Ministers are planning a U-turn on Britain’s pledges to combat climate change that “effectively abolishes” its targets to rapidly expand the use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.
Leaked documents seen by the Guardian show that Gordon Brown will be advised today that the target Tony Blair signed up to this year for 20% of all European energy to come from renewable sources by 2020 is expensive and faces “severe practical difficulties”.
The things David Suzuki never told us…
They also reveal different priorities across government departments about how to get renewables to 20% of the electricity mix. Although Germany has increased its renewable energy share to 9% in six years, Britain’s share is only 2%, with its greenhouse gas emissions rising.
h/t National Newswatch
“[It is] most likely to be on the basis of pre-judgemental concerns about waste, a flawed consultation process or inaccuracies.”
Oh the humanity of it… a socialist plan shelved because of poor return on capital. They’ve overlooked the obvious… tax non-renewable energy so highly that you fix the ROI problem with renewable. Demand will drop as a beneficial side effect. We’ll only need one fluorescent light bulb dangling from the center of the ceiling in our mud huts. There, that was easy.
Global warming ‘is happening faster’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/10/23/eacarb123.xml
Now everyone knows that one single disaster such a Katrina should never be explained by pointing to global warming, but:
From the IPCC WG2-
“A warming climate encourages wildfires through a longer summer period that dries fuels, promoting easier ignition and faster
spread (Running, 2006). Westerling et al. (2006) found that in the last three decades the wildfire season in the western U.S. has
increased by 78 days, and burn durations of fires >1000 ha in area have increased from 7.5 to 37.1 days, in response to a springsummer
warming of 0.87°C. Earlier spring snowmelt has led to longer growing seasons and drought, especially at higher
elevations, where the increase in wildfire activity has been greatest (Westerling et al., 2006). In Canada, warmer May to August
temperatures of 0.8°C since 1970 are highly correlated with area burned (Figure 14.1c) (Gillett et al., 2004). In the south-western
U.S., fire activity is correlated with El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) positive phases (Kitzberger et al., 2001; McKenzie et al.,
2004), and higher Palmer Drought Severity Indices.”
Not that I’m suggesting that the fires in California are caused by GW you understand.
no alby, you missed. you meant to say fires were caused by GW Bush.
after all he didnt ban fires, smoking or matches.
Alby…quoting the IPCC as proof of IPCC’s hysteria is really a circular argument. But then I guess you missed the meaning of the sentence “In the south-western U.S., fire activity is correlated with El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) positive phases.”
From what I’ve read, the California fires were fueled by restrictions on clearing forest and preventing fires, which left lots of dry brush around for a truly giant conflagration.
And as for the IPCC, anything that declares the biggest something since the 1970s — as we so often hear regarding the Arctic ice — is patently useless. The planet has warmed and cooled and warmed in roughly 30 year cycles over the last century.
So for the IPCC to cite warmer temperatures in Canada since the 1970s means nothing except to say we are in a warming cycle. If Global Warming is truly different this time the comparison has to be made to peaks in previous warming cycles, such as the 1930s and 1940s. The problem with that of course is — as with the Arctic ice — there is no data.
Interestingly, when Nasa’s leading climatologist, James Hansen, was found to have used dodgy algorithms in pronouncing the 1990s the warmest decade in the 20th Century, the rejigged numbers found 6 of the 10 warmest years predated WWII.
This stuff is just to rife with error and deception to be taken seriously, which is unfortunate because if there is indeed a problem the ruined credibility is going to make it harder to mobilize efforts.
In other news, GM has started market testing in several major US cities of a chemically powered engine whose exhaust, dihydrogen monoxide, has a greenhouse factor 40x higher than CO2. Where are the protesters?
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/10/gm-launches-pro.html
omgwtflol ban dihydrogen monoxide NOW!!!
(In my senior year of highschool I and a like-minded friend circulated a petition to ban DHMO; we collected about 500 signatures out of maybe 520 people asked or so…)
pete,
There has been alarming quantites of dihydrogen monoxide found in most bottled beverages (especially water). Scientists don’t know why, but feel the answer may be in the plastic bottles.
Our severe winters out west make it hard to follow Kyoto. We are a cold country and as long as our winters are harsh we will produce greenhouse gases. Turning green is harder in Canada. I try and do my part. I water my grass once a week at 3 AM. I drive low emissions cars. I use neon bulbs. I turn my thermostat down. I try not to let my car idle too long. We all could do alot more but going green is expensive. A new furnace is 5,000.00,2000.00 for AC. A hybrid car is 30,000.And the list goes on. In Asia just surviving is hard enough w/o worrying about polution. America could do more. Only allow farmers and buisnesses to buy huge 1/2 tons. Everyone else should pay through the nose. You don’t need 13,000 lb payload to drive to work.
If global warming is realy happening how come we havnt heard about the south pole where its getting colder and the ice is getiing thicker if it was global warming it would be world wide AL GORE IS A LIAR AND A HYPOTCRIT
How bout those biofuels?
