“Greenest Government Ever”

14 May 2010: David Cameron pledges greenest government ever

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/uk-politics-video/7723996/David-Cameron-pledges-greenest-government-ever.html

Hardly a surprise the Tories are not choosing to big up their green credentials for this election but what did the coalition actually achieve?

Shale gas extraction and fracking:
A continuation of Thatcher’s dash to gas policy which has now become over reliant on maintaining relations with Russia, and very vulnerable to petrodollar price fluctuations. It is true that burning gas is better for the environment than burning coal, but not burning carbon at all is much better still. So there are two very good green reasons to oppose fracking:
It will risk immediate and long term direct damage to your local environment through extraction associated pollution and frequent minor earth tremors, the health risks to people and wildlife of water table contamination are also very real no matter what safeguards the government insists will protect you.
The real reason to oppose shale gas extraction however is that it adds to the total pool of exploited carbon that will ultimately tip the earth over the edge into accelerated warming, extreme weather events, dramatic sea level rise and ultimately tectonic plate adjustment as the weight of the polar ice caps is redistributed to the equatorial oceans.

Eric Pickles and wind farms:
Despite being in a completely unrelated ministry, climate change denier Eric Pickles somehow managed to acquire a veto over onshore wind power schemes in England. Schemes that are intrinsic to the wider energy policy and have funding in place with the support of the hosting local authority and planning officers, are repeatedly bounced by Eric Pickles because he just doesn’t like wind power. And nobody in government has the bollocks to put him in place and defend their own energy policy.

Nuclear:
Billions have been committed, for generations to come, to contracts to build up to 8 new nuclear power plants. Personally I think nuclear is probably a better long term option than burning carbon, BUT:
We need better plans for managing waste before we start adding significantly to it.
We shouldn’t be contracting the construction and operation to a consortium of private French businesses and the Chinese government. If we want to manage the risks properly nuclear has to be the sole responsibility of HM government, not struggling construction companies and definitely not operated using software from an often hostile competitor nation.

Owen Paterson’s 18 months as environment minister:
The joker in the pack, Owen Paterson, a man whose lifelong distrust of science makes him one of the most bizarre appointments of a government that made a habit of counter intuitive appointments. Another climate change denier who fronted the new, extremely expensive and remarkably unsuccessful policy of sacrificing badgers to the rain gods. Now it has also emerged that, at the behest of the multinational agrochemical giants who market them, he oversaw the deliberate misrepresentation of government research showing bee colony numbers may be severely affected by neonicotinoid pesticides in a bid to prevent an EU ban. This latest accusation was reported by New Scientist this week and will receive no wider audience while most of the mainstream popular media concentrate on re-electing the Tories in May.

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“The scientific process appears to have been deliberately manipulated to agree with the environment secretary’s views”