their graduate tax then that loop hole needs closing and the student loan transferring to a different model of loan repayment.
In the States and elsewhere the costs of training to be a doctor are very high. Even with a student loan the state tops up the training of uk students to different levels although it is a much smaller amount now than it was.
December 8, 2022
Sir John, it is your party and your government which believes in these senseless behaviours and has apparently agreed to double the imports of LNG from the USA. It is not just the serious problems as described but how will we pay for it? It adds to our balance of trade deficit, but they don’t care enough about that either. They like to work to the orders of the green globalitas. They must know their position is delusional.
December 8, 2022
We will not pay for it because it will be passed on/sold to EU through inter-connectors. Why do you think Germany has recently announced an inter-connectors with UK, it is not for our benefit. Similarly RoI is totally reliant on gas supply from UK. The socialist useless govt gets Nothing in return, not a scrap. Anyone sensible would force protocol changes or scrap it! This shows in the EU energy pact in all but name!! We voted leave!!
December 8, 2022
Very much so. Sybil Fawlty would read this and think “Hey, that’s my Mastermind specialist subject”. Sadly, The Snake would read this and think “Wow, I never knew that”.
December 8, 2022
I agree – but you could push the balance of payments impact much harder. And I gather that the pharmaceuticals industry is heavily dependent on oil usage.
December 8, 2022
It is a no brainer. Conservatives at large await the news that such has been acquired by government. The lone voice of Gove expressing intent is insufficient. The whole government should drive for UK fuel independence. The voice of the Millipede expressing dissent should be sufficient to tell you it is the right course to take. Then sort immigration, tax, and the NI Protocol for dessert.
December 8, 2022
Miliband has been pushing the ridiculous net zero generation by 2030 nonsense out of the EMBER think tank, previously known as Sandbag, and founded by Bryony Worthington, who authored the Climate Change Act along with Jonathan Brearley, the current useless head of OFGEM. Just a casual look at their plan shows they hope to keep the lights on with barely half the level of peak demand coming from dispatchable generation that you might be able to count on. Insane, and dangerous.
December 8, 2022
Great advice âŠto save energy and reduce energy costs â switch everything off …and they believe it
December 8, 2022
I am constantly staggered by the pretence of my fellows. My daughter in Australia not only keeps the a/c on all day in summer but her husband has a ten minute hot shower every morning – all due to the five roof panels. In Iceland, little dots of light all over the island show greenhouses growing tomatoes in December. All done by using geothermal heat from the volcanic energy just under their feet. Here, when the wind blows, we can produce nearly half our electricity by wind power. If not, not. The wind varies, you see.
So people pretend that their English solar panels provide electricity in winter. They pretend that wind power will provide electricity for the whole country regularly all the time.
No! they won’t.
So let us stop being hypocrites and start fracking and, yes, coal mining too. Honesty is the best policy. Without electricity and oil, we will starve, freeze, live in the dark and all be on the dole (as long as the government can get by without any taxes coming in). But nobody seems to be saying this.
December 8, 2022
Are you claiming we can produce nearly half our electricity by wind power. ? really?
How many hundreds of thousands do we need to install?
December 8, 2022
Indeed. What a state you legacies and MSM have got us to. Madness of ….. your making. Own it and apologize. Oh look, it’s winter and cold outside. No wind!!!
December 8, 2022
Blackouts will trigger a peopleâs revolt against the new eco-tyranny
Green policies are popular in theory, but can only be sustained if they donât threaten our quality of life
Allister Heath today in the Telegraph. Well past time for this revolt.
Net zero, very clearly, not only damages our quality of life and damages the economy hugely but it will certainly kill people this and every winter going forwards – with the very high energy costs and intermittency caused. Far more than ever die from high temperatures.
December 8, 2022
We ‘produce’ CO2 simply by breathing. The biggest problem is overpopulation, with its side effect of concreting over the woods and jungles that absorb CO2. As populations in developed countries stabilise the politicians respond with the lunatic policy of encouraging migration of people with high birthrates in order to keep the overall number rising in some ‘GDP’ Ponzi scheme.
December 8, 2022
The Tory Party are the biggest hypocrites on the planet. Mass legal and illegal immigration, the highest numbers ever and then they talk about net zero, housing crisis, NHS 7 million waiting lists, congestion and overcrowding whilst still importing millions more. Lets finally approve a coal mine! It’s only taken them 7 years, then lets impoort fracked gas from America whilst banning it here. Lunatics are in charge.
December 8, 2022
No, our biggest problem is lack of public education on the subject (rather than the media propoganda).
The whole topic of climate and carbon emmissions has been weaponised and distorted by vested commercial interests, fully supported by the usual (green) suspects. Think carefully about carbon “credits” and “Net Zero” targets and (especially if you actually beleive in the dire effects of carbon emmisions) then clearly they make no sense at all – apart to those who profit by trading in them. Meanwhile China and India continue to produce (and use) fossil fuels in ever increasing amounts, whist we commit commercial harakiri in pursuit of entirely meaningless ‘Net Zero’ targets.
