GWPF Newsletter: UK Government Between Industry & Children's Climate Crusade

Middle-Class ‘Green’ Militants Encourage School Children To Demonstrate For Eco-Socialism

In this newsletter:

1) Theresa May Urged To Back UK Shale Revolution As Company Discovers Massive Shale Gas Field In East Midlands
The Sun, 15 February 2019
 
2) UK Government Rejects New Fracking Operation
Financial Times, 12 February 2019

 
3) Government Whitewashing Lord Deben's £600,000 Green Scandal
Gaia Fawkes, 14 February 2019
 
4) The Nord Stream 2 Gas Pipeline Is A Russian Trap - And Germany Has Fallen Into It
The Economist, 14 February 2019
 
5) Anarchy In The UK: Middle-Class ‘Green’ Militants Encourage Children To Play Truant
Richard Littlejohn, Daily Mail, 12 February 2019

6) Our Message To Pupils: Don’t Follow The Herd - Think For Yourself
Global Warming Policy Forum, 15 February 2019
 
7) The Story of the Famous And Foolish Children’s Crusade: A Warning From History
About History
 
8) The Green New Deal’s Toughest Transition Will Be Back To Reality
Robert Lyman, Financial Post, 14 February 2019

Full details:

1) Theresa May Urged To Back UK Shale Revolution As Company Discovers Massive Shale Gas Field In East Midlands
The Sun, 15 February 2019

Chemical giant Ineos claims the gas field in Nottinghamshire is the richest in UK history

THERESA MAY is today urged to back the fracking revolution as new tests signal the East Midlands is sitting on “30-years’ worth of gas”.

Ineos, Britain’s biggest private company, claims drilling results from its field in Nottinghamshire suggest “US levels” of shale gas under the soil.

Tests found an average level of 60.7 standard cubic feet per tonne of gas – compared with an average 39 (scf) at a vast shale field in Texas.

Ineos Shale chief operating officer Tom Pickering claimed it was the most significant drilling result so far in the short history of Britain’s shale industry.

He told The Sun: “It’s obviously early days but these are the highest readings in the UK we have ever seen.”

Geologists believe there could be 436 trillion cubic feet of gas in this part of the Bowland Basin. This test is consistent with that.

“With a recovery rate of 20 per cent that’s equivalent to 30 years’ worth of gas for the country. We believe this really is something to shout about.”

Ineos is now urging the Government to get fully behind fracking revolution by speeding up the planning process. It took two years to get the green light to drill a test well at its Tinker Lane sight in Nottinghamshire – when it hoped to begin within 13 weeks.

And it wants Ministers to honour a commitment to review strict rules that force firms to suspend fracking when earth tremors hit 0.5 on the Richter scale – equivalent to a kid bouncing a football.

Rival fracker Cuadrilla lost a planning appeal to drill in Fylde Lancashire after Communities Secretary James Brokenshire raised concerns over traffic congestion.

The Government has also yet to announce whether it will remove the need for planning permission to drill exploratory shale wells like the one Ineos has just completed.

Mr Pickering said: “The industry is committed to the safe development of fracking. But now is the time for Ministers to really get behind it.”

Full story

2) Green Britain: Government Rejects New Fracking Operation
Financial Times, 12 February 2019

Government rejects plans on road safety and traffic concerns in fresh blow to company

Cuadrilla has suffered a further setback to its plans to become the first company in Britain to start fracking commercially, after the UK government rejected its application to explore for shale gas at a second site in Lancashire.

The latest blow comes less than a week after the company admitted it was unable to complete tests of a shale gas exploration well at a nearby site, Preston New Road, under current rules that stipulate work must be stopped if it triggers an earthquake measuring 0.5 or above on the Richter scale.

Cuadrilla had appealed to the government to overturn Lancashire county council’s 2015 decision to reject its application to drill and frack up to four wells at Roseacre Wood, near Preston in north-west England.

The application was originally dismissed over concerns over the impact the operation would have on local traffic and road safety.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government agreed there would be an “unacceptable impact” on road safety in the area if work at Roseacre Wood were to go ahead.

The decision comes after a long battle by Cuadrilla to secure permission for the project, which included two inquiries, in 2016 and 2018.

Full story

3) Government Whitewashing Lord Deben's £600,000 Green Scandal
Gaia Fawkes, 14 February 2019

Lord Deben’s scandalous £600,000 conflicts of interests over vast payments funnelled to his firm, Sancroft International, from ‘Green’ corporations continues to be swept under the rug.

Conor Burns submitted a written question earlier this week over Deben’s conflicts of interests, receiving a vapid response back from Energy Minister Claire Perry:

“The Chair of the Committee on Climate Change declared his interests with Sancroft International as part of his appointment process in 2012.

“We have received assurances from the Chief Executive of the Committee on Climate Change on their processes for managing potential conflicts of interests. These include a clear policy on conflicts of interests, publication of members’ interests, and actively inviting information on actual or perceived conflicts as the first agenda item at each Committee meeting.”

Perry has not done her homework – what Deben actually told MPs during his Pre-Appointment Hearing in 2012 was that:

“almost everything that it does has no connection with the Committee on Climate Change, but there was one thing that I felt we ought to disengage from, and I said that.”

