Kyoto, climate change, and the price of oil

Posted by TonyN on 29/06/2008 at 8:54 am The Climate 2 Responses »
Jun 292008

Last weekend, UK prime minister Gordon Brown visited Jiddah to plead with oil producers to increase supplies. This would seem to be a very strange thing for a politician with the declared intention of leading a worldwide crusade against climate change to do.

For years now we have been told that our addiction to fossil fuels is causing global warming, and that the only way to avert catastrophe is to reduce fossil fuel consumption to below 1990 levels. What better incentive to do this than a steep rise in oil prices? Surely the prime minister should be celebrating not whingeing.

Governments all over the world have at least paid lip service to the Kyoto Protocol. They have stated and re-stated their intention to reduce demand for oil, by whatever ruthless means may be necessary. So how is it that we now have a shortfall in production that has caused oil prices to double in just six months? Falling demand should be driving prices down by now, or at least keeping them stable. Continue reading »

FT: Global warming - don't despair

Posted by Robin Guenier on 22/06/2008 at 3:58 pm The Climate 10 Responses »
Jun 222008

On 19th June, the Financial Times published an article by Phillip Stephens entitled “Saving the planet will be difficult, but do not despair”. See: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/65b790f0-3e12-11dd-b16d-0000779fd2ac.html

Essentially, he’s worried that “denial” of man-made global warming is still a problem despite the “overwhelming weight of scientific knowledge” that, unless mankind’s emissions of CO2 are curtailed, we face dire consequences. He claims that opinion polls show that, although respondents in most countries think global warming is “a very serious problem”, that’s not true of the “two worst polluters” – the USA and China. He comments that emission control is no longer “cool” – the world now faces other short-term priorities. He notes how China and India have increasingly voracious appetites for fossil fuels. Hence the “despair” of the title. This, he says, is exacerbated by the problem of getting all nations to move to low-carbon economies – perhaps it’s just too difficult?

Stephens rejects despair. Instead, he supports the economist Nicholas Stern’s proposal that “market mechanisms, technological advances and behavioural changes” be used to share “the burden of adjustment” between rich and emerging nations. That would mean ceilings on emissions by the developed economies that “bite immediately” and a “new international trading system” imposing “binding” targets on developing countries after 2020.

I agree that despair is unnecessary. But there is so much that is unpleasant, misleading and wrong in Stephens’s analysis that that truth could be overlooked. Some examples: Continue reading »

These polluters will not pay

Posted by TonyN on 13/06/2008 at 5:06 pm The Climate 6 Responses »
Jun 132008

Since starting Harmless Sky I’ve posted a couple of times on opinion polls that suggest the UK government and the green movement are not carrying public opinion with them in quite the way they might wish. (here and here) Then the results of the local elections on 1st May, when the Liberals and the Green Party failed to make any headway, seemed to confirm that there is a high degree of global warming scepticism among voters. (here)

Perhaps it was no coincidence that, about the same time as the elections, Opinium Research came up with some rather startling findings. In a poll carried out between 11th – 14th April and published on 2nd May, more than 70% of respondents said that they would not be willing to pay higher taxes in order to fund projects to combat climate change. Continue reading »

Continuation of the New Satesman climate change blog

Posted by TonyN on 12/06/2008 at 4:31 pm The Climate No Responses »
Jun 122008

If you are looking for the continuation of the New Statesman discussion that ended today, then click on the appropriate link under Categories in the left-hand sidebar.

Llanbedr Airfield: What Dr Lewis of the Snowdonia Society has to say

Posted by TonyN on 06/06/2008 at 4:04 pm Llanbedr Airfield 9 Responses »
Jun 062008

On 22nd May 2008 the Cambrian News published a letter from a Dr David Lewis with the heading, ‘Assembly stubbornly refused to answer our questions’. As Dr Lewis is the chairman of the Snowdonia Society’s Policy Committee, and therefor at the heart of the campaign to prevent Kemble Air Services’ taking over Llanbedr Airfield, it is reasonable to suppose that he would take this opportunity to make the best possible case for the society’s opposition.

Here is the first sentence of Dr Lewis’ letter:

Everyone in Ardudwy would like to see new jobs make up for those lost when Llanbedr airfield was closed four years ago.

Now, at first glance, there is nothing in the least bit controversial here, but who exactly is this Dr Lewis Continue reading »

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