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Our soi-disant
elitist press and media like to pour scorn on their more tabloid and
‘red top’ kin, yet I have found on numerous occasions that the latter
report ‘global warming’ issues in a far fairer and more critical
manner. It is interesting to speculate about why this should be so.
Today, for example, the Daily Express
has a very good piece indeed, entitled ‘Global warming? No it’s getting
COLDER’ [April 10, p. 17: not online], in which it reports the fact
that there has been no ‘global warming’ since 1998, and on the
likelihood that there will be a further drop in temperature this year.
The article quotes both Bob Carter of James Cook University, Australia,
and yours truly at length. In my case, the accuracy of the reporting is
exemplary, which makes a nice change - one up there to the Daily Express.
Moreover, it appears that the lack of warming since 1998 is beginning
to dawn on a wider public and media - as Jeremy Paxman declared when
interviewing Nigel Lawson [Baron Lawson of Blaby, PC, Chancellor of the
Exchequer from June 1983 to October 1989] on Newsnight: “Interesting!” [An important reminder: Nigel’s excellent new book, An Appeal to Reason: a Cool Look at Global Warming, is published in the UK today - it is available here]
Now For The Con
Secondly,
people are increasingly seeing through the facile attempts of
politicians to employ ‘global warming’ to con the public over policies.
The ‘Countryside Crusader’, ‘Agromenes’, in Country Life [‘Doomed eco-towns to line Government pockets’, Country Life, April 10, p. 72: not online] is scathing about the nonsense of eco-towns:
“Eco-towns
are a con of the first order. The Government is desperately trying to
turn a trick on the environment in order to bolster its appalling
housing record. This is new-town Harlow, Basildon and Stevenage with an
eco-label round its neck and no jobs.”
Moreover, like ‘Global Warming Politics’, Agromenes is singularly unimpressed by Caroline Flint, the Minister for Housing:
“Nor
will the eco-excuse stand up. Caroline Flint ... hasn’t defined what
the Government means by eco-towns, nor what carbon neutral signifies.
It’s spin by labelling. So we’ll have unsustainable settlements without
jobs or amenities dumped on us. This is one eco-hype that no countryman
should back.”
Now For The Coal
Meanwhile, Andrew Revkin, writing for Dot Earth [‘Money for India’s ‘Ultra Mega’ Coal Plants Approved’ (The New York Times, April 9)], reminds us that coal is quickly being crowned ‘King Coal’ once again:
“The
troubling tension between propelling prosperity and limiting climate
risks in a world still wedded to fossil fuels is on full display this
week. India’s Tata Power group just gained important financial backing
from the International Finance Corporation, a branch of the World Bank,
for its planned $4 billion, 4-billion watt ‘Ultra Mega’ coal-burning
power plant complex in Gujarat state.
The
I.F.C., along with the Asian Development Bank, Korea, and other
backers, sees the need to bring electricity to one of the world’s
poorest regions as more pressing than limiting carbon dioxide from fuel
burning. The plants will emit about 23 million tons of
carbon dioxide a year, according to the I.F.C., but using technology
that is 40 percent more efficient at turning coal into kilowatt-hours
than the average for India.”
Revkin then rams home the truth about the return of ‘King Coal’:
“Just
one indicator of the direction of things is that coal-sales ticker over
at the Web site of Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private coal
company. It reels off sales at about 8 tons a second, by my estimate.
As of 2 p.m. today Peabody had sold 65,246,061 tons so far this year.”
[You can visit Peabody Energy here]
Thus, it is cold, cons, and coal: ‘global warming’ is in deep trouble.
No
wonder that Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is reported as admitting that,
in view of the current global economic trends, it will be “very very
difficult” to reach an agreement on any new climate change treaty [‘Climate-change officials speak ahead of IPCC Budapest conference’, MTI News, April 9].
Just so! “Tea anyone?” Source
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