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Fact.....since mankind has been dwelling on this planet we have been systematically destroying and polluting it. Accept it. Why? Because we are so obviously unable to sustain ourselves in a natural environment and need to build dwellings to live in, husband animals and grow crops to sustain ourselves. If we could all do the latter without hindrance then we wouldn't need industry, education, science, or technology to live a fairly primitive life, but probably just as happy one. However, this is not where we are in the 21st century. Like it or not, progress has led us to our current state of affairs, whereby most of us need to earn a living wage in order to pay for everything we consume and keep a roof over our heads.
There's the rub. For the last decade or so we have been told by the powers that be that the globe is slowly heating up due to "global warming" caused by the build up of greenhouse gasses (mainly CO2) which are made up of emissions ,(mainly man made ,so they say), especially from heavy industry, vehicle exhausts, and our over reliance on energy usage. I have noticed that the government has become increasingly hysterical about what it now refers to as climate change, to the point that policies are being considered and some put in place, alongside taxes (very convenient for a hard pressed treasury) to persuade us all to "do our bit" to reduce our carbon footprint. I can see it won't be long until many of these suggestions become mandatory, and even more of our rights to choose will be eroded by this present administration, which has done more than any to strip us our our civil liberties.
Now this would be more acceptable if they could prove for certain that man is wholly responsible for the warming planet, if it is indeed warming!! However there are enough experts also telling us that we are not responsible and the data doesn't point to any significant change in natural climatic conditions. The recent revelations from Cambridge seem to give that point of view plenty of credence. The government continues to be only interested in the one argument and refuses to consider any other, and is manifestly pushing us down a one way street called reduction.
I for one remain very skeptical of this whole global warming issue. Climate change has always been with us. Over time Britain has been buried in ice, been under water, was once a desert and at some period been covered in a tropical forest (where do you think all our coal comes from?) OK, that was over vast stretches of time, but even in more recent history we have had periods where the Thames froze over, and other occasions when it was warm enough to grow good grapes for wine making. Those who point to freak weather conditions that have occurred recently as evidence of global warming are just being hysterical and obviously have fallen under the spell of the generalised panic stirred up by the Green Zealots of global warming . These "ernest greens" pushing their high moralized agendas know nothing more than I do about the subject and are just relying on the unproven data the scientists dish up, hearing only what they want to hear, and translating the data to suit their misguided views. Occasional freak weather conditions do not a global warming make.
So, sad as it is about the recent flooding in Cumbria, I've no doubt it isn't any worse than the floods they suffered there in 1954. Since being told that we could expect much warmer summers some five years ago, I have monitored each summer since. We haven't had one glorious hot summer yet. Temperatures have remained disappointing, with no long spells of hot weather to talk of. Nothing to compare to the summer of 1976. So global warming...where is thy sting? To be honest I wish it would heat up a bit, no need to head off to Mediterranean climes to get a holiday in the sun, no need to put the central heating on as much. Just think what energy we could save in this country if the climate did heat up!!
Those who support the view that the world is heating up due to our activities go on to suggest that it's due to prolonged pollution having built up over the last century or more. In other words, it's taken over a lifetime to manifest itself. If that were true I can only assume it would take equally as long to reverse the effects.So it makes me smile when we are now subjected to adverts imploring us all to "drive five miles less each day"..and "switch off a light" and the latest absurd suggestion to "eat one sausage less"...this will help save the planet. What a load of absolute tosh. Stop insulting our intelligence.
To begin with, assuming that there were some genuine evidence to suggest it would work in changing the climate, if we all were able to reduce our footprint we wouldn't see any significant change in out lifetimes, and certainly no chance for anyone over 50. So not much incentive there then. Then of course what fool thinks that whatever we did in this country as a whole could possibly make much of a difference on a global scale. We are but a drop in the ocean when it comes to polluting the planet. We could all dump our cars, never turn the heating on and just use candle power for light and it wouldn't make a jot of difference to the world wide climate. Anyone foolish and naive enough to think that we as a nation are still regarded as world leaders and should be listened to as a source of correct policy making, then I suggest they ought to get themselves back in the real world. China, USA, India et all, couldn't give a stuff about what we think or do, and quite rightly won't be preached to by a has-been colonial power who have reaped the benefits of mass exploitation. It's their turn now and quite right too.
