Timmermans’ warnings reflect a growing concern among climate experts that politicians have failed to show people the benefits of a low-carbon society, which include cleaner air and water, more livable cities, and higher levels of health and wellbeing, as well as defusing the climate crisis.
Rather, we the people don’t think those things worth what we need to give up to gain them.
‘You First’ doctrine applies. Does Frans fly? Does he have an EU-supplied car and driver? Well fukkim.
’ If we don’t fix this, our children will be waging wars over water and food.’
Since in certain parts of London they are waging them over postcodes, sounds like a step up to me…
There’s been a few riots and massacres even over farmer protectionism and when food subsidies were reduced or abolished. The EU and UK should abolish these things now while things are going all right.
Wind power was down to 0.5GW last night. Turn off the power to a city for three days to let folks experience how “liveable” that city becomes with no heat, electric light and fresh water. If they are happy with the result then they are prepared for a low-carbon society or at least able to decide how “low” they will accept.
I have yet to hear anyone, scientist or not, explain how reducing carbon emissions will affect any of these things. The only effect that I have seen proposed is to make it colder outside. Something I would prefer to avoid. Especially since the means to that end seem to imply making it colder inside.
AndyF,
The truth is that almost no-one wants this nonsense. They want to be able to virtue signal that they recycle their jam jars and that’s about it. It’s why government snuck in the exception for PHEVs into the 2030 ban on petrol cars – they know true electrics aren’t going to work for lots of people.
Don’t we already have clean air, clean water and livable cities in the developed Countries?
And isn’t the plan of the Climate Zealots to make sure people in developing Countries don’t get these things, otherwise they will consume more and ‘use up Earth’s resources’, instead of dying from hunger, disease and despair.
And Part II of the plan is to do the same to people in developed Countries.
At any cost Earth’s Human infestation must be culled and numbers limited.
They can stuff all of their Marxist greenfreak shite. It is a scam to ruin the West with added massive costs while the CCP take no notice and become only world superpower. And likely HQ for world-wide social credit tyranny.
The nation not dumb enough to fall for the eco-shite will rival–and if a free/markets country–likely prevail over the CCP trash.
We could be that country apart from stupidity cowardice and idle apathy. We need to smash the left in general with extra punishment for greenfreaks. Including Pigou tax -supporting mugs.
Nothing personal Tim.
“If we don’t fix this, our children will be waging wars over water and food.”
Idiots have been predicting this since the 1960s. Sixty years later food production continues to rise. The only way this prediction is likely to actually come true is if western governments keep insisting on following their insane green energy policies.
They won’t be fighting over food. We are already seeing the effect of increased CO2 in agricultural yields.
We’ve already got cleaner air and water, more livable cities, and higher levels of health and wellbeing. Don’t these idiots remember the ’50s?
Anyone who deliberately conflates the plant nutrient, carbon dioxide, with air pollution is probably lying about a whole heap of other things.
which include cleaner air and water,
What jgh said. This is incredible fantasy bullshit like deluded middle aged women who believe they can see angels or fairies. There’s nothing wrong with our air or water.
more livable cities,
Greenybollocks is going to stop Da’Marcus stealing your bike how?
and higher levels of health and wellbeing
Citation needed.
as well as defusing the climate crisis.
There’s no “crisis”. It’s in their heads. In their heeeeeaaads. Zombies. Zombies. Zombies-ies-ies.
In other words, these drongos have made up the climate garbage to push their nonsense. Because we’ve made it plain that we’re not interested in it.
As all the previous comments point out, our health, air, water etc are far better now than they were because we are richer and have better tech. Naturally the rest of the world wishes to use the tech we’ve developed to make themselves richer also.
I have an excellent and effective solution to the climate nonsense. Burn all the idiots as bio-fuel.
“If we don’t fix this, our children will be waging wars over water and food.”
Given the alleged trends the same people shout about ‘obesity’, this war, at least in Britain, will be one group of very fat people fighting another group of very fat people in the pissing rain.
