It could scarcely have escaped anyone attention that Andy Burnham announced yesterday that his government was approving a plan for new gas drilling in the North Sea, which had previously been blocked by the Courts because of its incompatibility with extant climate legislation. Pretty much every mainstream media outlet trumpeted the announcement as being a helpful and welcome decision which would enhance the nations energy security, generate ´much-needed´ jobs and tax revenue, as well as ‘providing a ´bridge´towards net zero, one which could even reduce carbon emissions in the short term by displacing more carbon intensive liquified natural gas from the U.S. The fact that it was a big step in the wrong direction, wholly incompatible with national and international climate obligations, and which in terms of real effects, means more global heating, more rapid climate breakdown, and more ´natural´ disasters and environmental refugees, and which sends out entirely the signal in terms of the country’s commitment to avoiding catastrophic climate change, was scarcely mentioned.
The uniformity of the issue´s presentation across media outlets was highly striking, as well as instructive, shedding light on how powerful people, institutions and interests converge in attempting -to a significant degree successfully as well- to construct a version of reality wherein the damn the planet, damn all lifeforms on it, damn future generations, selfish, shortsighted, myopic, ignorant, stupid, sheer, overwhelming, irredeemable greed of those standing to gain from this ecological vandalism, is not even considered, with the story being covered as though drilling in the North Sea was the only ´sensible´ thing to do, when in reality, it is only so from the extremely narrow viewpoint of Adura’s shareholders. Literally everyone else is hurt by this project and worse off for its getting the go ahead.
Not working for British Sate TV or the oligarchical owner of a major national newspaper, I’m entirely free to tell it like it is, and what it is, is just one more example of the corporate capture of UK politics, on the one hand, and cynical politicking for perceived short term gain despite overwhelmingly negative long term environmental and economic consequences, on the other. The donor class wants North Sea drilling, and fossil fuel revenue, which is popular with the less educated class who’ve been progandised into erroneously believing this will alleviate the cost of living crisis and provide greater energy security in light of ongoing international conflicts.
Even the pro-catastrophe camps (and how else can you describe subscribers to these views at this point?) most vocal supporters of drilling in the North Sea have been forced to concede -despite persistent efforts to mislead the public that the situation were otherwise- that it will do nothing to lower consumer energy bills; the site will produce just 2% of UK gas requirements, scarcely a rounding error in terms of global supply. Furthermore -and despite its chief proponents´ statements to the contrary- Jackdaw will contribute precisely zero, sweet F.A, to UK energy security, as the gas produced is destined to be sold in Norway. In fact, the owner and operator of the site, Adura, is a joint venture between Shell and the Norwegian state owned oil corporation, so the profits all go oversea too, except for the taxes they pay, of course, and in this case they’ve already been gifted to a £200,000,000 tax break to further sweeten the lop sided deal (the shareholders of Adura reap the mega-profits in a tight energy market, future generations pay for the costs Adura externalize upon everyone else in generating these super profits with their filthy products. And the jobs created in operating Jackdaw, only amounts 27, with just 12 being present on site during a typical shift.
Here are some of the ket statistics in brief:
£2.9 billion pound of profit (over 11 years)
£1.4 billion in tax revenues
£200 million in tax breaks
35,000,000,000 tons of CO2 released into atmosphere
0 Cubic Meters – the amount of the gas that will be consumed within the UK
0% – the contribution to UK energy security
27 jobs (with no guarantee any are filled by British workers)
In light of such woeful numbers, the media reaction -with its notable absence of forthright condemnation of Jackdaw as being absolutely incompatible with moral and legal obligations to prevent climate breakdown- is difficult to explain by means other than an admission that the entire mainstream media is little more than theatre, and the cast of political actors are well, nothing more than that, all playing their part to keep the show on the road, trying to maintain the fiction that we live in a ademocratic country and there is still plenty of time for us to collectively reach net zero before nature decides a fate for us, without regard for human welfare, and that we can go back ward in order to go forwards and that that is a prudent, sensible course of action.
The takeaway from all of this is, that the government doesn’t care about your security. A healthy environment is the greatest security possible for everyone. If the government cared out the security of its citizenry, it would provide solar panels and heatpumps to every householder in the country and not sell off our children futures to the highest bidder, and then lying about the necessity of doing so, and of the putative benefits which result. Rather than attempting to manipulate public opinion into gifting 5% of GDP to the military industrial complex, they could spend the same money to insulate every UK home, and equip each property with solar panels and a heat pump, and in 5 years time we’d be almost entirely energy independent.
Governments like for their citizens to feel somewhat insecure, as this to some extent justifies their existence, and thats certainly true of the most repressive features of the state such as its surveillance, intelligence and security apparatus. That our government is hell bent on provoking conflict with Russia, whilst global warming and climate breakdown are unfolding at an alarming rate, shows that they don’t care for their citizens, much less Mother Nature or future generations. They’d sell their soul for a campaign contribution which may keep their dead hands on the levers of power for just a little while longer. Its shocking, but -for long-term observers of these things -not surprising.
Fortunately, ever more people are beginning to see through the bullshit, and many, are taking their energy security into their own hands, by calling Ecotekk and getting the region´s number one solar panel installer to design them a system which will save them tens of thousands of pounds, while making sure that -for our customers at least -their energy supply remains uninterrupted .
It is within everyone power to safeguard themselves against energy supply shocks and steep price rises. Solar energy is already the cheapest form of energy there is, with the long term costs of Solar PV now estimated to be around 7p per kwh (compared to about 30p per unit and rising with national utility providers), and Ecotekk can install a whole home electrical energy back up system to provide homeowners with all the power their home demands, independent of the national grid and independent of international energy markets, in case that the lights do ever go out.
More sagacious readers will no doubt already have figured out that this policy reversal will lead to precisely the opposite of the conditions which it ostensibly purports to bring about: lower energy security and higher bills. This is because, despite the transition to green energy being irreversible and irresistible at this point, at the margins, less savvy customers considering solar panels as a means to lower household bills and provide greater energy security, will put this off for some time before realizing how the government duped them on behalf of corporate interests.
Ultimately though, all the King Kanute´s in government with their terminally short-sighted policies of political appeasement, cannot significantly alter the course of the green transition, which will happen anyway unless our politicians lead us into nuclear armageddon before this can happen. Its just such a pity that we have such intellectual and moral midgets running the country.