Confronting The Climate Emergency – Part 4

Diary From The Coal Face - Cllr James Dalton, Holme Valley Parish Council

James Dalton, Going Postal Some Interesting facts:

  • Carbon Dioxide is a trace gas and currently accounts for approximately 405ppm (parts per million) or approx. 0.04% of the earth’s atmosphere. 200 years ago in 1820, it is estimated (ice core research) that there were 284ppm CO2 in the atmosphere.
  • When we breath out, our breath contains approx 40,000 to 50,000 ppm CO2.
  • Carbon Dioxide is not a poison, unlike Carbon Monoxide which is.
  • Current Carbon Dioxide concentrations in the earth’s atmosphere are less than optimal for efficient photosynthesis in plants (horticulturalists often enhance the CO2 content of enclosed greenhouse atmospheres to circa 1200 ppm to optimise yield).
  • In the preceding three decades, the mass of plant life on earth has increased by approx. 14% (the planet has been significantly ‘greening’ recently).

Holme Valley Parish Council Climate Emergency Steering Group Update…

It is now over 4 months since a ‘Climate Emergency’ was declared by HVPC. Initial meetings the Holme Valley Parish Council Climate Emergency Steering Group [HVPCCESG] have brought me to believe that it does not have the characteristics of a local think tank convened to establish how residents of the Holme Valley can contribute to a sustainable and clean environment.

The ‘Climate Emergency’ appears to be a political creation designed to shape the psychology of people to accept an enforced change in their lifestyles and to be receptive to an increased tax burden and a restriction on their freedom. It has nothing to do with our environment or sustainability. It is a war people’s wallets: on car users, electricity users and gas users and it is also a war on scientific enquiry and the truth. It is the demonisation of carbon dioxide and the activities which produce it and without reasoned reason or explanation.

Councillor Paul Davies Chairs the HVPCCESG. He resides in the Holme Valley, is a Parish Councillor for Wooldale Ward and is the Labour Party Councillor for Holme Valley South on Kirklees Council. He has taken on the responsibility of disseminating through HVPCCESG, political propaganda* to pursue a political end – that of transforming our economy and our lifestyles by attempting to demonise activities which produce CO2. Councillor Davies however has no understanding of Carbon Dioxide, what it is, how much of it there is or the effect it may or may not have on our climate and this is reflected in his admissions to the HVPCCESG where it became apparent that only three of the members were aware of basic facts such as the amount of CO2 produced (on average) by an individual in the UK per year and the general understanding of the subject matter (climate change/global warming) is near absent.

James Dalton, Going Postal
Air – constituent gases in dry air. Carbon dioxide accounts for 405ppm or 0.04%

Unfortunately, the first meetings of the HVPCCESG have also revealed the group ‘Holmfirth Transition Town’ [HOTT] to be a political lobbying group in the Holme Valley masquerading as an environmental group. I am not convinced that those conscientious residents active within HOTT are aware of its purpose and of the political ideologues behind the ‘Transition Town’ movement, designed to facilitate a predetermined political course. The majority of those who engage with local environmental groups such as HOTT, I am sure, involve themselves with positive and socially responsible and constructive intent.

Emotive misinformation

One needs only to review HOTT’s published material to see propaganda and fear mongering, designed to elicit emotional responses within a concerned public to advance political and financial aims of multinational corporations and international and national political movements, including those of the LibLabCon parties here in the UK.

Holmfirth Transition Town has, with the assistance of taxpayers’ money, distributed ‘information’ including through churches and schools, which is alarmist in nature and contains confusing data. Attached is a picture of part of one such publication.