December 8, 2022
âOverpopulationâ like the Nordstream problem Truss would say âitâs doneâ.
December 8, 2022
Totally agree, and it is ONLY the implementation of such policy’s, within the next two years, will the Conservative Party turn things around!
Ed Miliband being angry, is a good thing, a good sign, you/Cabinet have something correct!
December 8, 2022
So you think, Sir John, that the public will dictate choices on how to travel? I’m sure residents of Oxford will be very pleased to hear that. Faced as they are with the prospect of electronic metal gates to prevent them driving out of their neighbourhood more than a permitted number of times per year. I’ll be intrigued to see how the public dictating the choices will operate in this situation.
December 8, 2022
Dramatically increased sales of angle grinders and paintball guns in Oxford, perhaps, and indeed Canterbury too?
December 8, 2022
I’ll tell you again: Carbon (more accurately Carbon Dioxide) is a trace gas in the atmosphere. It amounts to about 0.45% of the atmosphere. Of that the UK contributes 1% of 0.45%. Some of what we contribute is naturally emitted, some by human activity.
It cannot possibly have the magical powers attributed to it by the eco-loons. We actually need CO2.
Crippling this country in search of a mythical ‘net zero’ will not deal with the massive emissions of China, India, USA. Nor the destruction of rainforests in S.America.
If the eco-loons really believe CO2 is a problem. They are going after the wrong people. And your Government is in thrall to them, wake-up !
December 8, 2022
Atmosphere. 0.45% CO2 equals 4,500 ppm. NASA reckons it is 420 ppm. The denialist-loons are out in force today. At what level in ppm would you set net zero?
Fracking. The UK Oil and Gas Authority projected in September 2021ï»ż that UK production of natural gas (excluding shale gas) would decline from 34.9 bcm in 2020 to 8.9 bcm in 2035. The Warwick Business School study of March 2020 that calculated that UK production of shale gas could meet between 17 and 22 per cent of UK cumulative consumption between 2020 and 2050, stated that âshould the UK wish to have a shale gas industry its role will be to mask the declining production of the UK [continental shelf] and displace a limited quantity of importsâ. It added: âIt will not be a UK shale gas revolution, but rather an exercise in slowing the increase in import dependence, thereby improving the UKâs Balance of Paymentsâ. (LSE)
West Cumbria Mining, developing the metallurgical coal mine, known as Woodhouse Colliery, makes sense as an integrated deal with the UK steel industry. The coal there is excellent for making the coke they need.
December 8, 2022
And it will âlevel upâ – Cumbria needs the jobs!
December 8, 2022
17% to 22% of our energy needs for 30 years is a substantial additional amount acorn.
Why dismiss it as an irrelevance?
December 8, 2022
“The UK will build its first new coalmine for three decades at Whitehaven in Cumbria, despite objections locally, across the UK and from around the world.” says the environment editor in the Guardian.
Objections from the World? What part of the World where we buy the coal in from now, that creates the same “400,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year” or does their coal extraction that we then put on ships and create even more greenhouse gas emissions not count?
Why aren’t the protestors asked this? Do they heat their homes and drive cars or use London public transport that generates tonnes of emmissions? They are such hypocrites.
December 8, 2022
The Grauniad reports on eco loons – yes they are all over the world.
December 8, 2022
Will they be able to find coalminers to work the mine?
British coalminers must have all retired by now, so is that more immigrant workforce?
December 8, 2022
Now that is an interesting question, how long does it take to train a Brit to use the modern mining equipment? What % of that workforce are going to be trained in the UK and who will do the training.
December 8, 2022
AT,
But it is okay for UK to import over 80% of coal and transport it from Russia!!! UK should be using coal to make as much steel ( and other products) as possible at home for national security reasons.
December 8, 2022
It is expected that 85% of the coal extracted fro the Cumbrian mine will be exported (on ships creating more green house gases). Think about that for a minute or two.
December 8, 2022
Whose expecting that? We need the coal ourselves.
December 9, 2022
Our industries can not use it, it has too high a sulphur content. The mine is predominantly being opened to for export purposes.
December 9, 2022
Thats a good thing, we as a nation need to produce more and export more ….remember the term ‘balance of payments’, it was once important
December 9, 2022
EM so what do other countries do with the sulphur content in order to use it?
December 8, 2022
I have thought about it, and come to the conclusion that we should not have closed coal burning power stations. In fact we should re-open those we still can!
December 8, 2022
Why would they export it when British companies could use it? Sounds odd Iâd like to hear from a none connected geologist.
December 8, 2022
Good
It will provide wealth for our nation EdM
December 8, 2022
Along with the failures of 12years of Conservative in denial and ensuring the UK was not resilient, safe and secure for energy, we then got Boris Johnson trying to create a race to Net Zero. While the rest of the World is hoping to get to around that by 2050, but would not pursue that at the expense of their economies, the then PM of the Government and leader of the Conservatives Boris Johnson wanted to make a race of it. Stopping UK energy use by importing more, banning the sale of ICU Cars and Hybrids by 2030 when even his friends in the EU wasnât even thinking of that until 2035.
