{"id":6974,"date":"2019-04-24T14:16:56","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T14:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/strettonclimatecare.org.uk\/?p=6974"},"modified":"2020-08-03T19:21:32","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T19:21:32","slug":"is-the-microphone-on-because-im-beginning-to-wonder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strettonclimatecare.org.uk\/2019\/04\/is-the-microphone-on-because-im-beginning-to-wonder\/","title":{"rendered":"Greta Thunberg: Can you hear me?"},"content":{"rendered":"
In a quietly delivered but devastating speech\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0to members of Parliament on Tuesday 23 April 2019 (remember that date) 16 year old Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg exposed the UK government for what it is: full of hot air, and rather deaf. “Did you hear what I just said?” she asked several times, “Is my English OK? Is the microphone on? Because I\u2019m beginning to wonder…”<\/p>\n Referring to government claims to be the best performing industrial country in reducing emissions (see our last post) she was flatly dismissive. \u00a0“The UK is,” she said, “..very special. Not only for its mind-blowing historical carbon debt, but also for its current, very creative, carbon accounting.<\/p>\n “Since 1990 the UK has achieved a 37% reduction of its territorial CO2 emissions, according to the Global Carbon Project. And that does sound very impressive. But these numbers do not include emissions from aviation, shipping and those associated with imports and exports. If these numbers are included the reduction is around 10% since 1990 \u2013 or an an average of 0.4% a year, according to Tyndall Manchester.<\/p>\n “And the main reason for this reduction is not a consequence of climate policies, but rather a 2001 EU directive on air quality that essentially forced the UK to close down its very old and extremely dirty coal power plants and replace them with less dirty gas power stations. And switching from one disastrous energy source to a slightly less disastrous one will of course result in a lowering of emissions.”<\/p>\n