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A nice bit of schadenfreude in the morning
Posted by bex on 14 December 2007.
For environmentalists partial to a mild bit of schadenfreude over their tea and toast, this morning's Today Programme was a treat. You can listen to it here, if you're quick (Fiona and farnishk, I think you'll like John Humphreys' stance).
Environment minister Hilary Benn was invited on to talk about how things have been going in Bali (not so well). As Benn waxed lyrical about the urgent need for action to reduce emissions, Humphreys pulled him up on the yawning gap between the government's rhetoric and reality, what with the government wanting to build new runways and all. Then he pulled him up again. And again. And again. And again. It was a little like listening to a kitten being mauled by a teddy bear.
Benn didn't really have an answer - there isn't much you can say when your government's policies so blatantly put the lie to your words. A few weeks back, Malcolm Wicks found himself in the same position when Paxman pointed out that , for all his fine words, the government still plans to build the first new coal fired power station in the UK in 30 years.
With Humphreys and Paxman on the case, it looks as though politicians are going to have to start walking the walk on climate change if they want to keep talking the talk.
Love the man
JH was brilliant. I don't usually get to listen to Today, but Hilary Benn has been shown up to be a typical product of the system; a "yes" man, unless he is being asked whether anyone should make sacrifices.
It's all about votes, innit?
If you want to hear a few painful truths have a listen to this podcast from the BBC. I'm at 11'30'', 26'25'' and 44'36''.
:-)
Keith
www.theearthblog.org
Near-Zero CO2 Emissions
A Plan to Make All Countries Near-Zero Carbon Emitters Within Ten Years
I have been campaigning for a government driven campaign to make the UK a Near-Zero Carbon Country since shortly after I invented the Buxton Geothermal Turbine Generator in the 1980s. Twenty years down the line the UK has done nothing, and I get the run around from various government departments. I am sure that these same people will give me the run around for another ten years, when it will be too late to stop global warming. It is difficult to get hold of all the figures necessary to show that countries can become near-zero carbon countries. However, there is a simple explanation that adequately reveals how this necessary target can be achieved. All our power requirements are for lighting, heating, transport, and energy for such things as industry on down to exercise machines. To make things simple we can assume that each category is 25% of total power. The lighting can be zero rated by building Buxton Geothermal Turbine Generators, the heating can be near-zero rated by installing Starlite coatings, that prevents heat escaping, on the walls and ceilings of all premises, and by having electrical heating from renewable sources we cut heating CO2 emissions to zero. Transport can be made near-zero in terms of carbon emissions by ensuring that all vehicles use carbon zero electricity, instead of petrol. This may seem to be an anathema to ‘‘petrol heads’’ but this displeasure can be simply overcome. At the moment when inventors come up with new technologies for electrical vehicles Oil Companies buy and destroy the patents and designs. These patents have a shelf life of ten years so we could soon put together a group of past inventors in this field to reproduce their work legally, as an intergovernmental team. We still have the problem of transport by aeroplane and ship having to use fossil fuels. However, their carbon footprints can be at least halved by having their fuels mixed with water using an ultrasonic dibber. Finally, the power needed for energy can be made entirely of carbon free electricity. New ways of making industry work using electricity instead of the gas that they are used to will be needed, but these are not insurmountable problems given that the Governments of the world have ten years to achieve the target.
All Government Departments must be part of the solution to the greatest threat to life on earth. They must work together, there is no point in hoping that the ‘invisible hand’ of the market has the ability to pay for such a massive clean up. In comparison, the threat of terrorism is a minor side show, and we would not leave the market to this task. The £60 billion being spent on replacing Trident submarines would have solved CO2 emission problems in the UK. This does not mean to say that this was our last chance, just a step in the wrong direction. Funding can be found from elsewhere. ‘The Ecologist’ magazine estimates the true cost of mental illness to the UK is £100 billion per year. When all patients suffering from mental illness are passed on to their trained local practice nurse for a thirty second cure using the Kadir-Buxton Method then we have immediate and massive savings.(The alternative of expensive drugs which, in trials, have less success than no treatment at all, should be made a thing of the past). The money saved by the UK would clean up CO2 emissions in the UK using the above plan. It is also easy to adapt it to any other country. My website gives more information about these inventions.
Please sign my petition to cut CO2 Emissions by 30% at: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/CO2Reduction/
Re: love the man
Cheers for that - I especially liked the 26'25" intervention :-)
Bex
gpuk