Only increase greenhouse gases by 70%.
Morons.
Shaken October 23, 2007 11:01 PM:
Did you misspell “irony” (you wrote, “humanity”)?
The problem with that of course is — as with the Arctic ice — there is no data.
Yeah, but if the MSM keeps showing the same ice shelf falling into the water ad infinitum as a background video to yet another story about “evidence”…
This reminds me of post-9/11 reports that little children were frightened witless because they thought that buildings were collapsing all over the world – that’s all they saw on TV, day after day.
albatros39a how can you be so mindless.
Most of the drivel put out by the IPCC reads like something you’d hear from a fortune teller…
“You will experience happiness, but also some sadness, but I see success in your future, but be careful of bad things that my happen along the way. You will find love, but it might not work out as you hoped, but in the end you will be happy although there some probability that you will not.”
It is remarkable that people still take the IPCC seriously.
“Only allow farmers and buisnesses to buy huge 1/2 tons.”
Yes, let’s clamp down on those “buisnesses”, because they sound kind of weird.
They may be defaulting on targets but are they buying carbon credits from the Bilderberg carbon credit brokers?
There’s the rub….the guys at the top of the EU pyramid who own these plants which don’t comply are the same guys shilling carbon credits to the public to bail them out…..and the same guys who will finance new energy plants…all theis public revenue changing hands in the cause of Kyoto’s bastard child; sustainability…it’s win win for the global corporate elite who financed Gore and Suziki and the UN agenda 21 to set up this two-fisted con job of public revenues.
“Sustainability” is the battle cry of the global statist and the economic feudalists….unfortunately for Britain most of them reside in that nation and own pretty much everything in sight….including the public
Alby sill pulls this sick puppy from his beak: “From the IPCC ”
Alny the IPCC are not scientists but “data reviewers” politically appointed professional supporters for UN policy making. 36% of the scientists listed on IPCC wanted their names removed from the list of supporters and were refused
An IPCC reviewer does not assess the IPCC’s comprehensive findings. He might only review one small part of one study that later becomes one small input to the published IPCC report. Far from endorsing the IPCC reports, some reviewers, offended at what they considered a sham review process, have demanded that the IPCC remove their names from the list of reviewers. One even threatened legal action when the IPCC refused.
A great many scientists, without doubt, are four-square in their support of the IPCC. A great many others are not. A petition organized by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine between 1999 and 2001 claimed some 17,800 scientists in opposition to the Kyoto Protocol. A more recent indicator comes from the U.S.-based National Registry of Environmental Professionals, an accrediting organization whose 12,000 environmental practitioners have standing with U.S. government agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy. In a November, 2006, survey of its members, it found that only 59% think human activities are largely responsible for the warming that has occurred, and only 39% make their priority the curbing of carbon emissions. And 71% believe the increase in hurricanes is likely natural, not easily attributed to human activities.
ok4ua
neon bulbs, must make your place look like a hookers paradise. do you mean flourescents?
CBCpravda encouraging people only to eat food grown within 1ookm of their homes. great idea in a country where the arable land is less than 10%, one can imagine roaming bands of RVs driving around digging up all the gardens within a 100kms of toronto until the entire place is denuded of vegetation while large tracts of saskatchewan lie untouched because there is no one there to eat the food.
when can we sell this POS network?
Watch out for compact flourescents. They could lower your light bills but that might be accomplished by burning down your house.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2004/12/02/light-bulbs-fires041202.html
A man I know lost his house to these very same bulbs. Another reason, if you still need one, to quit buying crap made in China.
It never fails to amaze me how gullible your average rank-and-file greenie/leftist/nutroot is. Just throw them some red meat once in a while and they are yours no matter what you do. Jettison the Kyoto Accord that you signed? No problem, we will defend you!
I’ve been saying for years that the Big Wieners in the political Left don’t care a tinker’s damn about global warming. Algore doesn’t, Chretien didn’t, Martin didn’t, Ms. Dion doesn’t and Tony Blair didn’t. Today we have the in-your-face proof that none of these creatures had any intention of actually keeping their word on that treaty.
Lefties, you ever hear the term “useful idiot”? You are useful to your leaders because you vote them in. You are idiots because you believe what they say.
This is the main problem with voting your hate instead of thinking like a human. It makes you a sucker for every lying slimeball that oozes by.
And back when he wrote his eco-malarkey book THE POPULATION BOMB crazy half-wit PAUL EHRLICH was making all these rediclous predictions that never happened and still this blabbering jerk still makes rediclous predictions and still those pathetic liberals listen to his poppycock
“How bout those biofuels?
Only increase greenhouse gases by 70%.
Morons.”
Not really. the carbon in biofuels comes from the atmosphere, so you don’t increase anything at all when you burn it.
