The Independent, looking back over the year through its deep green spectacles, tells us:
It was mostly a terrible year for the environment. In the UK, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson continued to prompt speculation that he is a climate sceptic and Chancellor George Osborne carried on putting off potential investors in green energy, most obviously by scrapping from the Energy Bill a clause to green Britain’s power supply by 2030.
Meanwhile, for reasons I have not been following, badgers are being killed.
People like Osborne, Paterson and their ilk, in Britain and around the world, could be doing much better, but reports like this remind us that things could be far worse. At least the argument is flowing in the sane direction and away from climate catastrophism. And, with painful slowness, the power and the money are now responding to this change in the climate, as in: change in the climate of opinion.
Meanwhile, the world continued to experience the kind of extreme weather events that cannot be directly linked to climate change but which scientists say are likely to occur more often as a result of a changing climate.
I love that “cannot be directly linked” bit. As in: cannot be directly linked, no matter matter how hard the Independent’s preferred scientists are trying. These guys are just too obvious about what they want to be true.
The climate itself remains much the same.
A bunch of climate scientists/activists/troughers? is currently on an expedition to the Antarctic “to discover and communicate the environmental changes taking place in the south.”
As their ship is now well and truly stuck, presumably we can expect them to communicate that the current level of sea ice in those parts is more than 2 standard deviations above normal.
I’m not holding my breath, though.
I recall the late, great Auberon Waugh railing against the killing of badgers. It is never a good to see any bureaucrats implementing policies that involve mass extermination, it runs the risk of giving them ideas and reasons for mission creep.
The environment is simply what is around us, it cannot be destroyed, it may be altered, it may change. I look forward to the return of glaciers to the English Lake District, with Calendonian socialsim crushed under unbearable masses of ice.
On BBC Radio Four today there was yet another programme on the melting Artic icecap.
All the speakers assumed that the ice was melting – and one was a native American ice carver, so her scientific knowledge can not be questioned (basically the lady appeared to have escaped from the writings of the late “Peter Simple”), the native America ice carver had just take her daughter to see the ice in the Antarctic (before it is destroyed) – I thought tribal people (if we are still allowed to use the word “tribe”) were poor (due to evil capitalists of course), how come the lady has the money to go off to Antarctica and Britain and …..
Anyway it is presently minus 10 Celsius in Chicago (minus 26 Celsius in Canada) so how can the ice be melting in the Artic?
Or have I missed something?
I note the ship stuck in ice at the very height of the Antarctic summer that no icebreakers seem to be able to reach. Warming?
Brian, you haven’t missed a thing.
They have to keep screaming, waving their arms, and running in circles or the money faucet might stop !!!!
They know full well that most people will simply accept what they say without question and never even attempt to dispute or verify any of it by doing a bit of independent research no matter how easy that might be.
I’ve said for years, this is a scam to create some sort of world tax ( administered by the U.N. no doubt, who, as a whole, is totally above reproach – yeah, right ) to ‘save us’ and in which only coughed up by the most wealthy ( and gullible ) countries.
Go tell China, they have to start paying the U.N. X billions annually so ‘save’ the environment and see what happens !!!!
Here where I’m living, it’s about 29°C, sunny and I’m getting ready to spend the day at the beach.
(Following up on Vinegar Joe)
Here in Estonia, the most northern place i’ve ever lived, it’s unseasonably warm; much to my disappointment, as i am keen to do some serious skiing (as opposed to downhill skiing).
I’m cold.
I’m hot.
Here on Queenslands sunny Gold Coast the Gold Coast Seaway weather station is reporting a very pleasant 33C.
An Icebreaker from Boganstan will attempt to liberate the Russian ship from Antarctic sea ice during summer, now that’s ironic.
The Great Satan has been vanquished on the Krikik field, better luck next series Englanders.
Cats, had it not snowed in OZ a few weeks ago? I realize it’s a big country and all, but still, in summer?
Yep, up in the hills down south. Not here.
Mr Ed,
“The environment is simply what is around us”…unless you go “outside the environment…beyond the environment”, as suggested here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-QNAwUdHUQ
An oldie, but a goodie.