A Wander Over a Bleak Prospect

One reads of estimated population numbers in the UK, currently being about 70.0 million, of which 10.0 million live in London. These data come from the Office for National Statistics, which, sadly hasn’t commanded the respect of its peers, much less some of its own staff, for some time now. My, cynical, guess is that the ONS is missing a few million, anywhere from 2 million to 5 million. Without going into the breakdown of the demographics of this population, but given the fact that the ethnic, English, Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish, populations simply aren’t reproducing at anywhere near their own replacement rate, the estimates of another 5.0 million over the next ten years must raise a few questions, even amongst the more ‘blinkered’, ignorant, and bewilderingly insouciant parts of the population.

The stresses placed upon virtually every component of our structured society, as well as its environment, and its resources, might lead a rational observer to conclude that we’re either at max sustainability, or very close to this. Some would argue, plausibly, that we passed that level some years ago when we went over the 60.0 million mark. Whatever the truth might be, if there is a valid ‘maximum’ level, premised on some arguable, scientific facts, I suspect that most citizens would agree with the argument that we’re pretty much ‘full-up’, and that short of concreting over vast tracts of countryside and productive farmland, it might be better to call a halt, pause for five to ten years, and have a long, detailed, and critical analysis, with intelligent, informed, debate, about where we would like to see our country’s population numbers in 2050.

The peculiarly destructive strategy to sacrifice highly productive farmland for massive arrays of solar panels and blocks of wind turbines, with all of the infrastructure required to establish and support these, makes less sense by the day. We are, and have been, dependent on imports for over 40% of our ‘food’ and have been for decades. The solar and wind farms can’t guarantee adequate power supplies at any time and are rarely capable of meeting over 35% of the national demand.

That’s two very big gaps – 65% in energy, and 40% in food.

Solar and wind are erratic, for obvious and immutable reasons, and until somebody comes up with a revolutionary new form of battery to store, and maintain more than 30% of the excess energy generated when it’s not needed, which doesn’t involve spending another trillion, or so, on artificial lakes, dams, and hydro-turbines, we’re stuck with a mandated and fundamentally flawed system. And, all the while, we’re taking vast chunks of farmland out of production.

I am sure that somebody, far more intelligent and skilled than I am, must have designed the equation which I am alluding to. It’s not, really, that complicated: Less farmland = less homegrown food = more expensive imports through vulnerable supply chains. More solar and wind = less security in power supplies = higher unit costs for all production.

It’s far more complex, and the downstream impacts of variable energy supplies impact across the board. By abandoning the exploitation of our ‘natural’ energy resources of oil, gas, and coal, we have hamstringed the largest part of our manufacturing industries, as well as agriculture by ceasing to produce our own fertilisers from natural gas.

I could go on, but life’s too short for repeating so much which is obvious to my fellow commenters here on FSB.

CO2 production, with its vital necessity in so many areas may be contrasted with the absurdity of wasting billions on ‘capturing’ CO2, compressing this, and pumping it

through a pipeline before storing this in vast caves under the sea. Bonkers, would be a charitable description of this new project.

One of my favourite songs from one of my favourite films, ‘Cabaret’, is ‘Money Makes the World go Round’, and this is true. It is, however, CO2 which sustains all plant life in this world, and the bizarre, anti-scientific, and wilful demonization of carbon dioxide has been the single most destructive campaign I have ever seen. The manner in which science, and common sense, have been attacked in this campaign over the last 30 years has astonished me, and I’m a cynic from way back.

The Obama White House administration was within an ace of having CO2 listed as a ‘dangerous’ gas, which is breathtakingly appalling. The deliberate, and scandalous, obscuring of the facts of increased vegetation in Sub-Sahel regions, and crop yields around the world due to tiny increases in atmospheric levels of CO2, is as inexcusable as it is sinister.

The United Kingdom faces a number of serious challenges, without a doubt, and the excessive growth of its total population contrasted with the stagnant growth of its indigenous population is one of the most obvious of the problems, but that’s not the issue I’m looking at today.

The facts before us show that the disastrous trajectory, embarked on in 2008, when Ed Miliband got his first Bill through Parliament, is now well under way, and, unlike HS2, Net Zero ain’t going to be limited by either its speed or the distance it will travel. The Conservative governments after 2010, not only endorsed this monumentally stupid act of national self-harm, they decided to add impetus to this calamitous policy and broaden its scope.

We, the English-speaking peoples, have adopted, and adapted words from around the world into our vocabulary and dictionaries. In this context, I am indebted for the ‘mot juste’ to Sanskrit, and the Hindi usage of a word which adequately encapsulates my feelings, and my sense of fear: ‘A juggernaut is an immense, unstoppable force, campaign, or movement that crushes whatever is in its path.’……

In plain, Aussie English, ‘We’re stuffed, rooted, and cooked’……