Guest contribution by Eric Worrall
h / t James Delingpole; David King, former longtime UK government science advisor, is heading a new climate advisory board. But his track record of referrals includes some worrying missteps.
Politics is now the battleground for climate change, says leading British scientist
Felicia Jackson
Contributor
sustainability
The dangers of climate change are well known, but action has been entangled in economic and political arguments, but given its diverse and global implications, there is no time to wait for action. Sir David King, the UK’s former chief scientific advisor and current head of Independent Sage, has launched an international advisory group of leading climate experts with a program to mitigate the effects of climate change through emissions reduction, greenhouse gas removal and climate repair.
The Climate Crisis Advisory Group (CCAG) endeavors to advise and support leading personalities worldwide in the search for further obligations and measures to combat the climate crisis, independently of experts. The group is open to politicians, consultants and above all to the public and would like to change our view of the climate crisis.
Before the official launch on June 23, King said, “We are looking at a number of catastrophic events over the next several decades. Our goal is to bring emissions to close to zero as quickly as possible, preferably by 2035–2040, and to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere to the point where the atmosphere is reduced to 350 ppm CO2e. We will also need and repair the parts of the climate system that exceed their tipping points to buy time while emissions reduction and removal reach 350ppm levels. ”
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Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/feliciajackson/2021/06/24/politics-is-now-the-battleground-for-climate-change/
James Delingpole’s answer is well worth reading, with references to “Satan’s Ass cheeks” and other hilariously brilliant Dellingpoleske verbal flourishes.
One of the biggest criticisms of King that Delingpole points out is David King’s role in the diesel car disaster.
In the early 2000s, David King convinced the Blair administration to encourage a mass switch to diesel cars, including for use in Britain’s busy cities with high traffic, as diesel engines are more fuel efficient. The downside that King overlooked is that diesel engines emit more pollutants than gasoline vehicles. The consequence of the added pollution from a mass switch to diesel has been a catastrophic increase in premature deaths.
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Here history has another lesson for us that has apparently gone unmentioned in the various soft interviews Sir David enjoyed. Namely, his involvement in what is perhaps the most egregious public health disaster of modern times – the decision by the Tony Blair government to drastically cut fuel taxes on diesel cars.
The terribly misguided policy was implemented at Sir David’s behest in the early 2000s as part of an effort to reduce the country’s carbon emissions. Obsessed with climate change, Sir David came up with the idea of encouraging motorists to drive diesel cars because they produced about 15 percent less CO2 than gasoline cars.
When the government cut fuel and other taxes on diesel drivers, millions dutifully bought the vehicles. At that point it became clear that the nitrous oxide and other pollutants they emitted were causing serious, and often fatal, breathing problems among members of the public.
Sir David should have been aware of this, because in 2001 the European Respiratory Journal published a report linking diesel cars to lung problems and showing that they produced 100 times as many particles as their gasoline counterparts.
However, he seems to have been convinced of the diesel by automakers who, as we now know, cheated in their emissions tests. Tens of thousands of Britons lost their lives as a result of this widespread introduction of dirty fuel.
By 2017, nitrous oxide was contributing to the premature death of 12,000 people a year in the UK. At that point Sir David gave an interview and admitted, ‘It turned out we were wrong.’
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Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8286797/GUY-ADAMS-Ex-science-tsar-Sir-David-King-told-switch-diesel.html
Now David King is trying again to influence British politics.
The introduction of renewable energies is still a catastrophe today. As Greentech media explains, it is the unreliability of renewable energies that is causing the damage. Hedging against the uncertainty of renewable energies is driving prices up. Businesses are being forced to purchase expensive financial instruments, typically issued by ready-to-ship utilities or commercial banks, that act as a form of insurance against possible spikes in energy prices when renewable energies fail to deliver. If they don’t take out “insurance,” they’ll pay full price when energy prices rise to thousands of dollars per kilowatt-hour. Either way, they pay.
The cost of this “insurance” or the cost of servicing wild price peaks are passed on to consumers.
These increased costs, in turn, must add to Britain’s rising energy poverty rate and likely contribute to Britain’s rising excessive winter death toll.
The fact that David King is looking to get involved in climate and energy policy should sound the alarm, as he says he is linked to what I believe to be ill-conceived political initiatives that have likely resulted in the untimely deaths of thousands of people from diesel pollution .
Update (EW): David King claimed he was misled by the auto industry regarding nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel vehicles.
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