The Uk Cannot Do Anything About Climate Change......

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50428044
So why are the Lib Non Dems promising to throw £100bn down the kasi? We are too small to make any difference in the UK, any money we throw at it will be wasted.

[THECORBYLOON]

Will the entire £100 billion be spent on climate change or will some be spent on improving energy efficiency, reducing energy bills and improving air quality?

[Gromit]

Yes we can...

// June 30 was also the first ever day when more than half of Britain’s electricity was powered by renewables – 39% from wind, 9% from solar, 8% from biomass and 1% from hydro.
The changes seen on the power grid reflect a new record at the UK’s biggest renewable power generator. Drax recorded a 52% reduction in its carbon emissions in the first half of 2019 compared to the same period last year, with 94% of the power produced at Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire being renewable. Drax Power Station is the largest decarbonisation project in Europe.
Britain’s power system is decarbonising at a faster rate than any other country in the world. We have spent more than half the summer without a single coal power station turned on, and renewables are breaking new records all the time. 
“As a result our power stations are producing 100 million tonnes less CO2 per year than they were just six years ago. //

[ToraToraTora]

yeah but none of that effects climate change, we are at the most 4% of the issue.

[douglas9401]

If I sort out my recyclables from landfill it makes no difference at all but if we all do it there's an effect.

At worst it'll do no harm to try.

They'll only fritter it away on trinkets and junkets otherwise, (not that it'll matter of course as the usual two donkeys in the race will get the majority of votes cast and carry on burning the lot to keep warm or buying a few zealots)

HS2 roolz.

[Gromit]

But we are not alone Tora, the developed world is racing toward renewable energy. If we sort our 4% and the rest of the world work on their allocation, then the problem will be sorted.
// China is driving global progress on renewables. The country, which invested $86.5 billion in new solar capacity in 2017, brought a full 53 GW of the newly-installed solar power online. China invested heavily in other forms of renewable energy, too, spending a total of $126.6 billion, which was nearly half the total global investment in renewables of $279.8 billion. //

[ToraToraTora]

is that why they are building 200 new coal power stations?

[mushroom25]

Gromit, nothing in the UK produces more CO2 than Drax Power Station. per year, it burns more wood (13mTonnes) than the UK's annual production of timber (11mTonnes). pus it burns 2mTonnes of coal per year and will continue to do so until 2025, when the remaining coal plants must close..... to be replaced by gas powered units. the coal is imported from Columbia, whose coal industry is rather a lot less than ethical (land grabs and dispossession of the indigenous, plus air and water pollution). the biomass itself is imported from the United States (how big is the carbon footprint of 13mTonnes transported several thousand miles?) and is created from clear-cut wetland forest that takes decades to regrow, with consequent natural habitat loss and a huge carbon debt waiting for the trees to get big enough to start absorbing CO2. (the atmosphere doesn't care where the CO2 comes from, burning wood is just as destructive).

don't let anyone tell you Drax is green an any way. it is not.

[ToraToraTora]

yep absolutely mush, Drax is a massive con trick, carbon neutral my April, chop down trees in NA process them into pellets then transport them by diesel powered ships to UK and that's Carbon efficient is it? Cobras! That's worse than a direct coal fired power station.

[Mozz71]

We can lead. By taking action, we can inspire other countries to follow our lead. Better to be proactive than to be part of the problem.

Obviously, these words are meaningless to the loudest voices on AB, as a majority deny the existence of climate change/global warning.

[New Judge]

Yes I've posted many times about the con trick that says burning wood from freshly felled mature trees 4,000 miles away is "renewable energy". It might be if you can wait a century or two for the new tress to mature and you don't count the emissions spewed out to produce the "biomass" and cart it across the Atlantic (which they don't). Meanwhile vast swathes of mature forest in the USA and Canada are being denuded of trees to feed the habit.

[derek-33]

Polands 85% of electricity is produced from coal

[New Judge]

//Obviously, these words are meaningless to the loudest voices on AB, as a majority deny the existence of climate change//

I don't deny the existence of climate change. It's always changed and it always will. What I deny is that chopping down trees, pulverising them, compressing them and carting them 4,000 miles to be burnt (not to mention one or two other things I can think of) will in any way stop the climate from changing one little bit.

[Togo]

//We can lead. By taking action, we can inspire other countries to follow our lead.//

There has to be one Lemming to start the mass panic and suicidal charge.

[Mozz71]

//There has to be one Lemming to start the mass panic and suicidal charge//

It has to start with one person shouting to start a revolution.

[emmie]

what do you think extinction rebellion have been doing for the past few months.

[New Judge]

//what do you think extinction rebellion have been doing for the past few months.//

- Blocking roads (causing congestion and so more emissions).
- Trying to prevent trains from running (one of the least polluting forms of transport).
- Generally making nuisances of themselves by stopping people go about their lawful business.

[ToraToraTora]

emmie, if ER were serious they'd be in USA or China disrupting them.

[jim360]

It's wrong to say that the UK can't do anything. It can't solve the crisis on its own. But by taking action ourselves we both make a start, make it easier to persuade and pressure others to join in, and maybe even show that green investment is a better way to spend money than it's often painted.

[New Judge]

//emmie, if ER were serious they'd be in USA or China disrupting them.//

I believe they may receive slightly shorter shrift in either of those two countries (one perhaps a bit shorter than the other). I think being dragged from the roof of a train in Canning Town would be the least of their problems. I doubt they'd be in line for a shedload of compo either.

[Ellipsis]

To be a world leader involves showing world leadership ...