@ AndyF
“Turn off the power to a city for three days to let folks experience how “liveable” that city becomes with no heat, electric light and fresh water”
This effectively happened to Lancaster in the UK during Storm Desmond in 2015: (PDF)
https://www.raeng.org.uk/publications/reports/living-without-electricity
“The biggest impact on most people was that few knew what was happening. By looking
out of the window, it was obvious that there was a widespread power cut but none of the
usual sources of information – TV, internet, text messages or social media – was working.
Although there was FM radio coverage, many people did not have a suitable battery-
powered radio and reporters in the area had serious difficulties in communicating with
their studios.”
Slightly ironic that the (diesel powered) buses continued to run…
“Any sacrifice would be mild for most, such as the inconvenience of having a house renovated to low-carbon standards” Might be a minor inconvenience for someone riding the EU gravy train but for the rest of us it will be a major expenditure of 10s of thousands of pounds. I remember a scheme where they converted some council houses to low carbon at £75000 a pop.Sorry i’ve not got that sort of money lying around. The usual farrago of lies from someone who’ll never face the negative consequences of his decisions,mo
“
– Don’t we already have clean air . . .
We did until this carbon dioxide phobia. Now, middle class virtue-signallers along with poor people who can no longer afford to heat their homes conventionally are pouring smoke back into our towns and cities. Even in the summer, as soon as evening falls the air is filled with wood and coal fumes, no matter which way the wind blows. Forget fresh air or smelling the roses. If it carries on we’ll be back to smogs.
Anything specifically “green” will ruin the environment.
– This is incredible fantasy bullshit like deluded middle aged women who believe they can see angels or fairies.
Umm, Steve . . .
As a general proposition – though not a universal one – environmental scares are shite. Except that unlike literal shite they are not good for the crops. But they are good for advancing the careers of Persons of Shite.
jgh nails it. You’ve got to be well into your 60s to remember smogs (it wasn’t just London, though they got the worst of it), and soot-blackened buildings everywhere. Our local river (in Lancs) was downstream of Crown Paints, and we would try to guess what colour it would be running on any given day. These people either have no clue, or they do have a clue and have no conscience.
@ moqifen
I think the £75k would be the least of the worries to anyone in Grenfell Tower.
Ah, Timmermans…
This is what you get when you let a europhile activist ( even amongst europhiles..) off his leash, and think he’s safely “promoted up” into a non-entity like the EU “parliament”.
Fortunately the idjit very much does not represent our national sentiments on these matters.
Not that it matters to him as he is one of the people who push for a Federated Europe and feels “Nations” are as outdated as “Kings”, and he’s living his dream in his sponsored echo-chamber.
A good example of why P³ must never be allowed anywhere near a semblamce of “power”.
moqifen,
I remember a scheme where they converted some council houses to low carbon at £75000 a pop.
I suppose we should be thankful for small mercies, at least they renovated. Meanwhile in Germany (Google Translate):
Drivel like this only encourages loonies like this waste of space – https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/01/climate-activist-arrested-after-gluing-himself-to-tower-bridge-extinction-rebellion
Especially since what he have *actually* been doing – ignoring the climate warblers and getting on with making things better – has already gotten us cleaner air and water, more livable cities, and higher levels of health and wellbeing, as well as defusing the climate crisis;)
And all that is *on top of* in increase in energy usage over my lifetime along with a doubling of the global population.
BiND, this may be because refitting the buildings would be even more expensive..
Even if the substructure is suited for it ( steel girders + concrete floors ), stripping it down, getting rid of all the old stuff and adapting the floors alone takes more time than simply razing the building and starting over.
They’re adapting old office blocks into housing here, and they’ve been hammering at one for a year and a half now, and are still not to the point where they can start building again..
Gotten to the point that the 7:30 AM start of the pneumatic hammering is no more than a reminder that it’s a weekday, and I must decide to turn over or get up..
Grikath: Perhaps they are your equivalent of Listed Buildings. Over here anything on the list has to jump through all sorts of hoops to get anything changed, and those on the Grade 1 list usually can’t be. I would think that lots of those 17th C canalside terraces in Amsterdam & Delft etc must have preservation orders on them.
Of course over here the Listing process went woke a while ago so 60s excrescences like Centre Point (a tall Brutal building in London) are on the list. Perhaps you have the same problem?