Self-evidently Deben was not telling the whole truth given that £600,000 has now found its way to his company from big green businesses that Deben uses his powerful position as Climate Change Committee Chair to persistently lobby for handouts of vast sums of taxpayers’ cash to.

Cursory research reveals that Deben appears to have failed to declare his Sancroft interest more than 15 times in the House of Lords. Guido hears that Tory whips have been discouraging MPs from making a fuss about it, despite the fact that the Commissioner for Standards in the House of Lords has opened a formal inquiry into Deben’s behaviour.

Why is the Government trying to cover up for him?

Full post & comments

4) The Nord Stream 2 Gas Pipeline Is A Russian Trap 
The Economist, 14 February 2019

And Germany has fallen into it

When a megaproject makes no commercial sense, there are two possibilities. Either its sponsors are fools, or they have other motives. Since Vladimir Putin is no fool, one must assume that his pet pipeline is not really a business venture—and that the fools are the Europeans, in particular the Germans.

This week, after sustained German pressure, the European Union agreed how its energy rules should apply to Nord Stream 2, an $11bn, 1,200km (750 mile) gas pipeline. As a result it is all but certain that the project will go ahead, though perhaps with delays (see article). It runs from Vyborg in western Russia through the Baltic Sea to Greifswald in north-eastern Germany. Work on it began last year, and it could be finished by the end of this one. Economically, it is unnecessary. There is no shortage of capacity in the existing Russian networks, which run from east to west mostly through Ukraine and Poland, or through the existing Nord Stream 1 pipeline directly to Germany. European demand for imported gas, because of energy efficiency, weak demand for manufacturing and the rise of renewables, is not expected to reach a level that would require the new pipeline anytime soon. Unsurprisingly, Russia’s majority state-owned energy behemoth, Gazprom, is the scheme’s only shareholder.

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5) Brainwashed School Children Go On Strike For Eco-Socialism
The Times, 15 February 2019

 
Schoolchildren gathered in Parliament Square, Westminster, today to demand the government act on system change PA

Ministers were at odds today over a walkout by schoolchildren demanding action on climate change.

The pupils’ strike is taking place in over 60 towns and cities across the UK, with many of them in school uniform and parents out in force accompanying them.

However, as they gathered to protest against what they see as a failure of government to tackle an environmental crisis, Damian Hinds, the education secretary, warned: “I want young people to be engaged in key issues affecting them and involving themselves in causes they care about.

“But let me be clear, missing class won’t do a thing to help the environment; all they will do is create extra work for teachers.”

Claire Perry, the energy minister, said she was “incredibly proud” of those who have risked detention and sanctions to take part.

Full story

6) Anarchy In The UK: Middle-Class ‘Green’ Militants Encourage Children To Play Truant
Richard Littlejohn, Daily Mail, 12 February 2019

You’d expect the headbangers to be all in favour of brainwashing schoolkids and encouraging them to strike. What you might not expect is to find the National Association of Head Teachers supporting the action.

Next week is half-term for millions of pupils and, naturally, travel companies are hiking the cost of holidays to cash in. Take your children out of school early to beat the rip-off and you could be fined, or worse.

Punishments vary, from £60 minimum in England to up to £1,000 in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The standard £60 penalty doubles if not paid with 28 days.

In 2016, according to the latest figures available, nearly 110,000 parents coughed up on time and another 15,800 were prosecuted for non-payment. In extreme cases, you could face a prison sentence.

The Supreme Court has ruled that parents do not have the right to remove their children from the classroom during term time without authorisation.

Schools will only grant permission in exceptional circumstances, such as illness, a family funeral or a religious day of observance.

Whether a strike in protest at climate change falls into the category of ‘exceptional circumstances’ is unclear, although it is undoubtedly a quasi-religious event.

But that is what’s happening on Friday. A mass walk-out by thousands of children is scheduled to take place in 40 towns and cities, including Cardiff, Glasgow, Exeter and Brighton. The strike is modelled on similar demonstrations elsewhere in Europe.

They are being egged on by the usual Rag, Tag and Bobtail army of self-styled, middle-class ‘green’ militants, including the 51-year-old son of Sex Pistols’ manager Malcolm McLaren, who once burned £5 million worth of punk memorabilia during a protest about . . . actually, who cares what it was about?

Other ‘activists’ urging pupils to strike include a former turtle conservationist and 57-year-old fanatical Remain supporter, who is planning to set up soup kitchens to feed the starving after Brexit.

In other words, the same kind of lunatics who delight in bringing airports to a standstill with sit-down protests and shutting London bridges during rush hour.

You’d expect these headbangers to be all in favour of brainwashing schoolkids and encouraging them to strike. What you might not expect is to find the National Association of Head Teachers supporting the action.

Yet in a statement the association said the walk-out should be ‘applauded’. It went on: ‘A day of activity like this could be a valuable life experience.’

So could taking your kids on a safari holiday, or anywhere they might broaden their minds and sample different cultures. But if you try that during term time, you could end up with a criminal record.