The real crock with biofuels is you still need a lot of fossil fuels to produce it, much of it in the form of chemical fertilizer.
“CBCpravda encouraging people only to eat food grown within 1ookm of their homes. great idea in a country where the arable land is less than 10%, one can imagine roaming bands of RVs driving around digging up all the gardens within a 100kms of toronto until the entire place is denuded of vegetation while large tracts of saskatchewan lie untouched because there is no one there to eat the food.”
You ignore how bountiful well-managed land can be. Ontario could easily feed itself, just like Saskatchewan.
I grow nearly all my food on less than 2 acres (for 2 people) and I still have surplus, especially the last couple years with the extra-long growing seasons (there is something good with that GW!). And I don’t use chemicals or pesticides.
Locally produced food tastes better too. It doesn’t have to be picked days or weeks before being ripe.
Canada has some 250 million arable acres. We could feed this country 8 times over locally.
One gets the impression that guys like Suzuki only recently became aware of the changing climate and thinks that he is the only guy really thinking about this stuff.
I can say that he is dead wrong, as I sit here reading my original copy of Popular Science Sept 1995, which features the front cover headline -“HURRICANE ALERT – Killer storms are coming”
Yes, a feature article on William Gray and his hurricane predictions, which turned out quite right eh?
And putting that aside, I reach for my DISCOVER magazine, Nov 1989, which has ‘The Sunpot Syndrome” with research by Labitzke and Van Loon that correlates sunspots and weather changes.
But of course the latecomers, Gore and Suzuki, are the only true researchers in the science, and everybody is wrong.
Funny how that works.
Repeat after me, fools:
The planet is too hot; we must cool it down to normal. CO2 is a poison worse than DDT which destroys all life. We must eliminate it from the atmosphere.
While I wait for everyone to catch up with the UK government, I’ll sit back and relax and enjoy the splendid abundance of nature caused by the additional CO2.
GreenNeck, locally produced food doesn’t taste so good in March here in Canada. Also, the locally produced bananas are pretty rough.
Within a 100 km. Garbage. I like my salmon, grapes, bananas, California wine, cod, and all the other foods shipped to my market. Within a 100 km. Sound’s like living in the stone age to me. You can shove that idea where the sun does not shine!
Di-Hydrogen Monoxide should be banned because it is lethal if inhailed.
“GreenNeck, locally produced food doesn’t taste so good in March here in Canada. Also, the locally produced bananas are pretty rough.”
If you have a greenhouse, they do taste very good. But agreed with you re. bananas.
“Within a 100 km. Garbage. I like my salmon, grapes, bananas, California wine, cod, and all the other foods shipped to my market. Within a 100 km. Sound’s like living in the stone age to me. You can shove that idea where the sun does not shine!”
Point taken. I did not say it was for everybody. I do like wine and salmon too. But thanks to my food/electricity/firewood production I can live on a few hundred $ a month, and don’t have to sit in a frigging cubicle all day making someone else rich, and I won’t care if/when the economy goes into the tank. It’s a matter of choice.
The Guardian article, in a part not quoted in the sda item, says ” … scientists announced that carbon emissions were accumulating in the atmosphere far more quickly than predicted”. Frankly, at that point if I were a politician I’d throw the “scientists” out. They claimed to know what was going on in regard to the climate; some believed them; now they admit that they didn’t. “Come back when you have a clue”, I’d say, and add, “if it makes you feel any better the huge increase in the price of oil should accomplish everything that your black little Socialist hearts desire”.
hey greenneck,
Ever tried growing tomatos in January in Winnepeg?
People like fresh produce even in winter. That produce has to be grown where it isn’t fricken 30 below.
I live on a Lake in the Park Belt of Saskatchewan and the poplar tree are old, tall and sickly. Old photographs dating back to 1904 show the trees around the Lake to be small a new. Reason is simple: Forest fires were a constant and natural fact of life that led to regeneration. We have not seen fires here of any magnitude in decades because of the impact of the settling and dead fall is pilling up which will ultimately pose greater risk of spotty fires in the future. Fires are going to happen eventually and the more man intrudes(I am not arguing we shouldn’t at times)the hotter and the fire will be when it does ignite.
Linking this to GW is ridiculous to say the least.
By the way our due to heavy rainfall in the past 3 years our lake is 50″ above normal reaching historic recorded highs. The total area affected by excess moisture would dwarf the drought stricken parts of California. So my dear expert- in-everything Alby is so wrong his own Mother would want to slap him for it.
CBCpravda can take its 100km challenge and stick it right up where rick merciers one tonne challenge went.
This may be a late hit for this thread, but I noticed this article yesterday.
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=44949&newsdate=23-Oct-2007
The gist is that all the “Carbon Taxes” proposed in the UK are going into general government revenues, and are not being specifically targeted to climate issues.
So why are goverments so eager to promote CO2 regulation…maybe it’s as simple as just another way to increase taxes.