Self-inflicted misery of our energy insanity
By Paul Homewood
There’s a number of articles in the media today, all critical of UK energy policy, which is now boiling to a head. The press seems to have finally woken up to the huge damage already being wreaked on the country, all as a result of successive governments’ climate policies.
This Mail piece is probably the best:
It was the blackest of days for Britain. Yesterday, the fallout from a near two-year global economic shutdown began to bite – and agonisingly hard.
There can be no sugar-coating the bad news: Millions must steel themselves for immensely difficult times ahead.
And as the great purge of Downing Street advisers started following Partygate, didn’t the grave plight facing almost every household make the Left’s fixation with cake and drinks appear very trivial?
For the Bank of England governor had warned the biggest fall in living standards since records began in 1990 was looming.
On what was fittingly dubbed Black Thursday, the gloomy news came thick and fast. It’s hard to know where to start.
Typical gas and electricity bills will skyrocket by a wince-inducing £700.
Inflation is forecast to hit 7.4 per cent – a level not seen for a generation. Food, fuel and transport prices are spiralling.
To fight this fire, the Bank put up interest rates – a painful blow for many mortgage holders and home-buyers. And all this before crippling tax increases kick in.
For ordinary families, this feels less a cost of living crisis, and more a brutal mugging.
To his credit, Rishi Sunak announced emergency support to soothe the pain. Every household will receive up to £350 including rebates to help with bills.
Like all chancellors, though, he deployed smoke and mirrors. Not all the money will arrive in time for bills landing on doormats in April and most must be repaid.
But wouldn’t a better way – a more Conservative one – of helping struggling families be to scrap the unpopular national insurance hike or axe VAT and ludicrous ‘green’ subsidies on domestic fuel? That would leave more money in their pockets.
It’s true that the trigger for this crisis has been the sudden surge in gas demand as the global economy reopens. But by bungling its energy policy, Britain has left itself especially vulnerable to shocks.
Successive governments ignored warnings about the insanity of having no long-term strategy to safeguard energy security. Now the chickens have come home to roost.
How unnecessary this is. For Britain sits on an energy goldmine. We have vast unexploited reserves of oil, gas and shale. And we had the chance to expand nuclear power.
But hypnotised by the apocalyptic alarmism of eco-activists, our politicians have pursued an aggressive green agenda, shunning these abundant power sources.
It means we are left at the mercy of unreliable renewables and importing high-priced energy to stop the lights going out.
While Boris Johnson burnishes his credentials by recklessly committing to go further, faster, than anyone else to net zero – causing great suffering to consumers and businesses – China continues building coal-fired power stations, adding a UK’s-worth of carbon dioxide emissions every year.
The Mail believes passionately in the obligation to safeguard the planet for future generations. But energy security and economic growth should be the embattled PM’s number-one concern.
Yesterday, hardship-threatened Britons saw with their own eyes the miserable consequence of him treating those priorities as afterthoughts.
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
One thing I picked up from the BoE governors statement was his appeal to wage earners not to seek cost of living rises as these would simply stoke the fires of inflation. It is a shame that nobody gave the government such advice when they wrote the energy supply agreements with wind, solar and nuclear suppliers, all of which have inflation linked pricing for their duration.
Wait until recent graduates find out the interest on their student loans is calculated using RPI – and that’s heading for 7%. So they will be paying 10%. Most simply won’t be able to stay current and will default. It’s increasing by 2.5x.
Yet another absurd decision by government. They’ve just crossed their fingers and hoped.
Don’t think that will happen for several reasons.
1) Unlikely many graduates will be earning over £30,000 a year in the near future
2) You don’t pay anything until you earn £30,000 and then it is only payable on earnings above that figure
3) The money is taken directly from pay (akin to paye and NI).
“…and will default…”
Not often. Roughly, the maximum repayment is 9% of income over about 20,000, and therefore deductions at source will not increase too much. Any interest added is rolled into the principal.
All people will have to relearn how inflation affects their finances and review their wealth calculations. Many people including recent graduates will think, “Another day older and deeper in debt!” but the real value of their debt will be evaporating.
There will be random winners and losers for a while but eventually the economy will suffer a heart attack of some kind. If we want to see where inflation leads, look at Turkey which is a a little further along with a quasi-dictator making absurd decisions.
I
Eventually the debt gets cancelled and passed to the taxpayer to fund the write-off. In reality, it is a bigger bill for taxpayers in future, with the student increasingly unaffected: only the few who earn enough to pay off their loan before it is written down suffer.
Funny about that Eh . . . !!
What a lift it would give the country if a new PM stood up and got rid of all the climate change crap with one sweep of the broom.
I know, I’m dreaming.
Is that Carrie’s broomstick you’re referring to?
Be careful what you drean of. If it is happening, which it seems to be with the new appointments to Downing Street, when the ER loons catch on there will be riots on the streets and, who knows, civil war.
I have written (again) to my (Conservative) MP…
“Sir,
There is only one *fact* that Boris need to understand to solve the energy crisis…
THE ATMOSPHERE’S CO2 CONCENTRATION HAS ZERO AFFECT ON ITS TEMPERATURE
It never has, and it never will. Everything else stems from that. He is supposedly an intelligent person, so with the above, he can work out the rest. Perhaps you can help him though, assuming you also understand that.
