Sir
David Wood of Swansea criticises the recent letter by Lyn Jenkins regarding his letter ‘Desecration of Wales powers English cities‘, upon the basis that Lyn ‘listens more to the man-baby Donald Trump and debates in the House of Lords and Commons rather than learning to understand the facts behind human-created climate change.’ A salutary fact is that the United Kingdom emits less than 1% of global emissions, possibly as low as 0.75%, and Wales is responsible for around just 3% of that. Other facts are that the biggest polluters, China, the USA and India, are increasing their emissions, with China and India responsible for 34% of emissions, and global population is growing at 70 million people a year. With just a 3 million population, Wales already has far more than its share of wind and solar ‘energy parks’, although the World Bank states that the UK is just about the worst country to rely upon solar power, and that wind power is intermittent, forcing us to rely upon ramping up gas power and importing electricity. Sorry, Mr. Wood, but nothing the UK does can alter the climate, and although Ed Miliband states that the global move to net zero is ‘unstoppable’, his is either badly misinformed or a propagandist of the Just Stop Oil variety. With massive state subsidies, the UK has among the highest energy costs in Europe, badly impacting the taxpayer and every business, council and hospital. As reliance upon renewables increases and gas stations are closed, those customers with electricity meters may have their power cut off, so essential services may be maintained.
Also, Lyn Jenkins, myself and just two other Welshmen, Dave Haskell and Ioan Richard have been writing to the press about the despoliation of tiny Cymru for over a quarter of a century, with Dave and Ioan currently in abeyance because of illness. I just checked and Trump came into USA knowledge with The Apprentice in 2004, and only became generally known in Britain with his run for the 2017 Presidency. Neither he, nor what Mr. Wood calls his ‘mini-me Elon Musk‘, have had any effect whatsoever upon Lyn Jenkins and other Welsh people who wish to preserve our nation, against the wishes of our politicians. The Senedd has granted foreign companies free licence to cover enormous swathes of Wales, and what we see now is nothing compared to what will proceed as being ‘of national significance‘ – hundreds the highest onshore wind ‘turbines’ in the world on 6,000 ton bases; countless thousands of Chinese solar panels each with their own concrete base; new data centres needing constant 365 day, 24-hour assured electricity and massive battery storage ‘parks’ that can cover electricity shortages for a few hours in downtime.
There will be major unextinguishable fires, as recently at the concrete-enclosed lithium battery plant in Monterey County, California, the world’s largest, totally destroyed and 1,500 people evacuated because of toxic gases. Our planned Welsh battery ‘parks’ seem each to be just hundreds of giant lithium batteries, each in its own shipping container, but without a thick concrete base, walls and roof. A fire in one on the Gwent levels will require evacuation from Cardiff or Swansea dependent upon wind direction. Of the 100 in the UK, one has already been destroyed, and firemen, as with wind turbines and electric cars, are not able to put out these fires with their carcinogenic gases. Electric cars that break down cannot be towed, they need a low-loader, and on fire cannot be extinguished, can start fires in adjacent cars and car parks and melt tarmac. Their batteries add around 50% to the weight of a car, causing more pollution from additional tyre wear. The move to renewable energy ignores the human cost of mining the rare earths and metals necessary and their transport – but these sites will not be renewable or remediated at end-of-life. One last ‘fact’, Mr. Wood – climate has always changed owing to Milankovic Cycles, solar activity, magnetic shifts and dozens of other factors. Carbon Dioxide has fluctuated through the millennia and has been far higher than the current level with no mass extinctions. A final ‘fact’ – the next major climate shift will be to another Ice Age, where there will be zero reliance upon renewable energy – no power = no humans.
Terry Breverton
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