“Shall I point out the irony?” asks reader.
“The Scottish government failed to meet its own climate change targets in 2010, according the latest official figures.
“They showed greenhouse gas emissions rose by 1.9% on 2009 figures, after taking emissions trading into account.
“Climate Change Minister Stewart Stevenson said exceptionally cold weather conditions in Scotland in 2010 was to blame.
“The government is attempting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 42% by 2020.
“Mr Stevenson said “Scotland faced its coldest winter temperatures in almost a century – and quite rightly people across Scotland needed to heat their homes to keep warm and safe”.
“Later this year the Scottish government plan to lay before the Scottish parliament its second report on proposals and policies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
See entire article:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-18871679
Thanks to Andrew for this link
“Shall I point out the irony?” asks Andrew.
22 Responses to Scotland misses greenhouse gas reduction targets due to ‘one of the coldest winters on record’
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Love the ‘Climate change isn’t going to stop for a bit of frost on the grounds’ comment!
Obviously the rise in CO2 has little or nothing to do with climate change. The Scottish government would be well advised to cut costs related to CO2 monitoring and either reduce debt or invest the cash in something more productive or usefull.
Ice breakers and snow removal equipment may be?
Come on you angry Scots! Vote out these green noodle heads! Where are the mighty Scots that invented hagas and bagpipes? The highlanders and low landers that sent the Roman legions packing? Are they all gone? Have you all become limp wristed mewling little gits? I think not! Stand up and tell them Pog ma thoin!
Well John, your last 3 words in Gaelic neatly sum up the relationship between our politicians and the renewables industry. They spend much of their time in such mutual activity in a country that produces 0.17% of world anthropogenic CO2 ( only 0.05% from electricity production) and the worst standard of housing relative to climate in the world.
HI John,
Just a couple of comments on your view of Scottish history. The tribes that fought the Romans were the Picts and not the Scots. The Picts origin is unknown but some believe they came from what is now Scandinavia. The Scots were an Irish Celtic tribe that fought the Picts culminating in a huge battle in the Blane valley in Stirlingshire which the Scots won. Bagpipes are believed to have come from the Persian empire and possible even India. The history of the Haggis stems from Celtic tribes moving across Europe during the dark ages when there were several years of bad weather.
As an aside, everyone thinks that the whole of Scotland rose up again the English at Culloden. Fact is they didn’t! Bonnie Prince Charlie (who would trust a man named after three sheepdogs)led a highlander rebellion, half of the English army was made up of lowlander Scots.
Potato potaato. I believe you have missed the point.
I am well aware of the history of Scotland and its cultural icons, that wasn’t however the point of my rant.
The hostility between the relatively settled Lowlanders and more nomadic Highlanders could be said to have it’s roots in Climate Change.
In the early Dark Ages, the cooling which had contributed to the decline of Rome also weakened the native population in the Western Isles and the Highlands, where agriculture was always marginal, creating opportunities for the Scotti to expand eastward from Antrim and settle into a predatory relationship with the Lowlanders.
Historically, England’s larger stock of good agricultural land and more benign climate has normally given her the edge over Scotland. The Act of Union of 1707 not merely the result of a cunning plan hatched by the evil English: a series of Maunder Minimum bad harvests had reduced Scotland’s population through famine, weakening her further in relation to England, and making her a less attractive ally for England’s European rivals.
I may be a bit out in my timings but I believe the people around then were the Picts in the Highlands – basically Viking descendants, and the lowlands were filled with Brythonic Celts.
The Romans actually defeated the Caledonia Confederacy in 84 AD but subsequently withdrew from Caledonia, not as the result of being driven off by the lowland Brythonic tribes.
I guess they just found it generally too wet cold and unfriendly and maybe not enough stinging nettles to beat their legs with to keep warm?
Irony is always lost on politicians and bureaucrats! If they had any sense of irony they wouldn’t be politicians or bureaucrats!
I always had a special feeling for the Scots, considering what the English did to them. And I know there were a lot of very intelligent Scots (besides Andrew Carnegie). But this reduction in CO2 thing is ridiculous. Of course, politicians, whether Scots or not, are a species unto themselves. Kind of like cockroaches.
O!M!G! I just realized, I breathe out CO2. Gosh, I hope the politicians don’t ask me to breathe less. Of course, if they kept their mouths shut (probably an impossibility) that would save on a whole lot of CO2, not to mention hot air.
As this new LIA type pattern sets in it might be useful to not only know the max & min thermometer readings but the day-time temperature curve and hours of direct sunlight.
Here in the Blue Mtns of Sydney the past year has seen much cloud so while the temp data are only marginally lower, it is often cool all day and the growing season is significantly shorter.
Scottish farmers might need to move away from fair weather dependent grains to root crops and animals.
Scottish farmers go for the EU subsidies they can get.
If there is no real link between CO2 and climate, are the targets worth their weight in (hot) air?
http://www.colderside.com/Colderside/Temp_%26_CO2.html
This Bozo was the Transport Minister during the ‘cold event’ and was ‘shuffled’ into the Environment portfolio after the shambles of no prior preparation( despite severe snowfall warnings) that effectively closed Scotland down. His main job now is to ensure as few obstacles as possible to the massive wind turbine expansion on the ‘last unspoiled wilderness in Europe’
If they really care about the Scots surviving colder and colder winters they should jettison those so called greenhouse goals and concentrate on getting enough affordable heating to avoid massive wholesale dying that might finish them as a people for they are deserving of survival in light of what they have been though over the centuries.
Thanks for your kind thoughts Luciano. Yes our greenhouse gas targets are perhaps the toughest in Europe, yet we produce only 0,05% of them. There’s a Renewable Obligation Certificate ‘racket’ going on to the benefit of the usual suspects in Scottish history—the landed and political classes, but the fightback has begun.
we have some greentards rabbiting on about ow Aus hasnt dropped its carbon count either..cold and long winter/summer cooler too, and they were saying usa had dropped theirs..
uh huh
extreme poverty means power is a luxury, living on the streets means less use too..and many are now.
and offshoring what was left of manufacturing. that drops the co2 too.
chinas and india sure rose though.
should be heads rolling in all parliaments worldwide..get rid of the morons who not only were thick enough to fall for the co2 lies, but who wont admit error/or do some serious considering of any new data re the fact its colder.
Let’s see what the American climate pundits say when the cold reaches deeply into the lower 48!
This seems to support a theory of mine that CO2 was rather high during the Little Ice Age (LIA) because the population “Burned every stick they could find just to stay warm”. The houses may be poor today, but are a far cry better than the thatched roof shanty shacks of the 1300 to 1600 period of the LIA.
I believe Scotland plans to be totally “Renewable” with their energy by 2020, but I think as the cooling continues they will find it to be unrealistic. Solar and wind power fail miserably with cold and snow. I believe power shortages will become the norm. Laws or not, the population will resort to coal or wood. Of course, there are always books – While they last!
id urge anyone with a gas / elec fire to go out and get a wood burner and start stocking up. i now have 8 ton of logs stored for this winter and hoping to get it upto 20
Aye Andrew, I’d endorse that and indeed I have done likewise and luckily I had it in place for the cold winters of 2009/10 and 2010/11 we had in Scotland. Also invested in feltpac boots and a down parka. Scotland is as far north as Labrador and parts of Alaska and when that mild Atlantic air gets shut off–we get to know of it!
Trying to reduce carbon emissions during the winter or the hot summer for that matter.
You can’t fix stupid.