I was intrigued to see a recent report from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers warning that, thanks to the closure of coal-fired and ageing nuclear power stations, Britain could be facing a major energy crisis by 2025. I began warning of just such a crisis 10 years ago; and with every new twist of energy policy, the likelihood is that this will hit us before 2025, possibly as soon as next winter, when our reliable power supplies may, for the first time, fall short of peak demand.
In fact, the greenies fell right into the trap here, because what they never want to tell us is that the more wind turbines we have, the more we need reliable back-up from fossil fuels to cover the gap between windmill output when they are generating at full power, and when the wind drops and they contribute almost nothing.
But it is precisely that gap which the Government is doing its best not to close, in its aim to shut down our remaining coal-fired power stations and making it ever less attractive to invest in new gas plants. Yes, the lights will go out, thanks entirely to Government policy, but probably a good deal sooner than those behind-the-curve engineers are predicting.
Vicious groupthink rejoicing at death of climate 'heretic’
The other day, when a genial ex‑professor of geology was suddenly struck down by cancer in Australia at the age of 74, a very odd thing happened. Across the blogs and the Twittersphere, people rushed to rejoice at his death as if it were some great victory. Using startlingly vile language, one exulted in the hope that this good-humoured and lovable man would be feeling “the warmth now you’re in hell”. Bob Carter’s crime, in the eyes of that frenzied mob, was that he was an outspoken “climate denier”.
A decade or more back, as an expert on how the Earth’s climate had changed through geological aeons, he spent three years examining all the scientific evidence for whether human activity was now having an unprecedented effect on our climate. Having eventually concluded that it wasn’t, he spent the rest of his life arguing in a measured way that official science had taken a serious wrong turning, and that this was leading to some very foolish and dangerous political consequences that would one day be looked back on with astonishment.
What was interesting about the hysterical exulting at Carter’s death was that it showed how far the belief in man-made global warming has become yet another classic example of that phenomenon so well analysed by the American psychologist Irving Janis as “groupthink”. The defining characteristics of those caught up in a bubble of groupthink are that, first, they no longer think for themselves but become absorbed into a collective mindset; and, second, they show irrational fury towards anyone failing to share their belief system.
That is why it is impossible to have any rational dialogue with victims of groupthink. They cover up the fact that they do not really understand the basis for their beliefs by reacting with vehement intolerance to any “heretic” who dares question them.
Nothing could better have illustrated this than those vicious whoops of delight which greeted the death of a good man, much missed by all who knew him.
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Source: http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/579309/s/4d3ebc80/sc/31/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cnews0C12131760A0CThe0Ewind0Egap0Ethat0Ewill0Eput0Eour0Elights0Eout0Bhtml/story01.htm