As a “light” green it’s hard not to fix hopefully on current newspaper headlines like this one: “Science chief John Beddington calls for honesty on climate change”. It would be so nice to think that it was all a hoax, or that it was all exaggerated. We could all stop bothering and go back to wasting loads of money and energy – what fun that used to be!

The sad thing is that it’s not like that. Beddington says that we’re exaggerating our level of certainty rather than exaggerating the level of the problem.

“Some people ask why we should act when scientists say they are only 90 per cent certain about the problem. But would you get on a plane that had a 10 per cent chance of landing?”

It’s hard even for the deiners to argue with that.

As Phil has pointed out, This is pretty fustrating reading. As Phil himself says

It’s been rumbling on for years and years. You may have seen the equally massive “NO MEGA PYLONS” billboards from the train as you went over the Drumochter Pass. There are already pylons on the proposed route. And it mostly runs parrallel with the A9 – people only moan about it because it spoils their views from the car instead of marching across pristine wilderness.

I have asked some Scottish friends (and woudl be interested in any comments) whether it is true to say that Scotland has become so addicted to state handouts that it is no longer interested in making its own money and developing its own capabilities? Surely this is a massive opportunity for Scotland to create loads of job, generate loads of power, and sell it to England. But instead people would rather sit on their hands and complain about pylons getting higher.

It’s a shame

It’s exciting reading about the quite-solid-looking plans for putting up loads more windpower batteries, but it does give me mixed feelings.
GOOD that non-carbon energy is going to be brought online
BAD that it’s windpower, which I feel pretty ambivalent about given its unreliability
BAD that you need to keep coal burning power stations on in case the wind doesn’t blow, so you don’t really save any carbon
GOOD that Gordon Brown keeps saying we’re aiming to be a leader in windpower to boost our economy and exports
BAD that he’s wrong, that we’ve done it too late, and that accordingly the jobs making this kit are going to be overseas, so we’re buying it in instead of making it and selling it to others (our only windmill factory shut last year)
BAD that we haven’t really got the money to do this because Brown spent it all on the welfare state in the Noughties, so any sensible successive government will rein in these plans.

This is a great rant by Giles Coren (who I hadn’t realised was much of a green), and I couldn’t agree with it more. It is so frustrating hearing people make jokes along the lines of “It’s snowing = there’s no climate change”.

Nobody who understands the science is claiming that global warming (if it happens) is going to make Britain hotter in the long run. You hear me? Nobody is saying that, not the bleeding-heartedest, most climate-credulous ladyboy Yakult-drinker in Islington. It will do the opposite. Global warming will in the end interfere with the ocean currents, knock out the Gulf Stream, and remove the protection we have from the icy Nordic weather that is our due, as sharers of the same latitude as Siberia. Britain will get colder.

It’s called “global warming”, but that doesn’t mean “nice warm weather”. So please stop making these stupid, stupid jokes in my newspapers and on my television.

Quite right!

According to the Times, Npower have sent out a load of energy saving lightbulbs at the last minute as a sop to hit their energy-reduction targets, even though they reckon they won’t be used. Poor show by them.

I was one of the beneficiaries of these. The Energy Saving Trust says there are 6 unused bulbs per household – I’ve got triple that! And I can’t stop buying them, it’s ridiculous at the moment, I keep seeing them for 10p in Sainsbury’s and remembering the days when they were £1.99 or £2.99. I’m going to keep stockpiling them for the future, as they won’t be this cheap for ever!

On the subject of “it being cold”, I heard some great chat over Christmas from a friend who is a policewoman in Reading. Her most pointless call over Christmas came from a woman who was complaining that someone had built an “obscene snowman” in her garden, and it was pointing in through her window – and she wanted the police to do something about it. My friend told her to close her curtains and wait for it to melt – great no-nonsense police work in my book!

My new year’s resolution is never to build a non-obscene snowman ever again.

A great effort from me before Christmas – my girlfriend went away and I didn’t turn on the heating the whole week – even though it was absolutely Baltic. It’s great being green – you can be really tight and pretend it’s just your principles. Thankfully Laura’s back this week so I can have the heating on and blame it on her.