“We’ve already got cleaner air and water, more livable cities, and higher levels of health and wellbeing. Don’t these idiots remember the ’50s?“
Even those of us born in the 60’s can see the massive improvement . It’s the constant failure to recognise the gains we have made that allows these scam artists to push for more, especially give the current generations self/centred view of the world
@TG Hard to compare… When it comes to “modern” architecture the focus lies on “extraordinary examples” which happened mostly outside the city centers anyway , whereas preserving the Old Stuff mainly focuses on “maintaining the cityscape” (something, something, tourists…).
Quite a lot of the outer Amsterdam canal belt ( as are parts of the medieval harbours where I live) is rebuilt, but as close to the original as possible. And a lot only has the outer facade standing as “windowdressing” with modern insides. Happens a lot over here, especially since the mucking around with water tables has caused the centuries-old foundations to rot almost everywhere.
It does help that a lot of Architecture gets done either in Rotterdam, or industrial parks/new municipal areas, and not so much in existing bits of towns/cities. Architects proposing to “improve” old cityscapes tend to be presented with pitchforks and torches here. They do manage to put down some turds here and there, but they tend to be Disappeared after a decade or two, three..
Anyone who thinks air pollution is a problem in the West should go the Beijing on a black air day…
Makes me again wonder where I can emigrate to once I retire.
The UK is going down the green diversity SJW po-faced toilet. Under Biden the USA will follow it.
Must be a country somewhere which has lap dancing clubs and where electricity comes from car tyre burning power stations and you’re allowed to tell jokes about foreigners. But where?
Even those of us born in the 60’s can see the massive improvement . It’s the constant failure to recognise the gains we have made that allows these scam artists to push for more, especially give the current generations self/centred view of the world
If they admit a problem has been fixed, or is in the process of being fixed, they can’t become saviours.
@ Andrew C
Must be a country somewhere which has lap dancing clubs and where electricity comes from car tyre burning power stations and you’re allowed to tell jokes about foreigners. But where?
Cyprus…?
We burn heavy oil in our power stations (and get annual fines from the EU) but they do burn tyres in the cement factory at Zygi.
Insulting forriners is fine – especially darkies… 😉
moqifen: (Tower Bridge protestor) Yeah glods, he’s a civil engineer! You’d think as an engineer would have at least a couple of brain cells.
I’d just put traffic barriers around him, and ignore him.
‘I’d just put traffic barriers around him, and ignore him.’
But if you put traffic barriers around him jgh, that means he mightn’t get run over.
Cyprus?
I’m told (by a couple living there) that you have to text the Government for permission any time you leave your house, and you even have to specify what for? So if you get a text allowing you to take some exercise, and whilst doing that you’re caught coming out of a shop with a pint of milk, in theory that’s an automatic €300 fine?
Not sure that’s an improvement on the UK (well, OK, the weather obviously), when right now I can pretty much go where and whenever I please (if it’s open) and happily ignore any face knicker or other edicts.
What we’ve done in the UK is utterly bat shit crazy but there does seem to be some stiff competition?
@PF
Yes, sadly Cyprus just follows Greece – I think we are the only two countries that have the bizarre need to request permission via SMS before leaving the house.
We’ve been in a new ‘Lockdown’ for the past week although we didn’t ever leave the last one – the SMS was reduced from two to one a day and all the bars, restaurants and ‘non essential’ shops have closed…
However, it is Orthodox Easter Sunday today so The Virus has taken the day off and we are allowed out to meet with others for the day!
What a shitfest.
However, the weather is fantastic and we do burn tyres… 😉
On the subject of greenery, Slashdot currently has some unintentional irony. In order of posting we have “California’s Power Grid Hits 95% Renewable Energy. Sort of.”. Apparently for all of 4 seconds, and although they were generating lots of dirty power it was mostly being exported to neighbouring states.
This was followed by “Samsung Lost More than $268 Million During Power Shutdown in Texas”. Their wafer fab went titsup when the power went off, they lost thousands of wafers in the pipeline and needed a month or so to get back into production.
Since the benefits of a low-carbon society most emphatically do not include cleaner air and water, more livable cities, and higher levels of health and wellbeing, no bloody wonder the pollys are having a problem selling it to a not completely gormless electorate.