In reality, because he doesn’t yet understand this, what he actually has in an energy POLICY crisis, which will rapidly turn into a Conservative voter loss crisis.”
If there’s one thing an MP values more than anything, it’s his/her seat.
My MP is the energy minister and his office spent yesterday Tweeting “energy myths” including the claim that even though gas prices have risen because of a supply/demand problem, you can’t reduce gas prices with a supply/demand solution.
Quite how intelligent people get themselvrs into these bizarre positions is beyond me.
“Intelligent”?
My MP is Kwasi Kwarteng Cabinet minister for BEIS and I have repeatedly warned him that his renergy policies can only result in the total destruction of our economy. He surprisingly replied to tell me that all was well and wonderful. No vote for him but no vote for the other side anyway whose agenda is identical.
KWARTENG, Kwasi
To:
alastair gray
Wed, Jan 5 at 10:53 AM
Dear Mr Gray
Thank you for your email about energy production.
The overwhelming consensus of international climate change scientists is that climate change is happening and, as you know, the UK was the first major economy to legislate to achieve net zero. Work is already underway to ensure the UK achieves this by 2050 and thereby eliminate our country’s contribution to climate change
It is important that as we work to decarbonise and reduce emissions our electricity supply is increasingly generated from renewable or low-carbon sources. The UK’s offshore and onshore wind industry provides a critical source of renewable energy for our growing economy.
I agree that we need to ensure the UK’s energy mix is sustainable and reliable, and this means that wind and solar need to be complemented by technologies which provide power when the wind is not blowing, or the sun does not shine. This includes nuclear and gas with carbon capture and storage, and I welcome the Government commitment to invest in these areas as detailed in the Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution and the Net Zero Strategy.
Yours sincerely
Kwasi Kwarteng MP
“Dear Mr Gray
Thank you for your email about energy production.
The mythical consensus of international climate change ecomentalists is that contrary to real life, climate change is happening and, as you know, the UK was the first major economy to commit to economic suicide to achieve net zero. Work is already underway to ensure the UK self-destructs by 2050 and pretends to eliminate our country’s totally insignificant contribution to climate change.
It is important to the industry’s pockets that as we pretend to decarbonise and reduce emissions, yet still ensure our electricity supply is increasingly generated from unreliable and ruinously expensive sources. The UK’s offshore and onshore wind industry provides a small amount of highly polluting and intermittent energy but we’ve been paid enough to say it can support our growing economy.
I agree that we need to ensure the UK’s energy mix is sustainable and reliable, and this means that wind and solar need to be backed up 24*7 by fossil fuels and nuclear technologies which provide power and grid stability for much of the time when the wind is not blowing, or the sun does not shine. This includes nuclear and gas. I would welcome the Government commitment to the Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution and the Net Zero Strategy so we can virtue signal how good we are.
Yours sincerely
Kwasi Kwarteng MP”
There, fixed it for him 🙂
Excellent piece of editing. It should be sent to Kwarteng
Kwarteng should place his climate policy where the sun doesn’t shine
As with all our tax provided executives in the NHS, GPs, Local Authourities and MPs, they are now very dim people getting high salaries who are putting their pay cheques ahead of common sense. Keeping their noses clean means to them keeping their well paid jobs. Any serious letter on any subject will be ignored if it goes against their bosses viewpoint. In other words it is the blind leading the blind, and we little folk have no voice no matter how logical our arguments. Sensible letters of complaint no longer get a hearing.
Intelligent ‘Green’ Propagandists . . . with NO conscience . . . NO sole . . .
“Intelligent green propagandists” Surely that’s the ultimate oxymoron?
Quite !!!
Kwarteng’s incompetence needs to be highlighted: ” The overwhelming consensus of international climate change scientists is that climate change is happening” .
The climate has always changed. It’s a dismal situation where Kwarteng (minister responsible for energy) cannot distinguish between climate change (which has always occurred) and dangerous man-made climate change, of which there is no proof.
That is precisely why he has the role of energy minister; it’s his area of greatest incompetence
Quite rite . . . For the last 10,000 years we have had 9 periods of Cooling followed by 9 periods of Warming. 5 of the warming periods have been warmer than today . . . NONE have been led by nor have they followed CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. How then with less than 250 years since the invention of the steam engine can today be the only time, with 7,000 years of warming History to compare to . . . can CO2 now be the cause? It is NOT . . . CO2 is the ruse . . . One factor though . . . It is the ONLY thing going out the chimney that we CAN NOT remove with scrubbers or electrostatic converters or Nitrogen Oxide Burners. Sooo . . . It is the BEST weapon with which to destroy the entire Fossil Fuel Industry . . . IF you declare CO2 . . . Public enemy #1 . . .
https://www.academia.edu/49421861/CO2_Cradle_of_Life_on_Planet_Earth
My Thoughts . . .
Agreed,it’s not CO2 controlling the planet’s temperature, it is the Sun through water vapour, 95% of the atmosphere’s greenhouse gas function ; cosmic rays change water vapour to clouds.
