Clameur de Haro? notes with despair the breathless enthusiasm with which the Jersey Evening [sic] Post is pushing the fatuous “Earth Hour” on 28 March, when we are all beseeched to plunge ourselves into darkness in order to do nothing less than save the planet, a (“vote for action against global warming”).
On no fewer than three occasions in the past week or so, an excited Elaine Byrne has eco-warbled enthusiastically (and repetitiously, to the point of tedium), despite her pieces being mind-numbingly long on regurgitated greenist propaganda and suspiciously short on hard scientific information.
This whole idea is arrant nonsense, and politicos like Cohen and the so called Eco-Active Team are achieving nothing more than signing themselves up to the nauseating marriage of gesture politics and muddled thinking which is the defining characteristic of populist environmentalism.
Firstly, a pinprick interruption to the overwhelming majority of residential light use which occurs at night will have no emission-reducing effects whatsoever, on anything. Most power stations run, during the night, at the same capacity as during daytime peak demand periods, and produce electricity (and therefore some amount of greenhouse gas) anyway, whether it is being used to create light or not. There is no way to store this excess power produced at night - that is why electricity generators sell off-peak power so cheaply to run our electric hot water systems at night, which function as virtual batteries. Hydro plants are responsive to fluctuating power demand, as are gas-fired plants, but others are not. Jersey’s certainly isn’t.
Secondly, in Britain, domestic household consumption accounts for only 30 percent of overall energy use — and lighting accounts for only 9 percent of that domestic usage. (By contrast, heating and hot water account for 80 percent of household energy use.) In short, less than 2.7 percent of total energy consumption in Britain can be blamed on the heinous eco-ignorant populace recklessly “destroying the planet” by having the lights switched on at night.
Thirdly, just consider the language used to justify this minor measure that will achieve staggeringly little, if anything (apart, possibly, from an increase in traffic accidents or petty crime). “Climate change is one of the most serious threats facing people and nature”, pontificates the WWFN. Well, thank heavens for that – CdeH? mistakenly thought that the effects of the global economic downturn, declining heath and nutrition standards in the third world, and Islamist terrorism were far more serious than a (by no means unanimously) predicted temperature rise of about 0.8 degrees…….
So this little eco-mentalist war on light is itself based on an utterly false prospectus. But of course it’s a golden opportunity for the greenists and our putative lords and masters to combine to present it (and themselves) as epoch-definingly heroic, to show how supremely committed they are to “saving the world”, and to condemn anyone who says “just a minute………” as either a sceptic, or a heretic to the green religion, or of course, a perpetrator of that ultimate crime, being a “global warming denier”.
CdeH? observes that we taxpayers in the beleaguered productive sector of the Island’s economy appear to be funding one Olivia Copsey, described as “Education and Awareness Officer” at the Environment Department. With access to information almost universally available over the internet, might we know precisely what she has been engaged to educate us about and make us aware of? And more to the point in these straitened times, how much we are paying for the privilege?
Clameur de Haro? will not be succumbing to the collective flight from the light of rational thought into the darkness of unreason on 28 March, even at the risk of not being able to tell himself what a good and caring person he is. He will, in protest, be switching on every damn light that he has, if only to ensure that the militant eco-mentalists don’t seize the opportunity presented by the darkness to come and vandalize his fleet of 4x4s.
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4 comments:
Phil Rondel's ideas about not keeping on the seatfront lights blazing all night (and some of the out of town street lighting) is far better than one hour. Although perhaps if we can quantify the savings, that will give him power. As far as global warming is concerned, it all depends where you are as to how fast you appreciate it. Australia is really getting problems with droughts that it did not have 20 years ago, for example. If the global temperature rises by 5C on average, a lot of the countries currently producing their own food - wheat, potatoes etc - will find it increasing difficult. Put it another way - the global economic downturn is our generations problem; climate change will be our children or grandchildren's. It won't go away.
I think Voltaire's bit about defending to the death etc adequately covers my reaction to most of your spiel but this bit:
CdeH? observes that we taxpayers in the beleaguered productive sector of the Island’s economy appear to be funding one Olivia Copsey, described as “Education and Awareness Officer” at the Environment Department. With access to information almost universally available over the internet, might we know precisely what she has been engaged to educate us about and make us aware of? And more to the point in these straitened times, how much we are paying for the privilege?
made me give a tiny cheer that somebody else of obvious intelligence (although highly misguided) spotted the same thing and thought the same too. The basic information is out there and, if people haven't absorbed it by now, I can't see that yet another expensive civil servant (who no-one will pay any attention to) is necessary - I'm doing it for a lot less (free - damn it) and to much greater effect.
Earth Hour is, of course, symbolic but I found great irony in the fact that "Environment" Minister Greenwash Freddie and "bonfire in a box" TTS Minister Mike Jackson both threw their self-perceived gravitas "100%" behind it whilst almost simultaneously voting for an incinerator that, if operated as they are planning, will actually help to increase Jersey's carbon footprint, not to mention beng highly antagonistic towards recycling, waste reduction etc
Nick P (aka Ned Greensleeves)
p.s. Your piece quoted here
"CdeH? mistakenly thought that the effects of the global economic downturn, declining heath and nutrition standards in the third world, and Islamist terrorism were far more serious than a (by no means unanimously) predicted temperature rise of about 0.8 degrees……. "
is indeed mistaken. I think it was reported that it was the Chinese who vetoed the rest of the IPCC from saying that they were 99% certain and instead they had to substitute 90% that the expected temperature rises would be
"1.1 to 6.4 °C (2.0 to 11.5 °F) during the twenty-first century."
A 4°C rise would devastate the economy and cause a planetary wide species extinction, billions of people would die and those left would have to move to wherever was stil suitable for human life
Both CdeH and NickakaNed worship at the shrine of google-information. God help us all, we had 3 hours of that from Wimberley, who demonstrated deep google-expertise in global warming, recycling, incineration technology, project management, accountancy, law, ... At least Syvret demonstrates his fallacies from first principles "It's not an Energy from Waste plant it's an Energy from Energy plant"
States members need to be weighing machines, so that States can operate as a voting machine, but one of the eco-priesthood has infiltrated the chamber! People of of such principles have burned more important things than waste - google Ridley and Latimer. At least this time the lights will be going out - now where's my candle.
In a developed economy something over 50% of the generating capacity
is Base Load. These are plants that are slow and expensive to start
and stop, e.g. DRAX, so run day and night.
The rest can be Load Following, and so respond to demand (in these
post-CEGB days price is the proxy for demand). The fastest response is
from pump storage systems such as Dinorwig where some turbines run in
air bubbles. They can come on stream in minutes.
The effect of Earth Hour can, in principle, be deduced from a change
in the price of electricity.
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