The G7 summit once again met and rambled rubbish about climate change and what they can do about it. Seems to me they never actually achieve anything at these meetings. Massive expense, fancy dinners but never any agreement. It seems that to be successful at addressing the climate change issues is to upset big business by restricting their ability to make massive profit at the expense of the health of the little people. The successful manufacturing of the 7 countries involved uses the labour of countries who have very poor health and safety regulations and pay no heed to protecting the environment. They allow working and living conditions akin to the Victorian days here, if they are lucky. It’s time these G7 meetings actually acheived something or stop. Change that costs the pocket of big business is never popular but long after these businesses are gone the people affected by them and their descendents are still here suffering the consequences.
I am actually on holiday this week and enjoying the first full week of summer here in the lovely East Lothian contryside. On Sunday we visited the Scottish Mining Museum. The tour guide reminded us that getting fuel for energy has always been a dirty business. He took us through the history of retreiving coal and the methods used since it’s discovery. It was not only dirty but it was dangerous. Rarely was death in single figures and quite a few times there have been massive disasters wiping out large chuncks of the local population. As safety in our pits increased and working conditions imroved, the men lost their jobs as business decided the cost of raw materials here was too high. They now import coal from other countries where the miners are willing to put up with poor working conditions in order to feed their families. Is this progress?
In Scotland we are trying to meet our energy needs with clean energy from wind and wave. There have been difficulties in getting investment and support from Westminster. A wave project has folded and the carbon capture projects that have been looked into have not been given the support needed. Fuel companies creating massive surcharges for Scottish generators to the costs of linking to the grid are just plain rediculous. To objectors of wind farms on the basis that it spoils our skyline, can I ask how much you value the ability to have power readily there to switch on as you need it? In the past our forefathers risked their lives every day to ensure we got fuel for heat, lighting and cooking. In the eary days of the oil rigs off our shore there were also accidents that either ended lives or made people unable to work. We have built a world where everything we do requires energy. The least we can do is ensure that the energy is created in as safe a way as possible. Funnily enough, now we are getting energy to make our lives easier we are endangering our lives by being less active.
Mr Trump. I am glad your objections were overruled this week. You are a foreign businessman. You may have heritage here but you choose to live and pay taxes elsewhere. This is our country, we will decide how we make our energy and where we put our wind farms. You may do business here if you wish but we will make the rules.
Lasty, can I just say that our 56 must be making a huge impact. I hear that the BBC are no longer allowing the maiden speeches to be upploaded to u-tube. This may not be true but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was.