The real disgrace and entire lack of getting to grip with the job Boris, Johnson banned things without a viable alternative other than the stone age. Windmills, windmills from anywhere but the UK was the mantra, these imported windmills particularly from China create so much more CO2 in production and transport that they negate the dream. Ban UK manufacture and import, thinking that had something to do with reducing carbon emissions for the âWorldâ. Advocating the installation of air sourced heat pumps â they only cost âÂŁ6-8,000â or so his Government implied, To bring the existing housing stock up a standard were air source pumps are viable, costs an additional ÂŁ30-40K on top of the pump â of course Boris never pays for any thing himself and has not concept of money and how it arrives.
It still gets down to âIts the Economy â Stupidâ a strong resilient economy permits all dreams to be realised. Spend, spend, waste, waste our money and have no account on how and where it all goes is simply destruction.
December 8, 2022
Decisions made on this subject border on the insane – Government is pandering to the woke left to avoid political embarrassment.
We should of course exploit our own natural resources, but the ‘keep it in the ground’ brigade are stronger than government’s capacity to do what is right.
It’s odd that if this brigade wants to protect the Earth and keep it whole, unmolested, why aren’t they complaining about minerals and other resources we dig up, and what do they say about potatoes – Should we be taking food, even, from the Earth?
Nature has taken eons to create a vast wealth of materials for our use in the ground – Are we so stupid that we cannot see these resources were meant to be used by us to improve our lives and avoid a day to day existence?
December 8, 2022
Absoluter common sense and it’s what everybody I speak with says. Why does nobody in the Govt listen ?
December 8, 2022
Cumbrian mine! The first sensible move for years and by Gove of all people!
Well done Sir, someone was listening to you! Next Fracking.
December 8, 2022
Gove has done this to gain voting popularity for the party. His future actions will be to do everything he can on the quiet to delay construction and any production.
December 8, 2022
The carbon they want to get rid of is us the peasants.
Globally as far as energy is concerned, only 16% comes from ‘low carbon sources’ of that 4.3% is nuclear, 11.4% is renewable with wind producing 2.2% and solar 1.1%.
To think that you could run this country on wind and solar is utterly absurd. Stop kow towing to the eco loons. If they want to live without fossil fuels, just let them. Leave the rest of us alone.
December 8, 2022
âCoal mines, fracked gas and keeping the lights onâ That should have all been secured by previous Governments and today we should just be talking of the resilience going forward.
Successive Conservative Governments, or at least for the last 12 years have encouraged money(taxes) to be wasted, they have no comprehension of what money is or where it comes from. They throw it around like confetti and have no basic audit trail. In reality money is simply a resource a resource that used wisely can feed itself.
If we had proper management in charge in the Government, every penny spent would be accounted for. That one would hope would quite naturally lead to a vibrant resilient economy, were investments could be made to secure everyone’s future.
This is a self harm Government with the UK as a whole being its prime target.
Sir John the discussion you are having here, just wouldnât be possible in a properly run Country as you are talking fundamentals that a capable Government would have already got covered.
December 8, 2022
Wits the announcement the normal anti candidates have started coming out from under their stones on the media.
They do not want this country to survive. The fear factor is still very much alive and growing.
December 8, 2022
There is nothing odd about it.
There is no empirical evidence for catastrophic global warming caused by anthropological emissions of CO2 or even that CO2 controls temperature. Neither from historical data (Vostok ice core data) or current weather data. Neither from IPCC theoretical predictions where their dry air models do not include water vapour!
Better modelling, which matches the real data, is provided by Wijngaarden & Happer, shows increasing CO2 and methane in the atmosphere does not add to the existing greenhouse effects of all the greenhouse gases, water vapour being the most important. BTW, the existing greenhouse gas effects means we have an average global temperature at a pleasant 15 degrees C and not -20 degrees C.
The communists are using the Westâs âbadâ CO2 emissions (Chinese CO2 emissions are âgoodâ) simply to destroy the Westâs economy. Not only to prevent us from utilising fossil fuels for abundant, affordable and reliable energy but also make us reliant on China for all the goods that use fossil fuels as sources for chemicals â plastics, cleansers, tools, plastics, pharmaceuticals, electronics, toiletries, construction materials, clothing, home furnishings and of course fertiliser for the growing of food.
So of course they want to stop us using coal and close down all our steel making so we are totally dependent upon coal-burning China for all our steel, as well as ensuring our dependence upon China our only sources of energy â wind turbines and solar panels.
