Category: Environment

So Oliver Dowden thinks mist people will say ‘can you stop the stupid stunts’. Not so stupid Oliver! Front page publicity headlines in 3 Daily papers and the BBC. Totally peaceful and non-disruptive – what better way to get the message across. I guess the police and MI5/6 may have egg on their chins whilst the gammons splutter in their breakfasts!

Well done Greenpeace – very professional and well executed.

In the last week 43.2% of our electricity has come from renewables. That is 43.2% that would have come from fossil fuels. We know that we cannot nip down to B&Q and pick up some solar panels and a couple of wind turbines. But maybe that is what we should be aiming for! We need to incentivise small scale production on a massive scale to meet the demand for electric transport and space heating in our homes. Governments are too much in awe of the mighty corporations. Economies of scale do not always work out cheaper for the consumer or the environment. Huge contracts handed out to the corporations are often then sub-contracted down the supply chasin with each firm taking a slice. Big can be beautiful but often its not!

With the possibility of a collapse in the Gulf Stream/North Atlantic Drift insulation of homes and workplaces will be essential as extremes of temperature become ever more prevalent. Yes life style changes will need to be made – but this takes time too. Supermarket deliveries could be prioritised by areas to increase efficiency andf allow a discount. Local shops offered a discount on council tax. Pubs could be converted into work places with flexible office space, and meeting rooms whilst still offering food and drink? Aviation fuel should be taxed at normal rate – how can it be cheaper to get to Newcastle by flying via Turkey, than by train (as a friend discvovered recently)PS. It might not have been Newcastle – but was mainline UK! I am sure there are lots of other ideas. New housing should become a public debate – not a closed deal between developers and the planning department.

I wonder if he has so little regard for the law that he goese ahead anyway and then expects the Daily Mail to whip up support?

Sunak continues his tax payer funded publicity tour weith a visit to a brewery where he was heckled. A major investor has said he would pull out of the UK if new oil wells are started. The prison barge is delayed by health and safety experts and firefighters call it a death trap.

Racial abuse at Sadiq Khan is estimated to have cost someone nearly £50000. Since becoming Mayor he has had over 300000 abusive posts.

Conservatives continue to be 20 points behind Labour so the policy is not working so far.

A huge wildfire has spread from California to Nevada – Phoenix had 21st days of temp above 43C, China has been hit by a typhoon said to be the stringest for years – parts of Beijing have severe flooding and rainfall of up to 580mm in one day. The Mediterranean countries seem to have got their fires under control although high winds are predicted. A word about the report from Greece that mist fires were the result of humans, has been eagerly reported by RWMedia. This is probably correct, but does not mean arson – just carelessness; I am also aware that the Greek Government has been severely cricised for its response to the fires and will be looking to pass the blame elsewhere. i am also aware of radio programmes in the UK getting people to phone in from across Northern Europe where the summer has been pretty miserable.

Labour should go on a majorcost of living offensive. This is the main issue facing people today, not Coutts, oil wells and small boats. Long term plansd for green energy will reduce peoples bills, as would insulation. Mega power stations are invredibly inefficient with 50% of energy wasted – as far as I can tell my solar panels do not waste anything. More smaller and greener energy production weould reduce relience on the world market. Long term benefits can be explained and costed. Poverty is the policy of choice for the tories. After 13 years of reactive government we need a proactive one. Cut the tax loopholes and build a sustainable and just society.

Desperate to be liked (seems like a tory obsession!), Sunak has declared that he is on the side of motorists. Firstly I am not sure when it became a matter of sides, and he forgets that whilst 74% of adukts have a full driving licence, 100% of adults are pedestrians and there are 20 million bikes in the uk. I think Suna might need some maths lessons! Did he do a straw poll in Tory HQ or Tufton St and ask who loved Top Gear with Clarkson? he forgets that Johnson was behind many LTN’s in London, and in general once they are designated they become popular with residents. However there are motorists who rely on their car for their sexuality and believe they have the right to destroy others lifestyles – similar philosophies are used by off the roaders in National Parks. Ao it seems that Suna is appealing to the mind set of the ignorant and the selfish (his home ground).

