The Wright stuff - by Richard... Thursday, October 28, 2010

The Wright stuff - by Richard... Thursday, October 28, 2010

People don't like bird choppers. More than 230 separate local campaign groups against wind farms are operating across the UK, from Scotland and Kent to Norfolk, Yorkshire and Cornwall. These groups are scoring striking successes in defeating planned wind farms – even when faced with the weight of official recommendations.

This is Oliver Wright, the paper's "Whitehall Editor" – whatever that is. Note his incredulous tone: " ... even when faced with the weight of official recommendations". The Independent should listen to itself. "Official recommendations ... ". Hmmmm.

Anyhow, in the last 12 months to September, there has been a 50 percent drop in planning approvals in England, and approvals for wind farms in Scotland have also fallen. The number of new wind farms coming "on-stream" (becoming active) has also fallen by 30 per cent – partly as a result of the recession.

And shock, horror! The figures are revealed in a report on the state of the industry "cast doubt on the ability of the Government to reach its target of generating 20 percent of all our energy needs from renewable sources by 2020." This is followed by: "Changes to planning laws due to be announced later this year are expected to make it harder still to get planning permission."

You can detect the growing hysteria in the tone when Wright says, "Campaigners say that although wind farms maybe needed to combat global warming, the turbines – often as tall as the London Eye - are an eyesore in some of the most beautiful parts of the country". These (terrible) Campaigners say that they are " unacceptably noisy and can decimate local bird population. They suggest that all new wind farms should be built off-shore."

And against that, we get "environmentalists and industry experts". They say this is unrealistic. The time needed to build off-shore wind farms can be up to seven years, they are more expensive and the technology is still a relatively immature. If Britain is to meet its renewable targets, they say, it is vital that onshore wind farms continue to be built at a significant rate well into the 2020s.

So the Wright stuff laments: "The situation is typified by instances such as those in North Yorkshire, where local politicians recently vetoed plans to build seven turbines in the face of official advice that they should go-ahead after a concerted local campaign." God! How bad can this bet. Local politicians rejected "official advice"! The world is coming to an end.

Poor Mr Wright. One can feel his pain.

COMMENT THREAD

Print ready

Stuffed warmists - by Richard...

An interesting development here with the launch of a campaign, ostensibly to overturn the Cleggeron "green" targets. Amongst other things, they are putting tests to the warmists, challenging them to prove ten points. Interestingly, one of those they want the warmists to prove is: "Data recorded by ground-based stations are a reliable indicator of global surface temperature trends".

Actually, I think we've all missed a trick here. How can atmospheric temperature ever be suitable for measuring global warming – i.e., increase in global heat? That is rather like putting a dipstick in your car tank, in order to measure the amount in the tank at your local petrol station.

The point, of course, is that temperature is only a proxy for heat if you are measuring a known, stable quantity. And since air only holds a fraction of the heat held by the oceans – and we have no reliable way of determining the average temperature of the global water mass, we have no way of calculating the total heat - much less the degree to which it has changed.

That alone rather stuffs the warmists, although such niceties will hardly bother them. This has never been about science.

COMMENT THREAD

Print ready

Whack-a-mole - by Richard... Wednesday, October 27, 2010

"My point is that when governments go looking for solutions to problems, they frequently end up creating new ones. Biofuels, which cost a bomb, are sending food prices through the roof, and far from benefiting the environment seem to damage it even further, are a case in point."

So says Jeremy Warner. Or, as North Jr says, "without a grounding philosophy, all government is whack-a-mole".

COMMENT THREAD

Print ready

"The growing toxicity of their attitude" - by Richard...

Heffer, it seems, is tapping into the same mood that we're detecting. The Westminster slime, with their comfortable salaries and pensions, secure behind their concrete barriers and machine-gun toting cops, still haven't got it. But out in the country, there is a mood. You can touch it, feel it, cut it with a knife. It is there and it is growing.

Forget the Kermits. Les Anglais en ont assez.

COMMENT THREAD