Whiny Climate Contributor Admits It's All About the Money But Still Wants to Limit Your Travel Because CO2 Is His Religion

The Guardian is far-left publication and one of its contributors is George Monbiot who says this about himself:

Why have politicians outsourced the most important issue of our time to private agencies and individuals? We can’t do it all - this way lies disaster

There are several services and assets I would like to see nationalised. But at the top of my list is neither water, nor trains, nor development land, much as I’d like to see them brought under national or local public ownership. Above all, I want to see the nationalisation of my own business: environmental persuasion. I love my job. But I’m not very good at it. None of us is.

We face the greatest predicament humankind has confronted: the erosion and possible collapse of our life-support systems. Its speed and scale have taken even scientists by surprise. The potential impacts are greater than any recent pandemic, or any war we have suffered. Yet the effort to persuade people of the need for action has been left almost entirely to either the private or voluntary sectors. And it simply does not work.

So, you get the picture; George Monbiot has made CO2 reduction his religion. If he’d said CO2 is the stuff of life we’d know he was simply an ordinary man of common sense who remembered his science lessons from youth. But, when he says climate change is “the greatest predicament humankind has confronted” we know he’s rejected all that and opted instead for an apocalyptic vision that just happens to make put him in the role of some sort of climate god.

One of the climate gods?

I offer all this background because Monbiot, like the kid who grew up in the cult where a ‘dear leader’ controls everything, has noticed that dear leader seems to get all the unusually good benefits and is subject to none of the rules he imposes on others.

Here are some revealing quotes from his recent article (emphasis added):

Let’s talk about perceptionware. Perceptionware is technology whose main purpose is to create an impression of action. Whether it will ever work at scale is less important, in some cases entirely beside the point. If it reassures the public and persuades government not to regulate damaging industries, that’s mission accomplished.

Managing perceptions is an expensive business. Real money, especially public money, is spent on fake solutions. Take carbon capture and storage: catching and burying carbon dioxide emissions from power stations, oil and gas fields, and steel and cement plants. For 20 years, it has spectacularly failed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, its only clear successes involve enhanced oil recovery: carbon dioxide is used to drive oil out of geological formations that are otherwise difficult to exploit. With astonishing chutzpah, some oil companies have claimed the small amount of carbon that remains trapped in the rocks as a climate benefit. Though it is greatly outweighed by the extra oil extracted, they have, as a result, received billions in government subsidies.

The previous UK government pledged £20bn to “develop” carbon capture and storage: a technology that has been “developing” for 50 years. Astonishingly, Labour, despite cutting everything else, promised in its manifesto to sustain this investment…

But never mind, this perceptionware is now Labour policy too. Failure is baked in. Even with restrictions on which feedstocks can be used, any significant deployment of biofuels for aviation will increase total demand, which means either that agricultural crops are removed from human consumption, raising the price of food and therefore increasing global hunger, or that wild ecosystems are destroyed to make way for agricultural expansion. It’s simple maths, which successive governments seem determined not to understand.

As for using waste, this promise is repeatedly rolled out to justify disastrous policies. Biodiesel would be made from used cooking oil, but as soon as production increased, new palm oil was used instead. Biomass burners would mop up forestry waste, but soon started taking whole trees and, in some cases, entire forests. Biogas would be made from sewage and food waste, but operators quickly discovered they could produce more with dedicated crops like maize and potatoes. Why? Because waste is generally low in energy, variable and expensive to handle. Already, there’s intense competition for the small portion of waste that might be commercially useful, as companies chase carbon payments: so much so that fresh palm oil has been sold as waste oil, as this attracts a higher premium.

In principle, synthetic kerosene, made by combining green hydrogen with carbon dioxide, is a better option. But this technology is extremely expensive. After 25 years, it remains an “infant industry.” That’s some infancy. This is why the government envisages that only 3.5% of jet fuel in the UK will be made this way by 2040.

It’s pure corporatism, in other words, or grifting as I like to call it, and Monbiot has woken up to it although he’s still a big denier of the fact CO2 is the stuff of life and not a crisis. He wants to tackle the problem, in fact, by simply restricting travel:

Meanwhile, after falling during the first wave of Covid-19, aircraft pollution is likely to return this year to its pre-pandemic level of 8% of UK emissions. That’s by no means the worst of it, as carbon dioxide is just one of aviation’s greenhouse impacts. The release of pollutants and water vapour high above the surface of the Earth causes roughly three times more heating than the carbon. Even so, taking CO₂ alone, the government’s climate change committee estimates that, without real abatement, by 2050 aviation will consume 36% of the UK’s carbon budget, becoming the country’s principal source of greenhouse gases. This is because air passenger numbers will continue to grow (government figures suggest by 70% from 2018 to 2050), while the rest of the economy is decarbonised.

Only by limiting demand, with fair measures such as a frequent flyer levy, can the government quickly reduce the impacts of aviation, and speed is everything. Instead, it relies on perceptionware.

As one can see, becoming woke to all the climate corporatism and all that grifting is just the first step. Monbiot still views fossil fuel companies as the enemy, when it is really Big Green and all those companies pursuing subsidies for incredibly stupid ‘green energy’ projects. He is still very much a true believer and not yet ready to break free from the cult, but, at least, he’s asking questions and noticing some curious inconsistencies in the climate mantra. Just wait until he takes a good look at the EV and offshore wind subsidies and all that countryside being covered with solar panels for no added energy security but big money going into the hands of the grifters.

#Monbiot #Climate #Cars #Hybrids #Guardian #CO #Perceptionware