Ed Miliband is the indiviual we must thank, or, generally, Green (un)thinking
That was leading up to the 2008 Act, but the politicians weren’t alone, there was the BBC’s 28Gate meeting in 2006, to soften us up.
Miliband (Marxist) and Worthington (FOE). Both rich as Croesus now (IMHO) because of the laws they brought in. I have one four-letter word for them but Angela Rayner has it copyrighted, I think.
I had another four letter word in mind.
At the time, the Climate Change Act 2008 was called the most expensive suicide note in history, but politicians knew better. Chickens are now coming home to roost.
The worm has turned for us climate change deniers. A few power cuts and I will be over the moon. Just wish the wind would stop blowing a Hooley.
The newspapers need to really push home the fact that the invented “green” and “climate” taxes are major causes of the problems. Plus of course increases in existing taxes again using “green” and “climate” as the excuses for those increases.
Not to mention the devastation caused by “Covid” hysterics.
And of course, the underlying cause of these green taxes is the CO2/climate change scam. Until Boris understands that CO2 has zero effect on atmospheric temperature, nothing will fundamentally change.
For as long as Carrie Antionette is in tune with the Watermelons Boris will do as she tells him
Unless or until enough of his MPs see the writing on their red wall and sack him.
Quite. I don’t envy him the choice; Carrie or no.10 🙂 I don’t think he have have both.
Why would you want either?? Unless you were a priapic, power crazed loon of course.
‘The press seems to have finally woken up to the huge damage already being wreaked on the country, all as a result of successive governments’ climate policies.’
Ahh, yes, it’s the government’s fault. The Fourth Estate is innocent.
After decades of supporting stupid government policies.
‘Successive governments AND THE PRESS ignored warnings about the insanity of having no long-term strategy to safeguard energy security.’
Fixed it. The press has failed England.
In a democratic society, the press provides feedback on government activities. The press’s support of climate change mania gave feedback to the government to continue. In the end, climate mania is the PRESS’S fault. Not government. Government just followed the press’s lead.
The Guardian and the BBC didn’t give tacit support to climate mania. They gave direct, overt support. This is MORE their baby than the government’s.
I don’t know the history of the Daily Mail’s reporting of the last 30 years, but it is highly likely that they are guilty, too.
28Gate was in 2006, and the GWPF pointed out the dangers many years ago:
https://www.anorak.co.uk/343042/politicians/that-global-warming-policy-foundation-letter-to-the-bbc-the-notorious-seminar-of-2006.html
There was only one appropriate attendees: Jon Plowman, Head of Comedy.
BBC Roger Harrabin was the prime conspirator in 28gate. Since when he has been nothing but a frictionless cloaca for Greenpeace handouts. For years
Quite so, Mr Gamecock, the press are waking up to the readership potential of doing some actual journalism and research (having re-written green blob handouts all these years).
Constant green sensationalism is wearing thin, the public are catching on, their pockets are being picked and quite rightly they are now asking some awkward questions and searching out sites like this and Net Zero Watch.
High-time proper journalists engaged with ‘the-other-side’ and armed themselves with decontaminated science. (Not the rubbish force-fed to the moron Johnson for instance)
They need to learn how computer models are just a ‘tool’ that can be made to DO ‘whatever is required’ and are not the ‘smoking gun proof’ they are told to think they are.
This is why the IPCC have a range of model outcomes, not just one, and that the ‘crazy’ one is always picked by the media as being most likely, despite the IPCC themselves saying it’s not realistic. (but it’s used anyway for effect-and it works if the journalist is thick or compliant enough, like the green activist Harrabin or new boy Rowlatt)
They need to understand that if governments close down weather-stations in cooler regions, for dubious reasons, the average global temperature will rise.
This is not GW, it’s fraud to maintain pubic compliance and it’s about time manipulation like this was ‘called-out’.
They need to ask why a graph showing GW starts at a certain point rather than earlier when data was also available. Or why Co2 increases follow natural solar warming and not the other way round , as it should do if Co2 was an important factor in anything.
Above all, they need to realise that, for the easy life, they have been USED by the ‘blob’:
when all along they thought they were being it’s brave ‘Champion’ rather than as a useful idiot.
You’ve all been had, how does that feel ?
Just think how much better things would be without the Guardian and BBC, just for starters.
“decontaminated science”
That would be Physics, Chemistry (and Maths 🙂 ) with some Geology for time scales, if nothing else, and general business practices.
“computer models”
Climate models, Foot & Mouth modeling, Pandemic models … 🙂
The IPCC, set up to find Global Warming and, would you believe it, they found it! 🙂
“They need to understand that if governments close down weather-stations in cooler regions …”
Crikey, I’d forgotten that one! And then there’s Mike’s trick.
And the BBC could plead ignorance, because it’s full of Art’s graduates, but could still push the catastrophic agenda, with a smile.
How about selling off the BBC and using the money to help fund a sane Energy Policy.
The BBC has demonstrably “de-platformed” non-believers, for that alone the BBC should be dismantled.
Luke 15:7 I say unto you that likewise more joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth, than over ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance.
