1½ DEGREES OF CODSWALLOP

1½ DEGREES OF CODSWALLOP
The Climate Change Conference in Poland has come to an end, thank goodness, with a rousing cry from the famous naturalist David Attenborough, saying that the end of the World as we know it will come if we don’t Do Something.... Close down all coal-burning power stations! Substantially reduce our emissions of Greenhouse Gases to the atmosphere! If we don’t do this then global warming will rise beyond the 1½ degrees and all hell will be let loose on Earth.

Naturally this is very disturbing if you are one of those gullible souls who believe everything the Media spout forth on the airwaves. I estimate that about 50% of Internet and Radio News is fake news, or incorrect news, and 50% is factual - like police reports, or bush fires, but which is which? Which news is genuine, and which is just opinion?

The topic of Climate Change is so saturated with non-scientific bunkum that it is difficult to have a sane conservation with anyone about it. One could start with asking: what is a global temperature? Does such a thing exist, and if so how do you measure it?

Next you could ask what does CO2 pollution look like? High school students of chemistry will inform you that CO2 gas is invisible. This, fairly obviiously, means you can’t see it. Clever students will realize the deliberate deception by activists linking invisible CO2 to smog and particulate pollution caused by cars and manufacturing industries. Such pollution needs to be rectified of course, but you have to know your chemistry to do it effectively.

CO2 should not be used as a propaganda tool. We want it and the plants want it. CO2 is good stuff. It is a desirable component of our atmosphere. Without atmospheric CO2 we will all perish.

The UN and its associated hard-green activists have developed an elaborate mythology demonizing carbon and CO2, for various reasons. This is misguided; carbon is the most wonderful element in the Periodic Table and does not deserve this insult. Carbon forms more compounds than ALL the other elements put together; hence we have ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, a subject which appears unknown to most politicians. It is the basis of all life forms, whether you like it or not. So DON’T KNOCK CARBON.

We must cherish carbon and consider ourselves fortunate to have lots of it in Australia, in the form of COAL, OIL, and HYDROCARBON GASES, the use of which has given us our present prosperity.

Allano, habitat21

My own take on this ......
No-one in the IPCC actually believes CO2 affects climate; carbon dioxide is merely being used as a marker for industrial activity. However, demonise CO2, introduce legally binding carbon regulations, and you decrease our effect on the environment. That's the theory.

However it seems to me that this is not a very sane approach.

I believe the planet's main environmental problems are, in no particular order: habitat destruction, air purity, water purity, and the felling of rain forests.

The real issue is not climate change; it is that we are using the world's resources too quickly, and much what we are using is used wastefully and unsustainably. For example -we have all experienced the situation where a piece of kit - say a washing machine - has ceased working a year or two after purchase, and it's more expensive to repair it than buy a new machine. This is not a desirable situation; it benefits no-one.

I suggest that to begin, machines of all descriptions - cars, washing machines, etc, etc, should be designed to be easily repairable. They would be a little more expensive in the first place, but I believe this is the way we should go.

This needs action at government level; there is only so much that individuals, working on their own, can do. But closing down Western industry by demonising coal, oil and gas is not the way to solve these problems. -Ed.

10 Dec 18


UPDATE
What a coincidence - Michael Gove, the Environment secretary, has announced a new initaitive to make goods more repairable, and to encourage their repair in the High Street. He wants people to stop throwing away items that can be easily mended and to see more shops where the necessary repairs can be carried out.

26 Dec 18


DT LETTER: RIDICULOUS PRICE OF SPARES
....Michael Gove's proposals depend on cooperation from manufacturers. My Miele vacuum cleaner stopped working. . I identified the problem as a failed speed controller and looked online for a replacement.

The cost of the component was more than the price of a new Miele cleaner. I bypassed the controller and now it works again, though only at full speed.

The repair initiative won't work unless spares are priced sensibly.

RV, Devon

27 Dec 18

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