Poor old Gordon Brown: More than 80 Labour MPs have signed an amendment to the Climate Change Bill, which would force ministers to promise greater cuts in carbon emissions. The Climate Change Bill commits the government to make at least a 60% cut in CO2 emissions by...
Infinite Regress
In a recent post, we looked at some of Green MEP Caroline Lucas's arguments for action on climate change. One of them has stuck with us as especially absurd, and merits further attention: this planet has finite resources. You cannot go on growing indefinitely on a...
The Ethics of 'the Ethics of Climate Change'
James Garvey didn't like Ben's review of his book on Culture Wars. But instead of responding to it, he seems to have merely laid out the same argument again. Science can give us a grip on the fact of climate change. (For a start, have a look here:...
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Sir Nicholas Stern, author of the famous Stern Report, which underpins many an argument in favour of climate change mitigation, is behind a 'carbon credit reference agency' launched today. “If we are to attract the levels of finance necessary to make this a mainstream...
The Royal Society: From Science to Fiction
Eco-activist Mark Lynas, has won the Royal Society's prize for popular science writing, for his book, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet. Except that it isn't science, it's fiction. Science fiction; it takes a vaguely plausible scientific possibility,...
The Blue/Green, Upside Down, Left/Right, Inside-Out, Three-Bags-Full Agenda
Leader of the UK's Conservatives, David Cameron, is at it again... Here he is, unveiling the latest installment of the 'resurrection' of the Tory Party, by announcing his continued commitment to Environmentalism, in spite of the prospect of an economic downturn, and...
Environmentalism According to Lucas
Over the last year, we have looked at some of the words and ideas coming from the environmental movement through the Green Party's MEP for SE England, Caroline Lucas. With her breathless, urgent catastrophism, Lucas epitomises Environmentalism and its hollow vision,...
Huffing and Puffin' On the Isle of Maybe
Rich wonders: "Nature as harmonious and peaceful? Have these people watched Springwatch?" Good point. They had live footage of swallows eating their own chicks the other day. Springwatch somehow manages to marry the genres of science documentary, freakshow and...
Environ Mental Ism
We've mentioned before how those of an Environmentalist bent are liable to blame the perceived failings of anybody who disagrees with them on some sort of mental illness. There's Andreas Ernst, for example, the scientist who says that the psychology of sceptics is...
Off the Grid: Microgeneration – the Spark of Endarkenment
John Vidal, Guardian Environment Editor, claimed yesterday that British buildings equipped with solar panels, mini wind turbines and other renewable energy sources could generate as much electricity a year as five nuclear power stations, a government-backed industry...