Give the top another spin

As the world is transfixed by yet another war, another war is being lost, and being lost badly. It sounds like a good thing that the taps may be turned off Russian oil and gas as the West seeks to punish Putin, but the knock-on effect will I fear hasten the use of fossil fuels from other sources rather than lead to a sufficient development of renewable energy. Our own beloved PM has already been on a begging mission to the murderous Saudi regime (he came back empty handed it seems) and now there is talk of the urgent necessity to ramp up production of what’s left in the North Sea, as well as getting rid of an irksome moratorium on fracking. But it’s not just fossil fuels that are about to enjoy a renaissance—new nuclear power plants will spring up all over the place, at least according to a government minister on the radio this morning. It seems some of these life savers will be on stream by the end of the decade which would be a seismic shift since nuclear power stations generally come in 15-20 years late (and during that period, during construction they only contribute to climate change rather than the reverse).
 
Now I’ve just read that the Canadian federal government has given approval to an undersea oil extraction scheme, ’Bay du Nord,’ off Newfoundland which it is hoped will start gushing in 2028 and will produce 300 million barrels of oil. Putin of course will find other markets for his oil and gas, India and China are top of the list.

Oh, what else happened in the last week? The United Nation’s latest IPCC report on climate change was the grimmest yet. Nobody really believes that limiting temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C is remotely any longer feasible. Get ready for a 3.2 increase seems to be the bleak assessment.