December 8, 2022
By adopting a strategy of energy imports because of climate change and the meeting of UN /WEF net-zero targets rather then because its cheaper, is social-engineering and socialism on steroids âŠI note that the theories of Tory capitalism have been thrown out of the window
Please stop telling us how to live
And have you looked outside today, its winter, its cold, itâs a season â the weather, the weather patterns, the sea level, the ice caps havenât changed
Has anybody else noticed that the script is changing again, its because of global warming, then its climate change, and now the ULEZ for clean air, restriction on travel to save the local environment âŠand the biggy âto save my children and grandchildrenââŠthe narrative keeps expanding â next there will be a government hotline to tell on your neighbours if they contravene the net-zero laws
December 8, 2022
You can see that, the majority of the public can se that ,so why oh why can’t they see that?
December 8, 2022
It is impossible to replace our current energy needs with wind and solar. It would take hundreds of years to extract the minerals from the ground needed to build turbines and solar panels and in the process cause great environmental damage. I’m yet to hear a convincing argument that CO2 is bad for the planet. We need a proper debate on this subject rather than these self-interested global organisations telling us they know best and shutting down any opposing arguments.
December 8, 2022
We are putting the blades from the turbine into the ground -they are not recyclable and have a very short life. Do a search âburying windmill bladesâ and look at the images.
Very green to think wind âpowerâ is Green.
December 8, 2022
news.yahoo.com 30/11/2021 Kate Petersen âFact check: Wind turbine blades can be recycled, but it rarely happens todayâ.
December 8, 2022
Not odd or strange, just stupid! First because we don’t need to reduce CO2 as it is a beneficial trace gas without which nothing would grow. Second because even with a war affecting energy supplies our PM, Chancellor & government Ministers don’t have the common sense and/or intelligence to realise we must be self-sufficient in energy. It underpins our entire economy & our industry needs cheap energy to be competitive on world markets. We should be fracking & opening coal mines plus developing & building small nuclear plants being developed by Rolls Royce. You can sum it up simply, PUT THE UK FIRST!
December 9, 2022
Very inclusive.
December 8, 2022
Objectives and temperatures don’t mix well together . When it’ s as cold as it has been the last few days , the first thing someone thinks about is keeping warm ; they don’t put COP objectives first .
December 8, 2022
Sir John, as I write this I am sitting in an ageing Nissan with the windows thick with frost and the heater blowing full blast with little effect. This cold snap will call forth the usual mockery from those who say that global warming is a myth, but the measurements are unequivocal, the world has been warming since 1910 with a couple of inexplicable pauses. Attribution, however, is not well defined.
If there are warming causes other than the so-called greenhouse effect then the urgency of the CO2 Net Zero pathway is less pressing, and the ban on fracking and burning our own shale gas is indefensible.
I now reveal my inner Icke. Various water bodies all over the world are warming faster than the CO2 increase can explain, with the bell wether being the Sea of Marmara. This is polluted by oil, surfactant and nutrient run-off, factors common to much of the oceans surface which warm the surface my lowering albedo, reducing evaporation and suppressing the production of cloud forming particles.
Surely it’s worth looking at this, and other suggestions such as the link between cloud cover and cosmic rays?
JF
(There may be a fuller version of this suggestion at the TCW Defending Freedom blog.)
December 8, 2022
a cold snap – how odd it is almost the shortest day, December often called winter – when it has got cold for thousands of years….global warming coming soon – maybe about July / August when it hasn’t rained for 2 weeks?
December 8, 2022
An excellent synopsis â I believe we still have four seasons
December 8, 2022
Jukian
I always enjoy reading your posts, but this time I must correct you on one point. I am afraid the measurements are not âunequivocalâ.
They have been tampered with, as the Climategate emails revealed.
December 8, 2022
That’s unequivocal as in ‘generally trending upwards’ not ‘accurately measured as rising at such and such a pace.’.
The adjustments/corrections by GISS etc are obviously agenda driven. Incidentally, Tom Wigley’s blip which climate science worked so hard to hide could be attributed to the enormous oil spills during the Battle of the Atlantic.
JF
December 8, 2022
It makes no sense importing oil, gas and biomass pellets, but yet another Conservative administration is limply, foolishly following hard left leaning energy policies. Groupthink dominates a Parliament obsessed with the unachievable 2050 goal of Net Zero. Alistair Heathâs article in todayâs Telegraph sums up the disastrous situation our politicians have created. We need a referendum on the issue of Net Zero preceded by at least two months of open and honest debate. The British public have been largely excluded from any consultation on Net Zero policies since the 2008 Climate Change Act was legislated. This matter must be brought to a head.
December 8, 2022
There was a local tv news story last evening. A bio-mass boiler serving a housing association block keeps failing and it seems this has been mostly because pellets could not be reliably supplied. The block has a gas boiler too as back-up. It was in SE England – Reading? Basingstoke? I dare say there are thousands of examples of this eco incompetence all around the country.
Who suffers? Ordinary people. Who claims eco policies are good for people? The priviledged including local politians and lobbyists.