I am watching idiots on GBNews saying we need windfall tax on oil & gas companies. Where were they in 2014, with the huge drop in oil prices, with support for the industry? Over 130,000 high paid jobs went in the UK oil industry since then. Aberdeen is a ghost of its former self. The job losses in the sector are up at 60% in some companies. Suddenly when they start making money again, lets shaft ’em!
And the reason why prices of gas are skyrocketing?
1. Supply and demand. If there was more gas available the price would go down. Simple commodity trading truth. Sadly government has been making life difficult for gas producers for decades, obstructing shale gas fracking and failing to sanction the Jackdaw Field last year being only the most recent examples.
2. When gas prices were steadily falling from 2014 until mid-2020 utility companies could make money by switching from long term contracts to buying in the spot market. So they trousered the money. But because they no longer hedge (which a long term contract effectively helps with as well) they are completely exposed to price increases when the market turns, as it has. They are stupid and greedy companies that bet the wrong way.
Its not the fault of oil and gas companies.
Meanwhile in the USA gas prices are 1/6th of the UK/Europe prices. Why? Because in just 15 years from the start of fracking the USA they went from being a net importer to a net exporter. They have hugegas supply. We could too – North Sea, fracking.
Every green group is spinning this like mad to get us off oil and gas. That will make the problem worse. I am starting to think its only if the lights go out and Russia invades Ukraine that the British people and the government will wake up to the stupidity of the energy policy of the last decade or more. It will end in tears.
Does it need the lights to go out, or just a much bigger dent in peoples’ pockets.
The lights have to go out. While the price of gas spirals up the greenies constantly spin it that if we wean ourselves off fossil fuels and embrace renewables we will be saved. I saw it this morning with the woman on GBNews.
The lights need to go out before irreversible damage to our power generation from government sanctioned renewables and decommissioning of fossil fuel generation. If not, we are really in the shit.
“Does it need the lights to go out …”
Yes. Sometimes you cannot tell people, you have to show them.
And I think, for many, the heating will have to fail as well. 🙂
They have so much to lose, first.
Tolstoy, 1898: I know that most men – not only those considered clever, but even those who are clever and capable of understanding the most difficult scientific, mathematical or philosophical problems – can seldom discern even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as obliges them to admit the falsity of conclusions they have formed, perhaps with much difficulty – conclusions of which they are proud, which they have taught to others, and on which they have built their lives.
And that’s when the people are clever, and honest, or was Tolstoy being subtle?
Quite right Mr. Christopher . . .
Aristotle’s contention that The Earth was the center of the Universe lasted 1,600 years or so as The Prevailing Doctrine. When Galileo, thanks to scientific observation through a telescope, demonstrated that the Sun was the center of the Universe, the Science supporting this observation was categorically rejected and deemed ‘Blasphemous’.
Today . . . in the 21st century . . . little has changed. Scientific reviews challenging Globally accepted ‘Consensus Views’ are treated as ‘Blasphemous Aspersions’ being cast upon ‘The Peers’ and ‘The Writers’ who have come to be known and loved. More energy is expended defending prevailing positions than will ever be spent examining the ‘Descenting Science’. Common sense in the face of change, evaporates. Counter-prevailing research and the Authors behind it are defamed, and aspersions are cast while the elite of the prevailing views spend vast energy reinforcing and reiterating their prevailing views . . . At times, even the courts are used to confront ‘Descenting Scientific Research’ that is counter to prevailing consensus views.
Galileo, the father of ‘The Modern Scientific Methods’, suffered 5 years of imprisonment and lived out his life under house arrest for his ‘Descenting Scientific Research’. The more things change . . . the more they stay the same. Environmentalism, today, is the new ‘Religion’ defining the prevailing ‘Global Consensus Views’ on Climate Change. The 2001 united nations document co-authored by Michael Mann that included his now famous ‘Hockey Stick Graph’ has become the new ‘Holy Grail’. Research . . . any Scientific Research counter to this Globally accepted consensus view that Climate Change is caused by humanity burning Fossil Fuels shall be deemed blasphemous to the ruling doctrine of our time, akin to ‘Satanic Worship’.
The Truth . . . The Environment as a subject, is Explosive! You speak against its Edicts at your Peril. Accept the truth as prescribed from upon high, or suffer the Scorn and the Ridicule among your peers. Not to mention by society as a whole. Environmentalism is a relatively New Science and it is being truly tested for the first time. If Climategate starting in 2009 is any example, we can only imagine what is yet to come. When that One Stone gets overturned proving Collusion and Willful Deception. The un-scientific foundations that have been supporting the Environmental Movement since its inception will render it . . . Null.
Until that day . . . Suffer baby suffer . . . Yer getting what you voted for . . .
Yer getting what the almighty media is calling for . . . shut-up n sit down . . . do as yer told !!
“Does it need the lights to go out, or just a much bigger dent in peoples’ pockets.”
Unfortunately, it probably needs a few coroners to state energy poverty as a contributory cause of death.
“only if the lights go out” Deliberately making the lights go out (legally – sort of) is not the difficult bit. Ensuring the blame is lain at the correct place is the problem. Wilful and organised public disruption could crash the grid quite easily. The object of the exercise would be to demonstrate the fault lies with the government and NOT with those “naughty” people crashing the system.
