Are articles on the global threat from climate change simply a load of hot air?
Ilona Amos has been a busy Environmental Correspondent with two articles published on the same day (18 January)
The two headlines “Call for tougher green energy targets” and “Soaring heat serves as stark reminder to cut emissions” say it all. In the articles she manages to name arch climatologists such as the RSPB Scotland, Scottish Renewables and WWF Scotland.
She uses the well-worn buzzwords designed to chastise and instil fear into the population. She alleges that “Climate change is the biggest single threat to people and nature worldwide”.
She uses the words “decarbonisation”, “tough new emission targets”, “world-leading climate change targets”, “zerocarbon future” and the real gem, talking about Scottish politicians, “we need our politicians to show leadership on the world’s biggest global environmental threat”!
Now there’s an idea, why not send Nicola Sturgeon and her SNP MSPS/MPS on a climate change world lecturing tour and give the rest of us a break for a while?
GM LINDSAY Whinfield Gardens, Kinross Ilona Amos contributes yet more articles to the neverending stream of allegations that human activity is the dominant cause of observed warming since the mid-20th century (Scotsman, 18 January). However, in recent years some interesting admissions have come out from highlevel officials about what could be the real reasons for the global campaign to reduce emissions.
In 2010, economist Ottmar Edenhofer, a lead author on some of the most important documents to come from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) in recent years, said “it’s a big mistake to discuss climate policy separately from the major themes of globalisation” and “we redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy” and “this has almost nothing to do with environmental policy”.
In 2015, high-level UN official Christiana Figueres said the climate change campaign aims “to intentionally transform the economic development model, for the first time in human history” and “it will not happen at a single conference on climate change”.
GEOFF MOORE Braeface Park, Alness Yet again the usual suspects pop up and demand that Scotland must set tough new energy goals requiring half of all energy to come from renewables by 2030 (Ilona Amos report 18 January).
This includes transport and gas used for cooking and heating.
These calls by RSPB Scotland, Scottish Renewables and environmental groups aided by articles from Ilona Amos are insane.
They boast that in an effort to slow down global rises – note the word “global” – in temperature, Scotland has set a worldleading goal to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.
Time for a reality check. Scotland has an insignificant 0.13 per cent of global emissions. Coal will be more than half of China’s energy mix by 2020 and with 28 per cent of global emissions, China has only promised to stop increasing emissions after 2030.
Donald Trump has stated that “America is not going to be bound by the Paris climate agreement and we are not going to phase out fossil fuels”.
Do the Scottish environmentalists really believe they are a significant force, that they can make a global difference and that the abundant worldwide fossil fuels will be left in the ground?
CLARK CROSS Springfield Road, Linlithgow