The same fanaticists are going to control movement of people in Oxford from 2024. They will be confined to areas where they live which they can then only leave a certain number of times a year. They must register their cars with the council. There will no doubt be punishment for any attempt to breach this totalitarianism heading the way for all of us. Will politicians and MPs of course be exempted?
December 8, 2022
Sir John, the fact that the government is refusing to proceed with fracking is PROOF that they do not listen to you, your like-minded colleagues or right-of-centre voters such as us. So what the hell is the point of continuing to support the Tory Party? There is none. And nor is there any point in you remaining in the party. Find another one that is more aligned to your beliefs.
December 8, 2022
This follows your strong theme that we replace imports with our own-make products. Fully support your view. Particularly when imports come from economies that have GDP per capita similar to ours. When we were in the EU, we imported most of our EU imports from the richer economies. I am not saying that this is wrong; just daft. We should be able to make these imports ourselves.
December 8, 2022
Skewed you could say idiot thinking
âMarks & Spencer plans to install electric vehicle charging points at around 70 stores across the country within the next two years.
The rollout of around 900 charging points at 70 locations is part of M&Sâ efforts to be a net zero business by 2040.â
How does the above aid M&S to be net zero?
December 8, 2022
Anyone who thinks man can control the clinate is deluded. Still let’s just carpet England with more unreliable and harmful to birds and bats windmills and continue to let the scammers get rich at the expense of our economy and lives of ordinary citizens. It’s a disgrace and full of evil intentions.
December 8, 2022
Who would reasonably disagree, except on this point:
“Transition to a carbon free future will occur at the pace the public dictates by all our choices on what to eat, how to heat and how to travel.”
I fear that the public will not dictate anything. The transition is being imposed on us by an authoritarian ruling elite, who are themselves free to gad about the planet in private jets, buy and eat what they want etc.
December 8, 2022
With your permission John. This link provided by the campaign group in Scotland called Scotland Against Spin.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1706394/scotland-onshore-wind-turbines-ban-energy-bills?fbclid=IwAR0HA0hdIZ8OpyaDt3kZHDLZ236zqlSR9HfvWRRLKMhGpdD-6TuJtvqlsjc#conversation-wrapper
It highlights the awful situation in Scotland soon blight Englands hills and beautiful landscapes. The supporters in polls regarding wind farms are often paid respondents living in areas where they know they will never have to have a wind farm on their doorstep. People living in London are often approached for comments.
December 8, 2022
âFree enterprise, or the free market, refers to an economy where the market determines prices, products, and services rather than the government.â
Today on the BBC politics live debating the Cumbria mine, with Tory Robin Walker MP, (comply with international regulations) Labour Baroness Chapman (it should be a nuclear power plant), Journalist George Monbiot (it shouldnât open because 80% of the coke coal is for export), and Independent Baroness Foster (only in the short term)
The debate told me that weâve fallen beyond the slippery slope, weâre deep in the Marxist river where government wants to control everything âŠwe should be worried
Free enterprise is dead, and without Free enterprise Britain is dead
December 8, 2022
I think this comment section is moderated in such a way that any comments made that are in any way dissenting from being supportive are removed. I guess that’s the conservative’s view of free speech, inclusion and openness.
Its called bias reinforcement!
Reply I refute your lie by publishing your hostile contributions
December 9, 2022
But aren’t our rivers full of effluent anyway, the water companies keep pumping s**t into them and onto our beaches.
December 9, 2022
Why is my comment “hostile”? Is this because it is different to yours?
December 9, 2022
How do you know its a lie?
Where are the dissenting comments?
Why is my contribution “Hostile”, is it because it is different to yours?
Open your mind!
Reply Read the comments on this site Many of them slang off the Conservatives, the government and my views!
Your tone is hostile and you clearly do not like the site yet you expect to b e published here
December 9, 2022
I love this site.
December 9, 2022
I love this site
December 9, 2022
I love this site.
Your site your rules.
December 9, 2022
Fair play for publishing my comment.
December 9, 2022
And proving you wrong.
December 8, 2022
Indeed, and you’d have thought that the naysayers today would’ve understood the blindingly obvious:
– Shadow energy minister Ed Miliband decrying the policy but must know full well that we need those imports so they’ll generate more CO2
– Green MP Caroline Lucas likewise
– Cumbria MP Tim Farron may wish to preserve jobs at the Barrow submarine works that needs high quality steel and the coking coal to produce it. But no, he’s against it too.
– the people of Cumbria need well paid jobs to “level up” and business commitments to protect the environment. West Cumbria Mining has the plan and the commitment.
– the people of Britain need steel, we have a ship-building industry, road barriers, railway rails, house-building girders. Steel in all of them.
December 9, 2022
Are you sure;
– UK steel plants need coking coal, as opposed to using Arc furnaces?
– there is even a ready market for exports of that kind of coal
– The subs need that kind of steel
– That the steel contract will be with UK steel plants
– that the money from the coal mine will even stay in the UK (isn’t the company Australian?)