TS, see my earlier commentary at https://cliscep.com/2021/10/17/when-a-shortage-means-you-have-too-much/
Jit, yep, totally agree. The fundamental flaw in all the government and Green arguments is why is gas 6x cheaper in the USA than elsewhere?
As you say, it’s not because they have given up on fossil fuels and switched to renewables.
GBNews Liam Halligan interviewed Francis Egon of Cuadrilla this week and he made exactly that point.
This government is so fucking stupid and full of shit it’s embarrassing.
The sun and water vapour control the planet’s temperature.
CO2’s impact is very minimal.
And Meanwhile in the USA gas prices are 1/6th of the UK/Europe prices because even despite Obama and Biden, they don’t get hammered with tax at point of sale anywhere near the vindictive levels in Europe.
People really need to look at the tax element of the actual price at the pump.
The people Johnson wants to be popular with all think this is wonderful. They welcome sky high gas prices and higher taxes and if the Daily Mail is complaining they think they are getting it right. He couldn’t care less whether its right or the people are made poorer – he’s in with the cool kids.
Carrie Antoinette and her ignorant chums are the only people who the PM listens to as they are the only ones not telling him what a rubbish job he is doing in running the country
28Gate was in 2006, and the GWPF pointed out the dangers many years ago:
https://www.anorak.co.uk/343042/politicians/that-global-warming-policy-foundation-letter-to-the-bbc-the-notorious-seminar-of-2006.html
There was only one appropriate attendees: Jon Plowman, Head of Comedy.
“For Britain sits on an energy goldmine. We have vast unexploited reserves of oil, gas and shale. And we had the chance to expand nuclear power.” There is also some other black stuff. Most have forgotten its name – it is called “coal”. It can be turned in to oil, gas and a reductant & fuel for blast furnaces (if we have any left).
Have to say that I’m hopeful for the first time in a long time. The truth seems to be dawning on a lot of people that we have followed this Marxist Trojan Horse long enough and it’s now threatening our future.
Yes, some sort of turnaround on energy policy is quite possible.
Put a few scrubbers on the smoke stacks and yer good to go . . .
Scrubbers . . . Electrostatic converters . . . nitrogen oxide burners can all be installed and clean up over 95 % of pollution . . .
What are those . . ?
Never heard about those from my local environmentalist fanatic . . . How Cum . . . ?
Page 6 & 7 . . .
https://www.academia.edu/45570971/The_Environmentalist_and_The_Neanderthal
My thoughts . . backward n all . . .
Jim, I’m sure you’ll find that since the Acid Rain scare of the 70s (I think it was) all UK C-F power stations have scrubbers in them, I believe.
Possibly . . . I’m a Canuk . . . Here ALL the environmentalists want ALL ‘Coal Fired’ plants shut down even the one mentioned at Belldune. That one even makes drywall from the recycled water from the chimney’s. there is so much more technology to clean the effluent today . . . check it out . . .
Environmentalists here, they Do Not do homework . . . all coal is bad !!
Natural gas 9% CO2 . . . Coal is 12% CO2 if the rest of the sh!t is removed . .
CO2 is not now nor has it ever been a pollutant . . .
“I’m a Canuck…”
The last time I visited Canada was four years ago. I have no intention of ever going there again. I was in Toronto. What a joyless place it has become!
Dour, unhappy, hamsters on a wheel. Absolutely literally, I never saw one person who did not have suppressed anger in their face.
Their idea of political discussion seemed to center around who loathed Trump more. There is nothing new, of course, in that ridiculous notion – that Canada is somehow the moral arbiter of the U.S.A.
Harrry,
no U.K. power stations had them when I was an apprentice in the mid sixties, prior to the acid rain scare, if your date is correct?
Just went to check out the comments on the DM Comment piece. There are over 600 at time of writing. I always look at the worst-rated comments to get an idea of the stupidity of some people. One of the worst-rated actually said that the only way out of the problem was more wind and solar but with tidal!!! The worst-rated comment even claimed that it was all the fault of the government to have an energy policy – quite missing the point that it is BECAUSE of the WRONG energy policy that we are in the hole we are in.
I despair of the education available in this country (that is not driven by noble-cause corruption)!
Fortunately, the highest rated comments were in the majority.
No reason not to include tidal in the mix. Depends how you do it. No reason not to use solar — ideal for highway signage, for example.
BUT you need guaranteed 24/7 baseload and you need to get rid of the idea that it makes any sense, given the current state of the technology, to use anything other than oil for road transport.
And get rid of the idea that CO2 has any influence on temperature. That is the major con which, by and large, only Europe and the US have fallen for.
Sun is the primary controller of Earth’s temperature, its effect to vary water vapour and clouds, influenced by cosmic rays. Water vapour, 95% of the atmosphere’s greenhouse gases, is by far its most potent. CO2, 0.04%, has very small impact, saturated by infra red radiation,, and is overwhelmed by water vapour.
We are entering a Grand Solar minimum phase, starting to cool the planet.
The “Great and the Good” are thus aiming at the wrong target, CO2, for the wrong reason, AGW, whereas the planet is entering a cooling phase.
We canot influence any of these variables.
OOPS . . . The sun is only one half the story . . .
