Taking the temperature of arguments over global warming

IS the temperature of the world increasing as we have been repeatedly told?

Dire warnings of the consequences of continuing to pollute our environment and the need to embrace green policies have been forced upon us with alarming regularity and our energy bills are loaded with taxes to support wind turbine installations. But, is all of this a colossal mistake to placate a minority of deluded individuals at the expense of all others?

A report has concluded that the temperature of the world has not increased for the last 16 years and over the last 130 years its temperature is less than one degree warmer. So, who is correct? Do we have global warming or not? At the very least shouldn’t the whole question be thoroughly examined?

It is no use our Prime Minister issuing legal threats to force energy companies to offer the cheapest tariffs when we are all having to pay well over £100 per year in green subsidies imposed by the Government, if these are simply flawed.

Of course, it is claimed that man is responsible for this whole situation; his pollution of the world’s atmosphere has brought us to the very edge of extinction. That the puny behaviour of man could influence, in the slightest, the mighty power of the sun shows that the pompous beliefs of King Canute are still with us.

It seems that MPs are duty bound to spend the enormous bounty of taxes and duties they make us pay in order to justify their existence, whether their policies are correct or otherwise.

We continue to plough on regardless, installing more and more wind turbines. If they are so brilliant why aren’t details of their efficiency, their total costs, the amount of carbon-dioxide emissions saved, published, and if they are so good why is it necessary to subsidise them?

We have been brainwashed into believing green policies are the way forward, blackmailed into accepting them in order to save our grandchildren, even that we are sleep-walking into oblivion if we don’t take immediate action.

As well as the crazy dash to build wind turbines in even the most picturesque countryside, electric cars may not be the solution to our transport pollution problems.

Scientists at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology say that their manufacture contributes twice as heavily to global warming as conventional cars, as greater quantities of toxic waste are emitted. In use the claims that they are emission free is misleading as they are only as green as the national power supply on which they depend for recharging. In countries which rely on fossil fuels to provide electricity this may be counter-productive.

Yet, electric cars attract a government grant of £5,000, which still leaves them about £6,000 more expensive than a conventional car. For the majority of people this makes them unaffordable, meaning they are more likely to be bought by the better off. So, those on lower incomes have to pay for the subsidies enjoyed by those who are able to afford electric cars.

It’s the same with the installation of solar panels – those who can afford to buy them have the costs subsidised by those who cannot.

I wish we were not all in this together, it would be far cheaper for most of us.