American Elephants

It is helpful to keep an eye on Britain, for many of the problems that they currently face are problems that we could face in the near future.  An important example is the extent to which Britain has indulged Green  notions in British climate and energy policy.

Britain’s old electricity generating nuclear and coal fired power stations, which generate a third of the country’s energy, are due to close down in the next twelve years. The current political situation makes it difficult to rely on imported gas or oil.  Professor Ian Fells, emeritus professor of Energy Conversion at the University of Newcastle, and a noted expert on nuclear energy, has said that Britain will face regular power cuts lasting long enough to delay operations in hospitals, close down schools and bring cities to a standstill.

Professor Fells says that “Security of energy supply must be seen as taking priority over everything else, even climate change.”  His September 17th report, commissioned by industrialist Andrew Cook, said that renewables will not fill the impending energy gap, so old nuclear and coal plants must be kept going while new ones are built urgently.

Environmentalists were outraged at the recommendations in the report.  Greenpeace chief scientist Doug Parr said “Professor Fells has a long standing love affair with the technologies of the 20th century, but as time goes by his fetish for coal and nuclear power looks increasingly naive.”

That simple exchange, complete with sneers and outrage, succinctly describes the current state of affairs in Britain.  Unfortunately, it is not too far from the current situation in our own congress.

It is hard to tell just what lurks in the mind of a leftist.  Are they convinced that if we do not stop producing carbon dioxide — the colorless, odorless gas that we exhale every time we breathe, one of the essentials of life — the planet will suddenly heat up beyond our capacity to endure?  Are they totally unaware that it stopped warming ten years ago, and has actually been cooling for seven years?

The sun has gone quiet.  No sunspots for over a month.  Scientists have shown that what warming there has been over the past century correlates closely with the activity of the sun.  But environmentalists are not interested in the sun, they are interested in SUVs.

The lack of environmental interest in recent studies in climate change is notable. It suggests that they are not nearly as interested in climate change as they claim to be.

Power can be generated by windmills when the wind blows at the right speed.  When the wind is too strong, or too weak, or doesn’t blow at all, which is frequent, that wind power must be backed up by some other form of energy.  Natural gas is the most desirable, because it can be shut off quickly when the wind starts blowing again. But natural gas is a fossil fuel, and to obtain it, you must drill.

Windmills chew up a fair number of birds and bats, arms break and fly off — there are all kinds of details that just don’t get discussed.  In many places more energy is needed in the summer when air conditioners are running full tilt. The wind blows more in the winter. In America, only a tiny percentage of electricity demand is generated by wind.  But, as they say, hope springs eternal.

The problem is that more people die from cold than from heat.  And England can get very cold.  Oh well. It will all work out, won’t it?