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/nuclear-fission-confirmed-as-source-of-more-than-half-of-earths-heat/
Page #1 . . .
https://www.academia.edu/49442870/The_Axial_Seamount_Nature_s_Response_To_500_Years_of_Cooling
My Thoughts . . .
Solar is good for powering air conditioning, providing cooling.
Mike Jackson – Tidal power is intermittent. Intermittent energy is the problem, not the solution.
What if your electricity supply company offered you an intermittent tariff instead of your regular supply where they supplied you with electricity for an average of 50% of the year, when it suited them, how much would you pay for it.
I do not think there would be many takers even if it were offered at 10% of normal price..
Reply to jimlemaistre re nuclear fission’s contribution to control of the Earth’s temperature: thanks, I didn’t know about that influence.
Of course, such “undergound” radioactivity cannot be be altered except, presumably, by the Almighty, which Green Parties ain’t.
Even seasoned scientists are not aware of this one single fact about life on Planet Earth . . . More than 1/2 of the heat that keeps us all alive comes from the Earth’s Core. By extension 100% of all Climate Change forecasts / models are wrong . . . They ALL contain Exclusively ‘solar radiation’ in their formulas and forecasts . . .
“More than 1/2 of the heat that keeps us all alive comes from the Earth’s Core.”
The flux of heat energy from inside the Earth exiting the solid part of the planet and available to enter the fluid parts (the atmosphere and the hydrosphere), is well studied and known with a fair amount of precision. It is tiny. The amount is quoted in milliwatts. About 80 milliwatts per square meter, i.e. 0.08 watts per square meter. By contrast the flux of energy from the sun which has to be taken into account is 341 watts per square meter, which is four thousand times as much.
There is a lot of heat energy in the Earth but the processes that move it upwards are slow.
Interesting!
Presumably though, without that heat from the Earth’s core, at sundown the planet would chill, perhaps enough to damage lives, and not only those of the earthworms!
On July 18th, 2011 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), declared, in Scientific American, that More Than 50% of the heat that keeps Planet Earth Warm in the Universe, comes from the fission reactor at the Earth’s core. Not one Climate Change Forecast includes this Scientific Fact of how Planet Earth works. All the studies look only to the Sun for answers. That means All Current Projections examining Climate Change are missing 50% . . . 1 / 2 of the Input Factors effecting the Surface Temperature of the Earth!
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/nuclear-fission-confirmed-as-source-of-more-than-half-of-earths-heat/
Page 2 . . .
https://www.academia.edu/51184433/Climate_Change_For_the_21_st_Century
jimlemaistre: That NOAA article is less than clear.
This quote rather suggests that it is only talking about the Earth’s internal heat:
“The new measurements suggest radioactive decay provides more than half of Earth’s total heat, estimated at roughly 44 terawatts based on temperatures found at the bottom of deep boreholes into the planet’s crust. The rest is leftover from Earth’s formation or other causes yet unknown, according to the scientists involved. Some of that heat may have been trapped in Earth’s molten iron core since the planet’s formation, while the nuclear decay happens primarily in the crust and mantle.”
As a cross-check, a quick websearch gave a figure for the energy received from the sun of 174,000 TW. That matches quite well with the figures dave quoted earlier.
“The worst-rated comment even claimed that it was all the fault of the government to have an energy policy – quite missing the point that it is BECAUSE of the WRONG energy policy that we are in the hole we are in.”
I support the idea that it is BECAUSE the government has an “energy policy.” Government shouldn’t be messing with the marketplace. Government produces double-ought zero kWs. There is no reason to expect the government to have the RIGHT energy policy. Any policy will be the WRONG policy.
“Hi, I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
If General Tojo were still alive today and wishing to recruit his first ever 21st Century Kamikaze command he wouldn’t need to stray much further than the most recent generation of UK politicians.
Obviously Boris would be a shoe in for first pilot. He’d be busting a gut to strap himself into the first ‘Year Zero’ fighter bomber. Literally. Teresa May would have written his flight plan. Tony Blair would volunteer Gordon Brown to be navigator and a certain Selwyn Gummer would be very busy telling the world that, although Boris won’t be coming back, there is a very slim possibility that his sacrifice might make the weather better in the next century. Or maybe not, but it’s the thought that counts!
The incipient Grand Solar Minimum will cool these arguments down!
Even if reversal of the present “thoughts” of the alarmists is too difficult for them, despite the son-falling “mercury”.
“soon”: sorry for the typo above!
“…soon falling mercury.”
Gosh, that sounds very Velikovskian! I had no idea that Mercury was going to collide with us!
Careful, the media might report that as “Mercury could collide with the Earth!”
Fighting back: https://www.cfact.org/2022/02/04/electric-power-reforms-gain-ground-in-virginia/
What the whole world needs. Steering away from renewable madness
Yes . . . And away from this one Trillion $ scam . . . Environmentalists have created to feed their supporters and their adherents of their unfounded schemes and kill the fossil fuel industry once and for all . . .
https://www.academia.edu/70338986/Batteries_Renewable_Energy_and_EVs
My thoughts . . .
Look you lot of moaners you have got to put up with stuff, we are saving the planet.