December 8, 2022
Indeed, and you’d have thought that the naysayers today would’ve understood the blindingly obvious:
– Shadow energy minister Ed Miliband decrying the policy but must know full well that we need those imports so they’ll generate more CO2
– Green MP Caroline Lucas understands likewise
– Cumbria MP Tim Farron may wish to preserve jobs at the Barrow submarine works that needs high quality steel and the coking coal to produce it. But no, he’s against it too.
– the people of Cumbria need well paid jobs to “level up” and business commitments to protect the environment. West Cumbria Mining has the plan and the commitment.
– the people of Britain need steel, we have a ship-building industry, road barriers, railway rails, house-building girders. Steel in all of them.
December 8, 2022
maybe Tim Farron thinks retaining his seat is lost anyway!
December 8, 2022
Reading the answers to your questions one this is obvious.
The Government does not give a damn!
It has no interest in the subjects.
December 8, 2022
It is not mining coal or extracting gas that causes CO2. It is burning them. The useful contributions that we can make to reducing world CO2 are:
– Limit our population growth
– Stop burning raw coal and importing LNG
– Convert any of our power stations that burn raw coal to ‘clean coal’
– Allow on shore wind farms as well as off shore
– Allow fracking
– Build small nuclear power stations as well as big ones
On a world scale, we should be using the stick as well as the carrot and stupid COP conferences. The WTO is the vehicle for doing this. There should be supplementary tariffs on exports from countries running a dirty economy, defined by the burning of raw coal and LNG (or by total CO2 emissions) and the use of CFCs in production (preventing full closure of the hole in the ozone layer).
December 8, 2022
You only need to reduce co2 if you believe the climate scam of the UN IPCC
December 9, 2022
You might want to get swimming lessons for your grandchildren
December 9, 2022
yeah …1cm per 100 years
December 9, 2022
Where will you get your oil, petrol, diesel and gas from?
December 9, 2022
I believe in fossil fuels and its use to develop people and nations
December 9, 2022
And how many of our services personnel are you prepared to see sacrificed?
December 8, 2022
âTransition to a carbon free future will occur at the pace the public dictates by all our choices on what to eat, how to heat and how to travel.â
Have you not heard of the Net Zero Strategy, Sir John?
Have you not heard that the sales of petrol and diesel cars in the UK will be banned from 2030? And no gas boilers are allowed to be installed in new homes after 2025 with the plan to cut off all gas supplies after 2035?
There is no choice and weâve not had any referendum to decide whether or not to proceed with this ÂŁ3tn+ project to reduce our 1% contribution to global CO2 emissions and leave ourselves exposed to meagre supplies of expensive and unreliable energy generated by Chinese supplied wind turbines and solar panels and living with expensive and impractical heat pumps and evs.
There is no empirical or theoretical evidence for CAGW and in fact studies of sunspot activity support the view that planet cooling is more likely. We need more CO2 in the atmosphere not less to aid plant growth and reduce famines.
December 8, 2022
+1 many …you’re spot on
December 8, 2022
Funny, the figure in climate.nasa.gov 06/09/2019 âWhat is the Sunâs role in climate changeâ shows a temperature continuing to increase whereas the solar radiation over several consecutive 11-year cycles decreases.
Could it be that something is not working the way you think it should work? Just asking.
December 8, 2022
Neither are the predictions for rapid increases in the rate of temperature rises post 2000 heffy.
December 9, 2022
The only thing you make clear by your comment is that you did not go to the NASA site, did not get the âWhatâs the Sunâs role âŠâ page, did not read it, and did not see the figure.
Between 2000 and 2020 the global temperature has increased by 0.3-0.4C depending where in the seasonal cycle one looks.
December 9, 2022
I didn’t claim there had been no increases post 2000.
Read what I wrote heffy.
December 9, 2022
OK, youâre right P2. Sorry. Who has ever talked of a ârapid increase in the rate of temperature rises post 2000â?
December 12, 2022
You really dont know?
It was the trendy warning pre 2000
El Nino and oceans that suddenly absorbed heat deep down were the excuses for the failed predictions.
Surely you know heffy.
December 8, 2022
This research is based upon finding further cycles of 350-400 years and even 2000-2100 years.
But then who would have guessed that the sunâs solar radiation would have an effect on the earthâs temperature?
December 9, 2022
Even all those thousands of years ago the people relied on the sun, hence the summer and winter solstice celebrations.
December 8, 2022
Sir John, had the UN, in their infinite wisdom, decreed that countries had to account for CO2 on all their imports too, would your adversaries in Parliament still be against us extracting our own coal, gas and oil? Would they still support the export of much of our industry over the past 40 years? It begs the question as to whether the UN had in mind to help out China, India and other developing nations by **knowingly** setting the CO2 incentives so the West would ship out their heavily emitting industries. Whether or not they did, thatâs whatâs happened.
December 8, 2022
MikeP :
The communists have already realised this.
