I've been saying, and writing, for years that the end result of the climate-change panic-mongers, should they get their way, would be the end of the Western world's modern technological lifestyle. The climate scolds in the once-Great Britain, in just that matter, have stripped off the mask; they just seem to keep getting louder - and more demanding. They demand Brits give up their roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, their cars, their gas furnaces, and pretty much all of their modern lifestyle, all to address the bugaboo of climate change.
And no, "demand" isn't too strong a word. I'm not being metaphorical; this isn't an exercise in hyperbole. There is a group, calling themselves an advisory body, the "Climate Change Committee," that is apparently the United Kingdom's official Net Zero advisory body. And, yes, they are making demands. The Daily Sceptic's Will Jones has the story.
The UK’s drive for Net Zero means millions of Brits face having to install heat pumps in their homes over the next decade, according to the Government’s climate advisers.
The Climate Change Committee said there needed to be around 1.5 million heat pump installations a year in existing homes by 2035 – up from just 60,000 in 2023.
In its [advice on the UK’s] Seventh Carbon Budget, which sets a limit for UK greenhouse gas emissions between 2038 to 2042, the committee also piled pressure on Brits to buy electric cars, fly less and cut their meat and dairy consumption.
The report said, in order to meet the country’s Net Zero ambition, three-quarters of cars and vans and two-thirds of heavy good vehicles (HGVs) would need to be electric by 2040.
At the same time, Brits should be shunning their cars to cycle and walk more, while eating 25% less meat, the committee stated.
That's in addition to the UK making the climate-saving move back to wooden drink bottles. Ned Ludd, please pick up the white courtesy phone.
See Related: British Taxpayers Take a Soaking to Pay for a Return to Medieval Container Technology
Is it not obvious that these demands would represent a dramatic curtailing of the British lifestyle?
Economist Thomas Sowell, one of my personal heroes, reminds us to ask two questions when considering these kinds of efforts: "To what end? At what cost?" The answer to all this would seem to be "to try to set the thermostat of the planet to what we humans think is the 'correct' temperature, and the cost doesn't matter."
Well, the cost does matter. How much to replace 1.5 million furnaces with heat pumps? How much to replace tens of thousands of automobiles with electric vehicles? As far as eating less meat and dairy, if Brits choose to do so, fine, but this looks an awful lot like the idea is requiring it. How would this be accomplished? A return to the World War 2 rationing plan? That, we must realize, would be what it would take.
This is starting to look a lot like totalitarianism in the name of climate change - go ahead and tell me that's a surprise to anyone.
Mr. Jones writes:
The Climate Change Committee was created by the Climate Change Act 2008 to give the Government independent advice on how to achieve its climate goals. The Government is obliged under the act to create legally binding carbon budgets for each five year period up to 2050 to ensure it is on track. The Government doesn’t have to accept the committee’s advice – though to date it invariably has – but it does have to set a binding carbon budget (this will be the seventh, for 2038-2042) that keeps the country on target. Without repealing or amending the act the Government has very little wiggle room, so it’s worth looking out for what it actually comes up with in the next year or so.
What it comes up wth in the next year or so will be more demands, more controls, more interference with the lives of everyday Brits - and more degrading of the modern lifestyles of the once-Great Britain.
At least those of us rebellious sorts here in the former colonies, and all of the new territories those former colonies have expanded into, seem to be favoring a return to good sense in this matter.
See Related: What a Difference a Month Makes: President Trump Is Sweeping Aside the Climate Scolds
To our cousins across "the pond," I can only say this: Come on, already. Learn from the former colonies that kicked you out of our country 250 years ago. We're two people separated by a common language, as Sir Winston said, and I'd remind you that Mr. Churchill was one of ours, too - his mother was an American. We have, in our most recent election, shoved aside the climate scolds in a return to some semblance of sense. When will you people do likewise? If we did it, so can you. Vote the blighters out!