GET USED TO HIGH ENERGY PRICES
GET USED TO 300 COVID DEATHS PER DAY
GET USED TO HIGH TAXES
Signed
The village idiot
And we had very rich Fishy Sunak – with a massively rich wife – insulting the population by saying that ‘we’ had to get used to high energy prices. There is no effing ‘we’ is there, mate.
On TCW Defending Freedom is a piece called something like ‘The Sensible Speech on Climate the PM will never give.’ I wrote it just before COP26?
Re-reading it now I feel rather smug.
JF
I got as far as this, Julian:
‘I’m shocked to find that only one of the climate models gets anywhere near matching real world data’
I thought it would have helped your argument if you had actually told your audience how many models there were from which this single model model stood out. Something in the order of 110 (+/-), I think.
I’ll continue on the rest….
Scatter gun with enough models and one will be accurate .. eventually.
Harry, technically, for CMIP5, its 39 I think. I downloaded the full set of model outputs from KNMI explorer and you get 39 in the set. However, with several different runs I think the final number of models + runs is 102.
And guess who’s model is the lowest…..its the Russians!
I’m a bit slow out of the blocks on this one.
Ben Webster the Environment Editor at The Times wrote on 3rd Feb. on page 2 ,column 5 — a fairly inconspicuous position in the paper – under the heading “Warning over heat pumps”.
———————
Households face a bill of up to £20,000 to switch to heat pumps and Britain will miss its net-zero target without a ‘fundamental rethink” of the scheme for replacing gas boilers, MPs have warned .
…….. ( 2 paras omitted by me)…………….
The MPs ( sitting on the Commons business , energy and industrial strategy committee) said the £5,000 grants available from the spring for replacing a gas boiler with a heat pump would not be sufficient…because the “overall cost of ( switching) may be as high as @15,000- £20,000”.
———————–
One must hope that this warning by the MPs is part of the long row back. Nevertheless those MPs are reported as calling for the date for the banning of gas boilers in new homes to be brought forward from 2025 to 2023. One despairs.
This dawning of reality will bring some discomfort to the environmental correspondents of the press whose editors would continue to print such news in minor positions for as long as possible.
If it’s going to be a ‘long row back’ then the MPs damn well need to put an outboard motor on their rowing boat!!!
Heat pumps don’t get you to net zero, anyway. Electricity will still be needed, which can’t be provided by windmills.
The grand replacement of gas boilers is government destroying valuable assets. Replacement by attrition would be more rational . . . wait . . . it’s not rational at all. Government should leave the people alone.
Yes,especiaĺly since almost all of their decisions prove wrong.
LBC news reporting this morning that the recent spike in energy prices is “because generating companies are charging high prices to boost the grid when wind and solar can’t provide enough power” . I’ve not seen or heard this before from a mainstream media outlet.
This can be heard on “LBC catch up” on several news bulletins from early this morning.
No AGW proof or. likelihood and no effective prophylaxis or treatment.
Spawns huge corruption and avoidable waste: what’s to like?
Lyrics of Sons of Liberty by Frank Turner:
The pain should hardly come as a surprise. But the first of many installments, it is the product of corruption vs complacency. And the winner is…
If the public hopes to ward off the tide of forthcoming pain, it should demand that the green propaganda, like that recently snowed upon the PM by the Met Office, be confronted
in a proper tribunal – with both sides of the issue represented.
Even if there was a tribunal . . . ALL the Media would have “Stacked Panels’ to refute any and ALL contrarian Views . . . our New World Order . . . the more things change . . . the more they stay the same . . . A short paper . . .
The Irony of The Written Word
Modern society . . . such an interesting construct. Less than 30% of high school graduates go on to attain Under Graduate Degrees from university. 65 % of those study in the realm of ‘Letters’, the many fields of The Arts. First, research published works, summarize the findings then write a legible, well documented and concise review. We have created wordsmiths, not interrogative minds, not scientific inquisitors. Not minds that doubt – respectfully – We have created ‘Intellectual Parrots’. This . . . represents the learning and rational thinking of the vast majority of our leaders. Teachers, Journalists, Political Advisors, Publicists, and yes Environmentalists. In all these fields of study consensus is the ruling doctrine. Researchers whose works are most often ‘referenced’ rise to the top of their fields. Quality and content are judged not so much by an analytical review of the input data . . . judgement is based on ‘Peer Review’.
Aristotle’s contention that The Earth was the center of the Universe lasted 1,600 years or so as The Prevailing Doctrine. When Galileo, thanks to scientific observation through a telescope, demonstrated that the Sun was the center of the Universe, the Science supporting this observation was categorically rejected and deemed ‘Blasphemous’.
Today . . . in the 21st century . . . little has changed. Scientific reviews challenging Globally accepted ‘Consensus Views’ are treated as ‘Blasphemous Aspersions’ being cast upon ‘The Peers’ and ‘The Writers’ who have come to be known and loved. More energy is expended defending prevailing positions than will ever be spent examining the ‘Descenting Science’. Common sense in the face of change, evaporates. Counter-prevailing research and the Authors behind it are defamed, and aspersions are cast while the elite of the prevailing views spend vast energy reinforcing and reiterating their prevailing views . . . At times, even the courts are used to confront ‘Descenting Scientific Research’ that is counter to prevailing consensus views.