The National Grid ESO âLeading The Wayâ Future Energy Scenario (FES) for 2050 plans for negative CO2 emissions to counter the CO2 on imported goods.
In the meantime, donât forget that Western CO2 is bad, Chinese CO2 is good.
There is no empirical evidence for climate emergency/breakdown caused by anthropological CO2 emissions and even the UN places âclimate actionâ only as number 13 in their list of âSustainable Development Goalsâ.
December 9, 2022
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
December 9, 2022
+1
December 8, 2022
Right on, how much longer must we go on with the pipe dream of zero carbon before we notice the Emperor has no clothes?
December 8, 2022
Why do the police support the protests of the Stop Oil idiots over the rights of taxpayers going about their business?
Has the Home Sec told them to?
December 8, 2022
Just seen one bit of good news Sir John. Apparently Michael Gove has authorised a new coal mine in Cumbria. Naturally the Guardian thinks this is terrible because of global warming.
December 8, 2022
Another example of the uselessness of our government and its servants.
Brilliant FOI from Paul Home wood regarding the decisions on the loss damage agreement we have signed up to. On their present record it is more than a believable reply.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/12/08/how-much-will-loss-damage-cost-foreign-office-have-no-idea/
December 8, 2022
It is about time we had some policies that actually make sense, even Germany are opening more coal fired power stations. We ned to do a lot more farming out our emissions and importing the very goods we could produce ourselves is political suicide for this country for it is costing us well paid jobs and taxes that could be going to the treasury instead of imported goods that are costing us more. Does the decision to open a mine in Cumbria mean these politicians are finally coming to their senses now help the Farmers and let us grow more food and grow our economy its not rocket science. I wish we could replace Rishi Sunak for you Sir John.
December 9, 2022
If we grow more of our own food who is going to pick it?
December 12, 2022
Machinery exists.
December 9, 2022
Let’s grow more rocket!
December 8, 2022
So the Whitehaven deep coal mine is part of company West Cumbria Mining owned âin fineâ by EMR Capital a private equity firm based in the Cayman Islands.
One could wonder how much taxes will be paid to HMG Treasury.
December 8, 2022
Would you be in favour if they did pay lots of tax heffy?
December 9, 2022
Did I say I am pro or against it?
I was just trying to point out that now it has got the green light from the Government the tax arrangement of this new company might be as complex as what most of our water companies have set up.
Nothing more nothing less.
December 9, 2022
“Did I say I am pro or against it”
That was why I originally asked my question.
December 9, 2022
Which I am sorry to say is irrelevant. The Government took their decision and they would certainly have not asked for my opinion on the topic. Did they ask yours?
December 12, 2022
You seemed to dislike fracking on the grounds that the UK might not get a financial return that pleases you.
I was wondering if you were opposed to fracking in toto.
But because of your coyness we will never know.
December 8, 2022
Today 6pm 8.22.22, electricity demand is 5GW short of demand, with little wind or solar and the UK is relying on imports from Norway and the continent plus stored hydro which is can only operate for short period. The near continental countries also are in the same freezing weather system. The current cost is ÂŁ238/GWh 4x the cost a few years ago. A similar spell of winter weather could last for 2 weeks.
In Ukraine, where the electricity infrastructure has been damaged in the war, people have freezing homes with no boilers, lifts that cannot be used in high rise flats, no light, no communications, no cash machines, no petrol pumps, no electric cookers, maybe a gas ring and that could go too. The whole country may have to flee to Poland and beyond.
This is the future that the western green governments have decided is necessary in order to avoid their own nuclear and Russian gas, oil and coal.
December 8, 2022
Sorry, currently cost is between ÂŁ300 -500 /GWh. Wind has dropped to 14% and could continue to fall.
December 8, 2022
Stred :
The Net Zero Strategy’s aim is to convert everything – heating, transport, commerce, industry and agriculture – to electric.
So when the Chinese supplied wind turbines and solar panels fail to produce sufficient electricity and the grid collapses absolutely nothing will be working bar any fossily fuel generators if these have not already been banned by then and fuel is available to run them.
Make no mistake, this is deliberate policy. And if we have a winter like that of 1963/4 then there will be many deaths.
December 9, 2022
A winter like this one could kill many poorer people. Two years ago i met an OAP who lived in one room in his house and slept under a blanket with his dogs to save on his gas bill.
December 8, 2022
True that “Importing more fossil fuel or fossil fuel using products is a kind of self harm,..” but now I just expect this government to do harm. I want it gone even whilst expecting only little better from its successor.
December 8, 2022
To ignore the gas and hydrocarbons beneath our land and off our shores is criminal. We did not vote to become the poor people of Europe. Martyrs to this insane drive for Net Zero forced upon us by a government who have the foresight of a knat.
Clegg, screwed us back in 2012 dissing Nuclear power stations and my MP, Sharma, is doing the same now over coal and anything associated with hydrocarbons under our feet. How long is this lunacy going to last. Has any one other than reasonably savvy voting people done the sums?
