For Immediate Release.
28 March
2008
“Dark Hour - a Sign of the Times”.
The Carbon
Sense Coalition today came out in support of “lights out” during Earth Hour (Saturday 30th ) but claimed
the time should be renamed “Dark Hour” and suggested that consumers
should also forgo the consumption of gasoline and diesel during this period.
The
chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, claimed that consumers
should spend the hour they sit in the dark with no transport, air conditioning
or hot coffee, remembering the contribution that carbon fuels have made to
modern society.
“And
while contemplating this hour of darkness, they should steel themselves for the
hour when, if the Global warming alarmists have their way, this will become a
necessity not a nicety.
“The
only thing that lifted mankind from the Stone Age was carbon energy from coal,
oil and gas – for heating; for steam power; for electricity and water;
for mining, smelting and refining of metals; for transport on land, sea and
air; for lighting, heating, cooling and communications; for production of food
and chemicals; and for power for processing and manufacturing.
“All
of this comfort, safety, convenience and prosperity is now threatened by
hysterical claims that man’s carbon emissions can and should be stopped. Even though the weather records and the science deny
the doomsday forecasts, the politicians, like lemmings, are leading us over the
Greenhouse Cliff. Without the nuclear parachute, it will not be a pleasant
fall.
“Many
other countries have already experienced their own dark days, most caused by
silly decisions taken to appease the Greenhouse Gods.
“If
we continue down this path, we can no longer assume that electricity will come
at the flick of a switch. Consumers need to learn a new vocabulary for these
bad new times – “load shedding, demand management, quota
allocation, rolling blackouts, brownouts, emission permits, load
prioritisation, interruptible customers, emergency customers, zone rota
systems, power emergency declarations, priority lines, three-day-week
rationing, power outages, grid instability, electricity rationing, operating
reserve, maintenance shutdowns . . . .” - all the jargon of a power
system in crisis, suffering from stagnant or falling capacity and growing
demand.
“One
of the first places to experience power shortages was, appropriately enough,
California in the early 2000’s, where Deep Greens have harassed and
delayed every practical method of generating base-load power. The operating
reserve margin in California
is now about 5% whereas 15% is considered safe. More “Dark Hours”
can be expected there. And their Green Tick solar collectors will produce 12
Dark Hours EVERY DAY.
“Then
came South Africa,
which was forced to shut its big mines for several hours because of
insufficient power to guarantee safe operation of the hoists. The South African
government has now admitted that demand for electricity will exceed supply
until 2013 – five years of dark hours are in prospect there.
“Then
it was China’s
turn. The Global Cooling of 2007 plus insufficient generating capacity and
inadequate coal stocks caused widespread power failures. Whole regions and millions
of people were forced to cope with blizzards without power for days. Power
blackouts and brownouts hit 17 Chinese provinces.
“Then
one day in Texas recently, the wind dropped, the whirling blades stopped
turning, power supply collapsed and load shedding commenced before the old
reliables of coal, nuclear or gas could pick up the slack.
“The
aging European power grids are now
also subject to similar disruptions from the intermittent supply from
unreliable sources like wind and solar. However France has been very canny by
building large nuclear capacity, then agitating for decarbonisation for their
competitors. Foolish Germany
got sucked into this caper, but also committed to phase out their nuclear
power. It is not possible to cut both nuclear power and carbon emissions at the
same time without morbid consequences. Germans can only continue this rot while
their accommodating neighbours will sell them the power.
“Across
Africa, the Americas
and the -stans, the same problem appears – an aging power grid and an
orchestrated campaign to delay and deter new power stations.
“Even here in Queensland,
the coal capital of the world, a few blackouts in 2004 revealed an over-loaded
and under-funded electricity grid. There may be a few more Dark Hours for us,
at less convenient times.
“Australia and New Zealand both live in cuckoo
land, believing they can maintain living standards in the face of population
growth while drastically cutting carbon emissions and prohibiting nuclear
power. Saturday’s “Dark Hour” caper may be just a practice
run.
“So,
let us all in Australia and New Zealand spend our “Dark Hour”
thinking on the realities of life - such as where we will get the electricity,
motor fuel, food and jobs for our kids and grandkids if we allow the Deep Greens
to destroy our backbone industries, on the false promise that our sacrifice
will improve the future climate.
To steal a
phrase from my friend, Rod Bates: “On Saturday night, after they have
turned off their lights, I suggest the participants in Earth
Hour wander down to the nearest beach, pee into the sea and observe what effect
it has on the tide.”
“This
will illustrate the effect that cutting man-made carbon emissions will have on
future climate.”
Additional Notes:
Both the
science and the past records are indicating very strongly that man-made carbon
dioxide has negligible consequences for climate change. For a very good summary
of the science, by a scientist, in plain language see:
http://www.middlebury.net/op-ed/global-warming-01.html
Given the
political momentum for the introduction of damaging policies such as Emissions Trading or Carbon Taxes, Carbon Sense
repeats its call for a joint ANZ Royal Commission into the science of man-made
global warming. Carbon Sense strongly believes that only through settling
the science will the truth emerge.”
See:
http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/royal-commission.pdf
Ends
798
words
Authorised
by:
Viv Forbes,
Chairman
The
Carbon Sense Coalition
MS 23
Rosewood
Qld
0754 640
533
www.carbon-sense.com
info@carbon-sense.com
