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Climate Change Sceptic:
‘Carbon footprint’ has certainly burst into the vernacular! However when politicians are throwing their collective weight behind something with such aplomb, I become suspicious.
I am not a climate change denier; the climate is certainly changing and there is no doubt that mankind is having a devastating effect on the environment. However, the government have isolated CO2 as the Prime Suspect in the Crime of this century i.e. Global Warming.
From what I have read, climate analysis (as distinct from weather forecasting) is immensely complicated and there are literally hundreds or thousands of drivers. To single out CO2 the main contributor to global warming seems rather convenient. It is easy to tax carbon consumption and it is also a way that enables government to become more involved in the affairs of Jo Public.
Let me digress for an instant. A few years ago we were lead to believe that Saddam Hussein was the major threat to World Peace. Next it was Islamic Extremism which was threatening Western Civilisation. Now it’s climate change who is the big boggieman of the moment. And what is the net result of all these great threats: the curtailment of civil liberties; more taxation; more powers to the police and local councils (ie. Bin inspections, phone tapping for spurious reasons) and greater control by government. Do any of the aforementioned make us more secure? It’s debatable.
My point is that the net result of the induced climate change fear is more taxation, less freedom, bigger government and more control rather than reduced CO2.
I would suggest that stopping the ‘losing battle’ in Afghanistan would reduce the collective Carbon Foot print more than every carbon reducing initiative currently effective in the whole UK. Getting rid of the EU, would be good too (that’s another story though). However we are told that should we pull out of Afghanistan, Pakistan may be destabilised by the Taliban and since Pakistan have nuclear power this would be a potential disaster. Another example of ‘Listen to us we know best’. Once again the public are instilled with fear in order to keep us in line and following our leaders who are only doing the best for us of course.
So, if we are all to reduce our carbon foot print, what alternative are the government offering us?
Electric cars? Wonderful, it takes me one hour to charge my mobile phone and 5 hours to charge my laptop. Imagine how much electricity is used to charge a car. How many miles would you travel compared to the electricity consumption. Have you ever had to dispose of a car battery? Batteries are one of the most UN-environmentally things on the planet – we really want millions of massive car batteries around, that’s brainy.
Nuclear power is the next bright idea of the Einsteins who run the world. The UK have about 15 aging reactors which need decommissioning. If nuclear power stations are not properly maintained you end up with Chernobyl. How could the international community prevent Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya and any other potentially unstable or internationally ‘uncooperative’ country from having nuclear power stations if this is the ‘way foreword’. Another big concern is the disposal of nuclear waste. Nuclear waste