We will not possess the generating power to go all electric cars, boilers etc across the U.K. in the next 50 years let alone 20.
If we continue to penalise people who were encouraged by Gordon Brown to buy diesel cars, tractors, trucks, heavy plant etc etc we may as well start looking for caves to live in and hunt cats and dogs for their fur to keep warm. Itâs nuts. We didnât vote for this and itâs about time our representatives stopped cow towing to privileged nutters who glue themselves to tarmac and decimate works of art in the name of saving the planet.
One volcano erupting somewhere on our plant spews out more CO2 in a day than the U.K. put into the atmosphere during the entire industrial revolution.
Letâs see if the XR nutters can stop that happening! Frankly Iâd pay to see them try!
December 9, 2022
Fracking must not happen down south where we rely on aquifers . Fracking water cannot be cleaned enough to return it to the water cycle.
December 9, 2022
It is done below aquifers and we haven’t got much down south.
December 9, 2022
But aren’t our rivers full of effluent anyway, the water companies keep pumping s**t into them and onto our beaches.
December 9, 2022
There is no significant risk to aquifers. Enormous care is taken by having three concentric pipes from the surface all the way into the impermeable layer below the aquifer. The gaps between and the pipes are monitored for any signs of potential problems, and there are wells devoted to sampling the aquifer for the slightest sign of contamination. At the first sign of trouble, operations are suspended and remedial action is taken. There is more risk from failure to discover a dead cow that contaminates a reservoir (a real case).
December 12, 2022
Wrong
There is little proof of your claim based on USA data.
December 9, 2022
Does anyone contributing these comments believe climate change is real?
December 9, 2022
Yes, for it is, we can see it for ourselves if we look.
The question rather is to what extent if any does human activity contribute to climate change and, if it does, are there any actions humans could take that would make any difference and, if there are, would it be sensible to try those in light of the costs and disruption and effectiveness and time-frame.
December 9, 2022
Anyone who has looked at the history should agree that the climate has been changing: the Roman and Medieval Warm Periods and the Little Ice Age for instance. Strangely, it is catastrophic climate modellers who try to deny the history because their models do not mimic it. Worse, they make extreme assumptions in their predictive modelling to try to conjure alarming scenarios. The reality is that they have failed to capture reality: Arctic ice has been recovering, sea level rise is not accelerating, temperature trends are much slower than forecast. The models rely too much on black boxes because the real physics is too complicated to model. Where real physics has been done outside the models it undermines the model assumptions. The climate is changing – perhaps for climate modellers whose projections are unrealistic.
December 9, 2022
Get you grandchildren swimming lessons just in case.
December 9, 2022
âWhere real physics has been done outside the models it undermines the model assumptionsâ. Well, I kind of doubt it because any parametrisation (parametric representation) be it for cloud formation/dissipation, radiation transfer, turbulence, surface processes, stratospheric processes, ⊠before being put into a model is heavily tested in stand alone mode against sets of observations.
One such set of observations is provided by the US DoE (Energy), the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program (www.arm.gov). An idea originally stated in 1989, since 1995 the program has collected often for more than a full year sets of temperature, humidity, wind, cloud, ⊠observations over a number of sites in very different climatological regimes, US Great Plains in Kansas/Oklahoma, North Slope of Alaska, Eastern North Atlantic, Nauru & Manus islands, Tropical Western Pacific/North coast of Australia. The US ARM effort is one of the most important but other countries, UK in particular but also Japan, Australia, and a group of European countries also run similar efforts at validating the components of climate models.
The individual parametrisations are tested against all these sets of observations outside the climate models. And believe it or not it is not a small feat to have something that works equally well for the conditions on the North Slope of Alaska, in the middle of the USA or in tropical conditions.
Most of the climate models then only use parametrisations that obtain âgood scoresâ in these comparisons with observations.
And if you want a negative view of this way of doing things you can always read judithcurry.com âAtmospheric Radiation Measurement Programâ, 28/07/2016.
December 9, 2022
I reckon at the current rate of rise of sea levels your grandchildren might be able to walk towards higher ground LMS rather than staying where they are as water rises.
Assuming predictions are right
December 10, 2022
We now have power cuts! across the South-East, despite the massive increase in costs to the user.
-Can we start holding all the individuals who are imposing and executing these policies accountable.
-The lack of capacity sufficient to meet UK demand plus a small surplus is a Massive Failure or Intended policy.
Irrespective of the technology used. There are various technologies available to achieve energy security. These have not been pursued in a pragmatic way. The UK has allowed functioning nuclear and other plant to be removed from future use either as a safety margin and or winter reserve.
This will crush the UK economy and allow only the larger enterprises controlled by totalitarians to survive.
Who ever is in control is a real danger to the public.
Meanwhile the same lot want extradite an individual who really is in danger to jurisidiction that appears to hold political prisoners for very long periods without charge in very harsh conditions.
December 12, 2022
Take a look at extinctionclock.org
A decades long list of climate predictions that never came true.