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Original MBH99 #HockeyStick (blue) vs. recent PAGES 2k temp reconstruction (green) & instrumental record (red) #HSCW pic.twitter.com/9X00ffq2gx
The prime minister’s adviser on climate change is quitting, Utility Week can exclusively reveal.
Ben Moxham, senior policy adviser on energy and the environment at Number 10, has become the latest in a line of key energy experts to leave government.
Moxham is understood to have become frustrated that climate change has slid down the government’s agenda.
Moxham’s exit is a blow to David Cameron and to his claims made shortly after the election in May 2010 – that the coalition would be “the greenest government ever”.
His exit from Number 10 comes as the departure of Ravi Gurumurthy from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) was officially confirmed.
From the Halifax Courier: Published on 08/05/2013 16:56
Walkers had a narrow escape as blades on a wind turbine ripped off in high winds across common moor land.
The 17m turbine blades split and scattered across Ovenden Moor Wind Farm, Cold Edge Road, Wainstalls, Halifax.
Walkers and local residents were stunned at what could have been a nasty accident and fear for further blade breakages.
Energy provider E-on has a total of 23 wind turbines which tower at 32 metres tall on Ovenden Moor Wind Farm.
After the accident, a workman erected a safety fence around the turbine and a sign saying “danger, falling objects” was attached to the moor entrance gate.
But local resident Ann Arran, 64, of Lower Hazel Hurst Farm, Wainstalls, Halifax, who discovered blade debris said: “The safety fence they’re erecting after the carnage is inadequate as broken blade pieces could fly and land anywhere in high winds.”
Sue Midgley, 37, of Spring Mill Fold, Wainstalls, was out walking with Ann. “I couldn’t believe what we saw, it was frightening having to continue walking across the land.”
Ann said:
“At any minute more of the blades could shatter and who knows how long it will be until other turbine blades break – with disastrous consequences.
“It’s public land. More must be done to protect the people.”
Cracking comment from Peter Lilley MP in the Spectator:
The scandal of official reluctance to develop Britain’s shale gas potential is at last beginning to surface. It may prove to be the dress rehearsal for the ultimate drama — the inexorable collapse of our whole energy strategy.
Most of us have by now heard about the US shale gas revolution. In little more than six years, shale gas has reduced America’s gas prices to a third of what they are in Europe, increased huge tax revenues, rebalanced the economy, created tens of thousands of jobs, brought industry and manufacturing back to the country’s heartlands, and given rise to a real prospect of American energy self-sufficiency by 2030.
Britain may well have comparable shale resources. Indeed, the Bowman shale in Lancashire is a mile thick, whereas most US shale plays are just 300 to 500 feet thick — a strangely unpublicised piece of good news. If shale gas proves abundant it could help the government meet three key objectives: rebalancing the public finances by generating large tax revenues, rebalancing the economy by boosting manufacturing, and rebalancing the north/south divide by creating jobs and a whole new industry in the north.
From the Garunida
The Prince of Wales has criticised “corporate lobbyists” and climate change sceptics for turning the earth into a “dying patient”, in his most outspoken attack yet on the world’s failure to tackle global warming.
He attacked businesses who failed to care for the environment, and compared the current generation to a doctor taking care of a critically ill patient.
“If you think about the impact of climate change, [it should be how] a doctor would deal with the problem,” he told an audience of government ministers, from the UK and abroad, as well as businesspeople and scientists. “A scientific hypothesis is tested to absolute destruction, but medicine can’t wait. If a doctor sees a child with a fever, he can’t wait for [endless] tests. He has to act on what is there.”
He added:
“The risk of delay is so enormous that we can’t wait until we are absolutely sure the patient is dying.”
From EU-Activ
The powerful employers’ group BusinessEurope has called on European Commission President José Manuel Barroso to radically shift the EU’s energy policy away from climate change mitigation towards cost-competitiveness and security of supply.
Speaking after a regular meeting with the ‘Social partners’ chaired by Barroso yesterday (2 May), BusinessEurope Director General Markus J. Beyrer argued that the EU should re-industrialise and that for this purpose a change of energy policy was needed.