Leaders of the 28,500-strong NAHT yesterday attempted to row back from endorsing the strike. But their initial reaction speaks volumes for the mentality of many of those charged with educating our children.

You can’t blame the kids for teachers filling their heads with politically motivated drivel.

I’m sure most of them would welcome any excuse to skip lessons for a few hours, especially if it can be dressed up as saving the polar bears.

But, in plain English, what this boils down to is adults encouraging impressionable children, some as young as nine, to play truant.

And if parents can be punished for taking children out of school, then why can’t those we entrust to act in loco parentis?

Maybe the courts could sequester the funds of the NAHT to pay a £60 penalty for each and every pupil who joins the walk-out. They did it to the print unions during the Wapping dispute.

Failing that, perhaps a group of parents could sue those middle-class militants for inciting their children to break the law — starting with Malcolm McLaren’s overgrown brat of a son’s attempt to create anarchy in the UK classrooms.

Full post

7) Don’t Follow The Herd - Think For Yourself
Global Warming Policy Forum, 15 February 2019

“[People], it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.” —Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Ever wondered why school children protest for eco-socialism? Read our Schools' Report: Climate Control: Brainwashing in Schools



Interested in Climate Realism? Check out our website

7) The Story of the Famous And Foolish Children’s Crusade: A Warning From History
About History

In early 1212, a young man named Nicholas from Cologne either initiated or quickly became the focus of a popular apocalyptic movement that swept through the Rhineland. 



Thousands of children joined him on his crusade. As Nicholas and his followers marched from town to town, they spread their enthusiasm. Wherever they went, they were hailed as heroes. Anyone sceptical about the apocalyptic movement was attacked. The Children’s Crusade came to a humiliating end. They were now reviled and ridiculed by the same people who had previously acclaimed and assisted them.

Full post

8) The Green New Deal’s Toughest Transition Will Be Back To Reality
Robert Lyman, Financial Post, 14 February 2019

Eliminating greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 is virtually impossible. Pivoting even by 2090 is optimistic



The United States Congress will soon debate a non-binding resolution introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) expressing the sentiment that Congress should adopt a so-called Green New Deal.

A central part of this new deal is the proposal that the U.S. eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas by 2030. As fossil fuels now account for 80 per cent of American energy consumption, the Green New Deal would entail a profound and rapid “decarbonization,” or transformation of the energy economy to alternative fuels.

In a report published this week by the U.K Global Warming Policy Foundation, I describe the problems that governments would have to address if they seriously were to attempt to manage a transition such as that proposed in the Green New Deal.

Historically, the availability and use of energy sources was determined largely by geography and technology. The changes over time followed a pattern in which diffuse energy sources, such as wood, that needed large areas of land to produce, were replaced by denser ones, such as oil and natural gas. The choice as to which new technology to adopt was made in energy markets; generally, the technologies and fuels that offered more advantages in terms of cost, performance and reliability won out. Past transitions were slow, painstaking and difficult to predict.

There has been much recent academic research on the timescales involved. Professor Vaclav Smil of the University of Manitoba is a leading authority in the field and suggests that a timeframe of 50 to 70 years or longer is normal. This is because there is substantial inertia built into economies. Important capital goods and infrastructure have long economic lives; cars may average lives of only 10 years, but the average lives of other assets can be much longer — 30 years for locomotives, 35 to 80 years for electricity-generating plants, and 50 to 100 years for bridges and dams.

Typically, hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars of society’s capital are invested in these assets. Replacing them because a new technology arrives would impose enormous costs, which would be even higher to the degree that the technology is immature or unproven.

The likely high cost of decarbonization has been amply demonstrated in the case of renewable energy. In Germany, the costs of transition from coal and nuclear energy to wind and solar plants has already exceeded $1 trillion, with so far only modest reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Those who foresee rapid decarbonization assume that all economic sectors and services can be electrified and that electricity can be delivered by intermittent renewable energy sources. Yet today, the technologies needed to make this feasible, especially affordable grid-scale electricity storage, do not exist. This is especially so in transportation, where the high energy density of oil products makes them the ideal source of motive power. Decarbonization involves reversing the historic transition from less dense to more dense energy sources, and thus major changes in the land requirements for energy production.

At the core of the policy thrust for rapid decarbonization is the view that people cannot be relied upon freely to make the right decisions as to which fuels to buy and sell and that governments must adopt policies and regulations to force the pace of change. Successful planning decisions concerning future energy supplies would depend on governments being able to judge future energy market conditions and prices in a rapidly evolving and highly competitive world. The question is whether governments have the information needed to make good decisions about which products, services and technologies are the right ones. The history of government economic regulation, industrial planning and ultimately central planning of the economy has generally been one of failure far more often than success.

• Robert Lyman, a former director general of environmental affairs at Transport Canada, is an energy policy consultant based in Ottawa.

Robert Lyman: Transition To Reality: The Prospects For Rapid Global Decarbonization

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The London-based Global Warming Policy Forum is a world leading think tank on global warming policy issues. The GWPF newsletter is prepared by Director Dr Benny Peiser - for more information, please visit the website at www.thegwpf.com.