The Stern Report
The Stern report into climate change last week predicted
dire economic and social effects of unchecked global
warming.
The report was welcomed by France and Italy
yesterday, but almost ignored by the U.S, Japan and Australia. It was also
ignored by China and India, which will
expand their carbon dioxide production enormously over
the next few years.
Here are the figures for carbon dioxide production for
different countries (2005):
United States 6928 million tonnes
China 4938
Russia 1915
India 1884
Japan 1317
Germany 1009
Brazil 851
Canada 680
Britain 654
You can see that the UK is pretty insignificant when compared to the
rest. I would suggest that imiting our greenhouse gases won't help the world
very much - and the energy used by our own industries will cost
more. Their prices will go up, and their competitiveness
will be reduced. Jobs will go.
France has no difficulty in limiting carbon dioxide emissions because
about 80% of its electricity comes from nuclear energy.
Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard, said that you cannot have an
effective response to global warming unless you have
all of the culprits in the net.
In spite of what politicians say, there
is no proof that man is capable of altering the global
climate. It makes sense to use energy more efficiently, but
we must not let political hype stop us from making
sensible decisions. Remember these are the same politicians
who recommended us to use up our gas reserves
in their "Dash for Gas" (which is still
going on).
Climate change has always been with us.
The energy reaching the earth from the sun
varies. The medieval period was warmer than now. There was a later cold period
when the Thames used to freeze over each year.
...in the words of
Terry Langford of Milford Haven.."....
perhaps the most significant words in the Stern
report are "Commissioned by H.M. Treasury".
A cynical
person might conclude that we are being
softened up for more tax increases.