James Dalton, Going Postal
Emotive misinformation regarding CO2 distributed to local residents and schoolchildren. This should be corrected and apologies provided

“The climate is changing…” It is, it always has and it always will. “…temperatures have risen steadily since the 1800s, 2014 was the warmest year on record, storms are more frequent and more severe…” Hang on! This issue of extreme weather events, their severity and frequency is the subject of research that has been presented to the IPCC (intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and the scientific findings are that there is no evidential basis to suggest any trend of increased severity or frequency of ‘storms’ or other extreme weather phenomena. Let us continue: “…This is due to the increase of 40% of atmospheric CO2 since the 1800s…” Really? I have looked, but can find no reputable research scientist who definitively attributes and correlates temperature increase being caused solely by one variable – in this case CO2 atmospheric content. “…Methane and other greenhouse gases are also increasing and these trap more of the sun’s energy and raise temperatures…” So what of the greenhouse gas which is estimated to contribute the most to the GHGE [Greenhouse gas effect] which is omitted from HOTT’s opening paragraph – water vapour – H2O – clouds? Despite our understanding that water vapour is the most significant greenhouse gas and exists in much large (varying) quantities in the atmosphere, no mention of this reality is mentioned in HOTT’s publication. Any mention of the contribution of H2O to the GHGE would immediately undermine the contention that “This (temperature increase and imaginary storm frequency and severity) is due to the increase of 40% (from a trace amount of 280ppm to an increased trace amount of 400ppm) of atmospheric CO2 since the 1800s”.

Paragraph two gets worse… “…If we do nothing, temperatures will increase by 6 degrees by the end of the century.” This statement is hard to understand. Perhaps HOTT are referring to a Fahrenheit scale to make the number ‘appear bigger’ (6 degrees F is approx. 3.3 degrees Centigrade)? The IPCC itself which relies upon already discredited predictive computer models has postulated a ‘range’ of possible outcomes from 1.5-4.5 degree increase by 2100. However, when the predictions of the computer models used by the IPCC in its reports are compared with real world measurements from 1997 – 2019, reality has shown that the predicted increase in temperature has not manifested itself as the published CO2 concentrations have continued to rise. Based on the agreed scientific findings of the IPCC’s work rather than the published conclusions to it, the predicted sensitivity of surface temperature due to the GHGE of CO2 is estimated to be less than 1.5 degree C per doubling of CO2. From where have HOTT got the figure of 6 degrees? Has it just been made up?  I would be most interested to hear their justification for this statement and to whose work they refer in establishing such an assertion… “…and people will have to cope with higher sea levels, loss of food production, floods and starvation with climate refugees.” I’m lost for words with this assertion of inevitable doom, dystopia and Armageddon for there is no scientific justification for it – indeed statistics demonstrate minimal sea level rises, no statistical increase in flooding or drought and food production, yields and human well-being indicators are all rising. The psychological harm done to young impressionable minds should they believe such a negative outlook for the future of life on earth is immeasurable.

HVPC should distance itself from the claims of HOTT. Furthermore, HOTT should be formally requested to:

  • withdraw the document and release an apology to those it has embroiled in the document’s distribution or;
  • provide full references to the named scientists from whom they have received ‘information’ in the formulation of the wording to their document.

Like so much of today’s politics of fear and fakenews, HOTT’s information sheet starts off with the fear-mongering narrative based on tested and falsified assertions, defining the evident ‘problem’, before introducing the ‘solutions’, which are of course driven by the financial and political objectives of those who continue to make good money from what appears to be an ongoing worldwide global warming/climate change/climate crisis/climate emergency hoax.

As a tonic to the outlandish fear-mongering of Greta Thunberg and those who seek fame, money or political gain from the Climate Emergency industry, I leave a more grounded, rational and hopeful message from Dr Patrick Moore, one of the Greenpeace founders who has stayed true his environmental and scientific principles. This message was delivered in 2019.

Further updates, information and commentary on the Climate Emergency as experienced in Holme Valley Parish Council will be forthcoming soon.

*Members of the HVPCCESG have received a plethora of prescribed documents that are doubtless being disseminated throughout the country in councils that have signed up to the recent craze of ‘Declaring a Climate Emergency’. I wonder how many of those activists charged with distributing this information themselves have any understanding of the potential human consequences of the policies they currently promote…
 

© Councillor James Dalton 2019, DVP – The Direct Democracy Party. dvparty.uk
 

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