Subsidising the Argument

There has been a fair amount of discussion about subsidies in the ongoing debate about energy policies recently. Damian Carrington in today's Guardian puffs up Chris Huhne's speech at the Renewable UK (formerly the British Wind Energy Association) conference: The...

Warding Off the Deniers

There was a heated twitter exchange last night between Bob Ward, Bishop Hill, and Richard Tol. Ward predictably wanted to know 'who funds the GWPF' -- the Global Warming Policy Foundation, headed by Nigel Lawson and Benny Peiser. Ward has been making much of alleged...

Climate Fools Day

I am not speaking at the Climate Fools Day, as the advertising for the event says alongside some other misleading information.

'The Science is Settled', Part 858

I found myself being called a 'climate sceptic' and 'denier' this week. I find this odd, because I rarely take a view on the science, which I regard as largely a massive red herring -- the climate debate is mostly political. My argument is that if you want to know...

Climate Change Policy is as Dangerous as Climate Change

According to Channel 4 News, An interim independent report predicts that 2,700 people will die this winter as a consequence of fuel poverty, a figure greater than the number killed in traffic accidents each year. As argued here in recent posts, fuel poverty is a...

An Inconvenient Eradication

One of the things mentioned very often here is the case of the WHO claim that 150,000 deaths throughout the world can be attributed to climate change. This figure was then upped to 300,000 by the now defunct Global Humanitarian Forum, under the stewardship of former...

Who Are the 'Reality Checkers' Kidding?

Polly Curtis is the Guardian's 'reality checker'. Today's she's been live-blogging the debate about the margins of the 'Big Six' energy retailers, discussed here yesterday. Reality check: Are energy price hikes inevitable? Temperatures are about to plummet and energy...

The Big Lie About the ‘Big 6’

In spite of their having campaigned tirelessly over the last few decades for more expensive and less efficient forms of energy production -- 'sustainable energy' -- many of a greenish hue are getting heated up about about UK energy market regulator OFGEM's latest...

The Poverty of 'Development Goals'

Roger Pielke asks an intriguing question on his blog: Why is Energy Access Not a MDG? The UN Millennium Development Goals (pictured above) focus attention on helping improve the lives of poor people around the world. In the words of the UN: [The eight goals] form a...

The Poverty of Opinion Polls

The Guardian has an article about a poll of Europeans [PDF], which, according to them, shows that 'Europeans fear climate change more than financial turmoil'. I have little time for opinion polls. There is only one real test of opinion, and that is an individual...