Not Zero
The latest climate-related book I read: Not Zero: How an Irrational Target will Impoverish You, Help China (and Won’t Even Save the Planet) by Ross Clark.
I read this after an argument online with somebody, it ended up amicable (we agreed to disagree) and we each recommended a book to the other. I’m glad this happened and glad I read it, as balance is always good!
Ross Clark and I agree on, I think, two points. One is that the Government’s system of calculating emissions is very wrong – using territorial emissions rather than consumption-based emissions, so that imports and exports, shipping and aviation are not fully included. This means that where the UK Government claims a reduction in emissions of over 40% since 1990, the real fall is only about 11%.
The second point on which we agree is that the burning of biomass (specifically wood at the Drax Power Station) is unsustainable, doesn’t reduce emissions, and is greenwashing.
The rest of the book I have trouble with, starting with the inflammatory extended title. There is no mention of AMOC, of climate refugees, the fact that not acting fast will make things much worse in the long run – although Ross Clark doesn’t believe that the climate is or will get *that* bad, and:
“Even if the world warmed by 4 degrees Celsius – which would be four times the measured increase over the past century and a half – Glasgow would still only reach the typical summer temperatures currently experienced in London.”
So what’s to worry about? Ignoring inconvenient studies such as the Met Office suggesting that 4 degrees C of global warming could bring temps of 43 degrees C to Cambridge, and models showing there would be higher than average rises in the tropics, Arctic, central Brazil, the Mediterranean basin and mainland US (Climate change: what would 4°C of global warming feel like?). Clark is mainly worried that ordinary folk (including him, I assume) won’t be allowed to go on holiday or keep buying stuff or will have their freedoms curtailed, all things that will happen for certain if the climate gets significantly worse.
And as for China, there are signs that their CO2 emissions may actually have peaked, and could be starting to decline “China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are set to fall in 2024 and could be facing structural decline, due to record growth in the installation of new low-carbon energy sources.” (CarbonBrief)
Clark’s solutions to the whole problem are to repeal the UK’s Net Zero laws, and to favour adaptation over cutting emissions.
A good review that I found online, which queries some apparent cherry-picking of data can be found here: Church of Hot Air – Bob Ward
Links
What will climate change look like in your area? – BBC News
Climate change: what would 4°C of global warming feel like?
Analysis: China’s emissions set to fall in 2024 after record growth in clean energy – Carbon Brief