I am sure that not all LTN’s have been well planned and wait for the Mail, Express and Telegraph to illustrate these errors in glorious irony!

Can we return to the 15 minute city concept please? Change of lifestyles is needed, not just LTN”s. With the reduced income from petrol tax the government will be forcedto look at pricing per mile, – with variable rates this would enhance the ability of councils to reduce traffic in certain areas. Just had a thought – wait for the squealing when petrol/diesel users have to pay both fuel tax and mileage tax! And this will be comong to your car soon!

Will the government really order the removal of LTN’s and open them up to cars?

And now Rishi has flown to Scotland to promite the sale of new exploration licences., The arguement that we will need oil/gas for decades is a good one, but new exploitation is not necessary, and in the future carbon capture is a possibility. Oil is also used to make plastics – another shit idea!

Positive thought – My village has about 1000 inhabitants – number of papers sold on week days -32 per day and falling. Most sales are to over 50’s.

Name one good thing the toroes have done in 13 years? Asked an Express/Telegraph reader this morning and was met by mumbling and no answer. Sunak’s latest plan is to divide and rule. He sys he will support the “car owners” – by definition this means he is anti-clean air. Personally i believe that the ULEZ zones are correct for health and quality of life, BUT need to be created with greater public consultation and exceptions, together with a generous scrappage scheme. Petrol heads still. get worked up about seat belts ad drink driving laws. They hate traffic calming and schemes that block rat runs and child friendly neighbourhoods.

Shapps is, after failing to find anything good to extol about the 13 years of tory misrule is now attacking with the intellect – of a tory actually (every animal species seems to have greater powers than people like Shapps). There will be blackouts under Labour is his latest infantile chant as he dribbles down his chest. Labour will have many problems die to the massive misrule by the Tories.

back to ULEZ – it is not if, but when.

We know what the problem is, we know how to fix it, and still the worlds leaders prevaricate and procrastinate. COP28 will be headed by the Head of the UAEs national oil company for fuck sake! Tony Blair preaches caution about the speed of change, whilst lunchinbg with Murdoch with Starmer. What is needed is for the UK to set a world example by explaining the need, bringing strict green planning, abolishing tax relief on aviation fuel, offering subsidies to firms growing food and making stuff in this country and Europe rather than in the Pacific Region. Radical change and a vision – tax pollution to subsidise environmentally friendly schemes.

Rhodes and Corfu continue to burn, USA and China have record temperatures, India has floods and high temperatures – and the right wing looneys supported by the RW trash press move to cut back on net zero. All because of ULEZ (which they introduced themselves into London) giving them a vague chance of retaining seats in the suburbs of London. ULEZ is about health rather than climate, although the two are inexcurably linked. We know the right wing extremists like JR-M & Co hate scientists and the facts – they prefer to believe the ones they conjure up themselves.

But FACT – global average temperature has been brokem this year.FACT – sea tea[peratures are te highest recorded, Heat waves in Europe are 2.5C hotter than normal, in USA 2C and China 1.5C hotter. These heatwaves will occir much more frequently as the temperature warms up.

The Greek navy has helped evacuate people from the beaches with 19000 displaced – where are the Brish Navy? Large numbers of British nationals are involved. The government has not even issued a don’t travel warning, leaving it to the travel companies and airlines who were flying people in last weekend despite the situation.

The arguments made by the loonies on the right are that a. Global warming is a natural phenomenon and we need to adapt to it (also the belief of the proponent if the GAIA philosophy); b. The climate crisis is a scam by governments and industries to rip people off (which they know ALL ABOUT!). c. Why should we act if China and the ISA do not? (a reasonably good point to a degree, but inaction makes us all complicit – we could become world leaders in the new technologies and then do a Tim Berniers-Smith and give it to the world for free?).

OK so I am an optimist and and naive and idealistic. Please Keir do not let me down!