Archive for April 2012
What if… we left the coal in the ground?
April 28, 2012 | 
Author 
National Mining Museum
Edinburgh Sat 26th May 2012 2.30pm-4pm
Coal mining is a significant part of Scotland’s past, but will it be part of it’s future?
The Scottish government have set a target of an equivalent of 100% of gross annual electricity demand from renewables by 2020, though this has been criticised as unrealistic by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, who point out that in any case, electricity is actually the smallest component of Scotland’s energy demand, with heat and transport making up higher proportions.
How might life change if Scotland did start generating all of its electricity from clean, renewable sources? Can Scotland quit coal by 2020, or will it continue to depend on some sort of clean coal technology into the future? How do our heat and transport systems need to change to take advantage of renewable energy?
Chaired by Andrew Simms, nef fellow
Panel:
- Beth Stratford, Friends of the Earth Scotland
- Vicky Johnson, nef (the new economics foundation)
- Professor Stephen Salter, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh
Tickets
Free, but registration required via http://what-if-coal-left-in-ground.eventbrite.co.uk/
Posted in 
Consent Sought For Giant Moray Firth Windfarm
Beatrice could become one of the world’s largest offshore windfarms
Yesterday SSE submitted an application to Scottish Ministers for consent to develop the Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm.
Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Limited (BOWL) is the joint venture partnership formed between SSE Renewables (75%) and Repsol Nuevas Energias UK (25%) (formerly SeaEnergy Renewables). In February 2009 BOWL was awarded an exclusivity agreement by the Crown Estate to develop the Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm in Scottish Territorial Waters.
The Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm site is located in the Outer Moray Firth on the north-western point of the Smith Bank. It is approximately 13.5km from the Caithness coastline. The development site will cover an approximate area of 131.5km² .
The site is approximately 11km from the world’s first deep water wind farm development – the two-turbine (10MW) Beatrice Demonstrator Project. The Beatrice Demonstrator turbines are owned by SSE and Talisman. The turbines have been operational since 2007.
Building on the success of the Beatrice Demonstrator Project, the partnership is proposing to develop an offshore wind farm which will generate up to 1,000MW of renewable energy, enough to power over 796,000 homes. The proposed wind farm will have a maximum of 142 to 277 turbines, depending on turbine size.
The proposal will now be thoroughly scrutinised before a final decision is taken by Scottish Ministers. A decision is expected in around nine months. The application is the first of the Scottish Territorial Waters leases to be submitted for consideration and is the culmination of several years of data collation, environmental studies and consultation.
The Trump & CATS Show – More Climate Change Denial
Parliament hears ‘evidence’ from Trump and CATS
Trump: “It is one of the most serious problems Scotland will have or has had”.
Trump: “I am the world class expert on tourism – I am the evidence, I am the expert.”
Trump: “Climate change is not man-made. You are spending billions of pounds unnecessarily and it will affect Scotland.”
Patrick Harvie asked CATS if they deny the science of climate change.
Mr. Lang of CATS said he was puzzled and says he does not know whether it is happening or not.
Mark Gibson of CATS on climate change: We don’t know. There is a lot of covering up. Why do that if you are sure of your ground.
BBC’s Scott Holdaway tweeted: Police separating around 100 anti-windfarm & 30 pro-wind power protestors outside Holyrood.
Watch the video:
Climate Change – It’s Not A Debate
8 months in the climate change repeal petition has <1500 votes
HM Government’s e-petitions site was created to be an easy way for ‘ordinary people’ to influence government policy in the UK. Respondents can create an e-petition about anything that the government is responsible for and if it gets at least 100,000 signatures, it will be eligible for debate in the House of Commons. The first e-petition to prompt a Parliamentary debate was signed by more than 240,000 people and called for those convicted of involvement in the summer riots to be stripped of their benefits.
A Roger Longstaff created the following petition in August last year:
Responsible department: Department for Energy and Climate Change
The Climate Change Act will cripple the UK economy (to the tune of hundreds of billions of pounds) by imposing legally binding restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions that are more stringent than those of any other country on Earth. It is based on a totally false premise – the science of anthropogenic global warming was completely discredited by the “climategate” scandal – and the policy is being pursued solely for financial gain by academics (grants), government (“green” taxes) and vested interests such as investors in subsidised “green” technologies and “Enron-like” carbon trading scams. The Act must be repealed before it is too late.
What an opportunity for the climate change ‘sceptic’ movement to show the UK government how many people are sick of this climate change ‘scam’, eh?
Except that two thirds of the way into the 12 month period a pathetic 1,364 people have signed this petition. Here’s a few other ‘important’ petitions for comparison:
- Keep Formula 1 Free To Air in the UK: 42,658
- Recruit 5000 more NHS midwives in England : 38,558
- Grant a pardon to Alan Turing: 33,346
- Thatcher state funeral to be privatised: 32,054
- Stop the beer duty escalator: 29,351
Now, when you consider that this is the single most important Act of Parliament for climate change deniers you have to wonder how many of them there actually are in the UK. When you consider that this is an incredibly well organised, media savvy and manipulative group you really have to wonder.
Or do you? Perhaps not. I put it to you that there are less than 2,000 people in the whole of the UK who believe the Climate Change Act should be repealed. Over thte last three months I have posted this sad fact on climate denial blogs like Bishop Hill and Scottish Sceptic more than once in an attemptto warn the deniers that they are making fools of themselves with this petition, but in spite of my taunting the numbers have barely moved.
This is of course an extraordinarily small number when you consider the time and column inches the popular media give to reporting the so-called ‘debate’. What it shows is that there is no genuine ‘debate’ on the science of global warming. The self-styled ‘sceptics’ are a tiny number of people making a noise out of all proportion to their numbers and seeking to distort the public view of the issue.
This pathetic petition reveals the deniers as the tiny minority they really are. It is time that we all petitioned our media and their controllers demanding that they stop giving equal time and weight to an essentially non-existent point of view.
66% of Brits Back Wind Power
New survey reveals that only 8% are opposed
If you’ve been reading the tabloid headlines or the ravings of the climate denial hacks employed by the Telegraph and the Mail then no doubt you think wind power has had its day.
‘The tide has turned’ scream the turbophobic headlines as Donald Trump marches on Holyrood to save ‘Scatland’ . A mob of unruly Tory backbenchers, fearful of being poked in the eye by a turbine in their rural retreats, clamour for a moratorium on wind development. Barker caves in and announces no new onshore wind.
So is this a victory for public opinion? Well, not according to figures published today in an Ipsos Mori poll. When asked: “to what extent are you in favour of or opposed to the use of wind power in the UK” 66% of Britons were in favour and just 8% against.
For those who have been watching the sickening influence of a small number of highly organised climate change deniers on policy it is a familiar story – the empty vessels who make the most noise and are most adept at manipulating the media have an effect out of all proportion to their representation. In fact less than 8% of us oppose the use of wind power in the UK.