BusinessEurope is the the organisation representing 41 industrial and employers’ federations in 35 European countries, which is seen by its critics as the most powerful lobbyist with many friends in the European Commission’s leadership.
Beyrer argued for the need to re-industrialise Europe. “The crisis has shown that Europe cannot be successful with an industry quota way below 20%. We think [20%] is the right target,” he said.
In order to make the continent competitive, energy policy should be “totally re-shaped,”
A report about an Ed Davey speech not yet given, that has been leaked to the Grauniad by… presumably, Ed Davey. It seems Davey still doesn’t understand that on issues where the science underpinning the policy evolves, ‘drawing a line’ is a pretty feckin stupid thing to do. He needs to wake up and start thinking about using the provisions in the climate change act for changing the co2 reduction targets, before he finds his political career curtailed.
From the Garunida:
Ed Davey, the energy and climate change secretary, is to use a major speech at Clarence House on Wednesday afternoon to fight back against the increasingly vocal climate change scepticism of other sections of the coalition.
His uncompromising speech, seen by the Guardian, promises stronger action on global warming and follows the admission by his party leader Nick Clegg that green issues are now some of the most serious flashpoints between the coalition partners. The Liberal Democrats have long sought to be seen as strong on the environment, a core issue for the party’s voters. But they have suffered setbacks in government as the Treasury has cut renewable energy support and an increasingly vocal number of Tories oppose windfarms, money for low-carbon projects and tougher targets for UK emissions cuts, all of which the Lib Dems support.
The extent of some of the divisions was on display in the European parliament recently, when rebel Tory MEPs played a pivotal role in scuppering plans to rescue the EU’s carbon trading system.
Davey struck a firm stance:
“As a politician, you quickly realise that compromise is a part of the game. But there are some issues where you have to draw the line – where you have to stand up and be counted, and you have to do the right thing. I think climate change is firmly in that category.”
He quoted David Cameron as saying “we can’t afford not to” act on the problem.
On May second 1200+ UKIP local government candidates took the country by storm. More than half of them came first or second in the elections. Congratulations to them all. This has ignited debate in the media, primarily over EU membership. Lord Lawson write a strong article in the Times calling for a referendum giving the opportunity for Britain to get out. He has been followed by Bernard Jenkin, Sir Gerald Howarth and Lord Tebbit. Old Tory grandees are putting Prime minister David Cameron under pressure. Climate policy doesn’t figure high on the public’s radar these days, apart from those unfortunate to live close to (occasionally) spinning wind turbines which cause noise disturbance and flickering of sunlight. Party Leader Nigel Farage made it clear that although he wasn’t subjecting the successful new councillors to a party whip, he does “expect them to oppose every planning application for a wind turbine”. Go Nigel.
visit http://cartoonsbyjosh.com and buy something!
Sir John Houghton, an ex-boss of the IPCC, and the hockey stick graph, visually demonstrating that the flawed hockey stick graph has never played any important role for the IPCC statements. H/T Lubos Motls
http://motls.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/sir-john-houghton-is-liar.html
Wikipedia tells us:
He was the lead editor of first three IPCC reports. He was professor in atmospheric physics at the University of Oxford, former Chief Executive at the Met Office and founder of the Hadley Centre.
He is the chairman of the John Ray Initiative, an organisation “connecting Environment, Science and Christianity”,[1] where he has compared the stewardship of the Earth, to the stewardship of the Garden of Eden by Adam and Eve.[2] He is a founder member of the International Society for Science and Religion. He is also the current president of the Victoria Institute.
Jon Jones alerted me to a press cutting this morning. I was amazed:
So it wasn’t just my greenhouse which got destroyed in the gales on earlier this week. This from the Industrial Wind Action Group:
Wind turbine collapses after bring battered by 70mph gales at farm“It’s worrying because there are so many turbines in this area. If someone had been walking by when this came down it could have been very serious.”