Climate will always be changing. There isn't a year goes by without some extreme weather conditions manifesting themselves somewhere and often causing tragedies. I am informed that we haven't been keeping records long enough to really perceive long term patterns, and still remain unable to predict very much at all. Those who are experts in climate continue to argue and debate this whole issue without any definite conclusions being reached. Meanwhile it suits the government to push the idea of "Man Made Global Warming", not only as a diversion away from some of it's more urgent difficulties it has to deal with, but also as a means to raise taxes (for our good you understand) and bond us all under the same peril. It pushes this propaganda with the help of the media, especially the BBC, who take every opportunity to mention the subject. Politicians seem to be briefed to try and get the subject in whenever possible, usually as some dire warning that unless we do something soon we're done for....then drive off in their BMWs! (probably on expenses too.)
While we're on the subject of doom merchants, can someone tell me what happened to acid rain that was drenching everything in the 70s and killing off the lakes and rivers and poisoning our forests? Did it go away I wonder.I seem to recall lots of predictions backed up with oodles of scientific data that we were in imminent danger of deforestation on a grand scale unless we, well unless we stopped polluting the atmosphere..!. mmmm. Also are the holes still there in the ozone layer allowing nasty cancer-causing sun rays to blast us from afar? I don't hear much about the holes these days, do you? And what about the tourists trapped on a ship when stuck in an unexpected ice sheet in the Antarctic last week? Doesn't sound much like warming to me!!
Putting climate change to one side, pollution is by definition a bad thing and if it can be reduced by scientific or technical means it should be done.The trade off to producing anything is the waste, but I believe man's ingenuity will in time solve many emission problems.(Bringing grave peril to the oil industry perhaps!) However, let us not forget that Britain wouldn't have led the world in scientific and technology breakthroughs without the industrial revolution, with all it's foul pollution. We became rich and influential as a nation because of it. Now we would deny those opportunities to the emerging nations such as China and India. I think not. However,I would always support any measure to reduce pollution as long as it didn't mean taxing the man in the street or in some way restricting the lifestyle he or she has come to expect and worked hard for. Measures introduced that cause hardships and inconveniences should be a last resort. At the moment they are asking for our participation. I wonder how long it will be until they tell us. Fined for not turning your stat down....you heard it here first folks.
I mentioned the following solution before. If the governments around the world are really so convinced that we must reduce emissions in order to save the planet, then as well as looking at current measures, they should consider population control. Less people means less consumption, less consumption means less carbon footprint. Simple formula really. The Chinese did it, why not the rest of us? Two children each max would make one hell of a saving. If you really do believe we are about to cook ourselves into oblivion would you agree to that to save the planet...I mean really save it!? Or do you think switching your thermostat down one degree will do the trick, even in the knowledge that'll you'll probably never know.
Meanwhile Great Yarmouth remains above water (shame about that, but that's another story), I still feel the need to wear a woolen hat when I walk the dog, frost yet again needs scraping off the car windscreen in the morning, the central heating thermostat remains unchanged and the north wind still blows heavy cross the border line.
So for the record. I believe in climate change, it's always changing. However, I don't believe man's impact has anything like the power of nature to alter climatic conditions. I don't accept the current arguments about global warming. I remain unconvinced. I am sick to death of the subject being crammed down our throats at very opportunity from The News to Question Time and all points inbetween.. I think the whole subject has become overblown and I think there is a danger that we're all being brainwashed into the concept and made to feel guilty if we don't take heed and try and save energy usage. Ba humbug remains my mantra. I will not fall into this quasi religious movement, beware the fanaticism that some show on the subject. The worrying thing is they seem to genuinely believe it all. Time will tell of course ....but almost certainly not in our lifetime.
As for the human race, well as far as I can tell, global warming or not.....as I pointed out in my opening, as we can't survive long as we are in a natural habitat, we're all eventually doomed anyway! Now where's me hat?
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