Worthington on Helm

Bryony Worthington, the environmental campaigner who was ennobled by the last government and then proceeded to run amok through UK energy policy, has penned a critique of Dieter Helm's book on solving the UK's energy problems. Helm's objective is to do this without actually trashing the economy or killing off too many old folk.

Worthington's approach is rather different of course. She notoriously favours only hair-shirt policies on energy - if objectives are achieved without any pain they don't count in her book (see here). It's therefore hard to take her views on anything terribly seriously. For those who want a laugh, she seems to think that subsidising technologies that don't work is the way forward.

Strewth.

Comments

[Billy Liar]

... there is still massive amounts of it and it's cheap ...

Great quote from an English graduate. Could simply be the Grauniad doing what it does best.

[TonyN]

Apart from the amused feeling that Lady Worthington’s contribution reads rather like a breathless sixth-form essay - with more unwarranted assertions per paragraph than seems possible for even a schoolchild to commit to paper - I was amazed by the apparently joyous reference to “30 or so countries that have already introduced legislation or regulations aimed at combating climate change”. So that’s the EU 27, who had regulation imposed on them by the Brussels mandarins, plus Australia, and who else? Not much of a score out of about 200 countries worldwide. And that’s after how many UNFCC conferences aimed at global action?

Baroness Worthington is obviously just the person to lead the warmist charge, and long may she do so.

[Robin Guenier]

TonyN: “30 or so countries that have already introduced legislation or regulations aimed at combating climate change”. So that’s the EU 27, who had regulation imposed on them by the Brussels mandarins, plus Australia, and who else?

I don't think so, Tony - see my post at 5:22 PM above. It refers to the finding of the Globe International (chairman Deben aka Gummer) study (where the EU counts as one country - with Germany, France and the UK as three more): see the BH "Illiberal Economist" thread . As I mention above and on that thread, the real story is that so little of this legislation means anything in practice. But what does Bryony know about what happens in practice?

[Billy Liar]

Jan 21, 2013 at 11:20 AM | TerryS

Meanwhile, the UN quietly bans anything that uses or emits mercury by the year 2020.
Say goodbye to electricity generated by fossil fuels.

Another example of ignorami making stupid rules. Mercury is everywhere. Mercury compounds are used in agriculture for their anti-fungal properties. This is akin to the demonisation of lead by the EU and the reason why many modern electronic items inexplicably and prematurely cease to function.

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Mercury+Toxicity+in+Plants.-a067978630

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/apr/03/research.engineering

[TonyN]

Robin

I fear that kind of accounting is a little advanced for me, and probably the auditors too!

[Streetcred]

'Strewth ... just the name "Bryony" is enough to engender a "hair-shirt" perception of this misguided person. Why do they have these 'galactic' names ?

[flaxdoctor]

@Billy Liar

Mercury was banned from use in agricultural fungicides about 25 years ago in the UK, and has been across most of the world. The only (withered) branch of our only essential industry persisting in depending on metal salts, heavy or otherwise, is of course, the 'organic' movement.

[michael hart]

Well her alleged conversion to the merits of Thorium may indicate a certain plasticity of mind, but I remain unconvinced about a) the reasons, and b) the rest of her mind.

So what exactly qualified Bryony Worthington for a life-peerage in the House of Lords at the tender age of 39?

Was it her stint at the "Friends of the Earth", fund-raising for "Operation Raleigh", or being born and growing up "in Wales" perhaps? (Please forgive me for using Wikipedia).Or is just having an opinion sufficient?

When is it my turn?

[Tim Bromige]

The parallels with the of the C19th are interesting. Perhaps Nongqawuse has been reincarnated as the fragrant Bryony.

[Tim Bromige]

The parallels with the Xhosa cattle killings of the C19th are interesting. Perhaps Nongqawuse has been reincarnated as the fragrant Bryony.

[ilma]

TerryS: if the EU bans everything using Mercury, then it will effectively ban all these blasted 'low energy' light bulbs (not the LED ones of course), the very thing it ushered in by the banning of incandescent bulbs. Just shows how confused and useless the EU is, and not just on climate issues.

[John Shade]

Tim Bromige (3:24, 3:33 PM),. I agree. Worthington and her chums in FoE helped persuade our political elites to believe in the apocalyptic prophecy of climate doom due to CO2, and they have been trying to kill our metaphorical cattle ever since.

The short book ‘Roosters of the Apocalypse’ by Rael Jean Isaac (Heartland Institute, 2012) begins with an account of the 1856 self-destruction of their economy by the Xhosa in South Africa.

Believing in an apocalyptic prophecy, they killed most of their cattle, failed to plant crops, and destroyed their grain stores. Within a year, at least a third of the Xhosa people died from starvation.

This is taken as an example of how an apocalyptic movement can take hold and cause great harm to a society.

The book goes to reference a book by Richard Landes called ‘Heaven on Earth: The Varieties of the Millennial Experience’ (OUP, 2011):

Landes describes those who initiate and build support for these movements as roosters, for they crow an exciting new message, and their opponents as owls, gloomsters counselling caution and scepticism. Roosters will drown out the warning owls only if they rally elites to their cause, and elites are a hard sell – especially, says Landes, in the case of prophecies demanding a society self-mutilate. That means enthusiasm must first be generated in a sufficient segment of the public to put pressure on elites to go along.

Once the authorities pronounce themselves in favour of the prophecy and it ‘pays’ to believe, many more ordinary people will join in. In the case of the Xhosa, the initial rooster was a simple orphan girl. The key to the triumph of her vision was her uncle, a well-known preacher and diviner who preached her message and convinced the chiefs – including the chief of chiefs, named Sarhili – of its truth.

Later we will describe the origin of the climate change prophecy. Here let us note the astonishing speed of its dissemination and the number and political power of its converts. If Landes is right that elites are normally a hard sell when it comes to self-destructive enthusiasms, in this case they have been won over with breathtaking ease.’

The tortured syntax can be distracting at times, but the book is a lively one. It is mostly concerned with events in the USA, but there is some coverage of Europe – about three pages under the heading ‘Europe Pays a Heavy Price’.