Galileo, the father of ‘The Modern Scientific Methods’, suffered 5 years of imprisonment and lived out his life under house arrest for his ‘Descenting Scientific Research’. The more things change . . . the more they stay the same. Environmentalism, today, is the new ‘Religion’ defining the prevailing ‘Global Consensus Views’ on Climate Change. The 2001 united nations document co-authored by Michael Mann that included his now famous ‘Hockey Stick Graph’ has become the new ‘Holy Grail’. Research . . . any Scientific Research counter to this Globally accepted consensus view that Climate Change is caused by humanity burning Fossil Fuels shall be deemed blasphemous to the ruling doctrine of our time, akin to ‘Satanic Worship’.
The Truth . . . The Environment as a subject, is Explosive! You speak against its Edicts at your Peril. Accept the truth as prescribed from upon high, or suffer the Scorn and the Ridicule among your peers. Not to mention by society as a whole. Environmentalism is a relatively New Science and it is being truly tested for the first time. If Climategate starting in 2009 is any example, we can only imagine what is yet to come. When that One Stone gets overturned proving Collusion and Willful Deception. The un-scientific foundations that have been supporting the Environmental Movement since its inception will render it . . . Null.
Sadly, to date, no self-respecting Media Representative wants to risk the Ire of their Peers or the Mandarins ruling the Environmental Movement or The Purveyors of Globalization in our New Social Construct. For they are ‘Brothers-in-Arms’, so to speak. Who wants to be the one to open Pandora’s Box? . . . It would be like pulling Hans Brinker’s finger from the Dyke or Killing the Goose that Lays the Golden Egg . . . The old adage . . .
There are none so blind as those who will not see . . . How Ironic . . .
Jim Le Maistre
Copyright 2022
” … the new ‘Religion’ … ” evangelism, delusion and belief = religion
Not a “religion” but a an amoral, corrupt, heathen cult.
Perhaps. But, as for Galileo, the truth will eventually prevail. It’s just a matter of when and, importantly, how much pain must be endured beforehand. Throwing in the towel helps no one but the beneficiaries of the scam, at the expense of everyone else.
https://www.quotemaster.org/Good+Men+To+Do+Nothing#&gid=1&pid=1
(Orig: J Stuart Mill)
Great quote . . . Challenge the professors of ‘The Big Green Propaganda Machine’ at every opportunity . . . Spread the ‘Honest Word’ . . . the word will spread and we will overcome that band of liars in due course . . .
A “proper tribunal” would probably be another whitewash like the “Climategate Inquiry”.
Also don’t forget the Daily Express actually published the first Climategate on the front page, but very quickly got slapped with a D-notice.
What care they going to tax to pay the subsidies or are unicorn farts legal tender ?
The MSM are not unbiassed commentators. They have been leading exponents of so-called green policies (as also fo Covid lockdowns) so they cannot be alloewed to swuitch allegiance withgoutr a consequence.
More energy insanity…
Homes risk energy rating downgrade if they install a heat pump
Ministers to overhaul Energy Performance Certificate rules amid fears of hit to house prices
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/02/06/homes-risk-energy-rating-downgrade-install-heat-pump/
Here’s a surprise….offshore wind to provide reactive power service:
https://doggerbank.com/press-releases/dogger-bank-c-in-uk-offshore-wind-first-to-provide-reactive-power-capability/
I don’t know enough about these matters to judge whether this is a significant capability or just window dressing. It would be interesting to hear from those with expertise in this area.
You can’t say that CO2 has no effect on temperature – that just plays into the eco-nuts hands. It obviously does contribute to the GH effect and pound for pound has a greater effect than water vapour.. Unlike water vapour it isn’t necessarily self limiting (rain). The truth is we don’t know exactly what effect it is having and will have. All the doomsday projections are based on computer models – not scientific experiments. What we do know is that whatever steps are taken to limit human emissions it is going to keep on rising to maybe 600-800 ppm in the next 100 years. The crucial point is whether the CO2 GH effect will continue to increase in a linear fashion or whether it will become saturated and roll off. This seems to be the crucial point and very few people seem to be addressing it.
Can you state categorically that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has a controlling effect on temperature? If so, what law determines this, and where’s the observational and experimental evidence of this. You also have to take into account scale, with man’s CO2 contribution at ~3% of the 0.04% of total CO2, i.e. 0.0012%. You’re asking for a hair on the dog’s tail to wag the dog, not even the whole tail. Also note that the oceans, at ~70% of the earth’s surface, hold ~50x more CO2 in concentration than the atmosphere, and temperature determines CO2’s solubility in water, so it’s temperature that controls CO2. Think bottle of fizzy drink.
Can you state categorically that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has a controlling effect on temperature?
No you can’t – at least I’ve not seen any evidence to this effect. I’ve seen theoretical papers that suggest that CO2 may have contributed between 0.25 and 0.5 C to the current warming phase. Historically it doesn’t appear to have been a driver of temperature but lagged by about 800-1000 years – presumably as oceans warmed up. That doesn’t mean it couldn’t have a short term warming effect – that’s why scientific investigation is needed. Personally I think it is probable that we are seeing a normal warming phase but we won’t know for a couple of centuries.