Environment Minister Sammy Wilson bans adverts warning of the effects of climate change

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/article14180104.ece;jse...


Environment Minister Sammy Wilson has banned government television adverts in Northern Ireland warning of the effects of climate change, it emerged today.

The DUP man said he was not prepared to allow “insidious New Labour propaganda” about the impact of climate change which would have been screened on UTV.

“It was the sheer arrogance of them saying ‘we are doing this’ and yet they have had no consultation with my Department whatsoever. This is a devolved responsibility so they were also wrong constitutionally,” he said.

Mr Wilson said the adverts attempted to tell people that simple measures like changing their lightbulbs and turning off TVs from stand-by mode could help prevent them “wrecking the world”.

He told the Belfast Telegraph: “The vast majority of people are not prepared to accept this view of life any more and are certainly not prepared to bear the massive financial consequences.”

The Minister said all the focus groups involved in producing the ads, which are also being shown on Channels Four and Five, and Sky, were based in England and he wrote to then Minister David Milliband to stress “hands off Northern Ireland”.

“Since then, the Scottish administration has also said no to these adverts, which I would like to think was encouraged by my position and the Welsh Assembly, while being more timid, has taken a similar view,” he said.

The Green Party today however accused Mr Wilson of contradicting himself and warned his outdated opinions are preventing action to tackle fuel poverty and the provision of more jobs.

Steven Agnew said: “He has always said he will support measures which will encourage energy efficiency and these adverts are all about people supporting measures which can help energy efficiency — whether you agree with climate change or not. So Sammy is now contradicting himself.

“He seems to think that climate change is a belief you can argue for or against but when he had been asked to provide alternative explanations comes up with solar variations which have also been investigated by scientists.”

Mr Agnew said: “Certainly there are now very few who would agree with him.”

Mr Agnew, the Green Euro-candidate for this June’s election, argued the Green ‘new deal’ promoted by new President Barack Obama had shown how fuel poverty and climate change could be tackled while providing new jobs.

Mr Wilson insisted, however: “I have no difficulty with energy efficiency and I take my Ministerial obligations in this regard very seriously, but I believe there is virtually a fear factor in how this whole climate change issue is being addressed.”

__________________________________________________________

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/environment/environment-minister-sammy...


Environment minister Sammy Wilson: I still think man-made climate change is a con

Spending billions on trying to reduce carbon emissions is one giant con that is depriving third world countries of vital funds to tackle famine, HIV and other diseases, Sammy Wilson said.

The DUP minister has been heavily criticised by environmentalists for claiming that ongoing climatic shifts are down to nature and not mankind.

But while acknowledging his views on global warming may not be popular, the East Antrim MP said he was not prepared to be bullied by eco fundamentalists.

“I’ll not be stopped saying what I believe needs to be said about climate change,” he said.

"Most of the people who shout about climate change have not read one article about it

“I think in 20 years’ time we will look back at this whole climate change debate and ask ourselves how on earth were we ever conned into spending the billions of pounds which are going into this without any kind of rigorous examination of the background, the science, the implications of it all. Because there is now a degree of hysteria about it, fairly unformed hysteria I’ve got to say as well.

“I mean I get it in the Assembly all the time and most of the people who shout about climate change have not read one article about climate change, not read one book about climate change, if you asked them to explain how they believe there’s a connection between CO2 emission and the effects which they claim there’s going to be, if you ask them to explain the thought process or the modelling that is required and the assumptions behind that and how tenuous all the connections are, they wouldn’t have a clue.

“They simply get letters about it from all these lobby groups, it’s popular and therefore they go along with the flow — and that would be ok if there were no implications for it, but the implications are immense.”

He said while people in the western world were facing spiralling fuel bills as a result of efforts to cut CO2, the implications in poorer countries were graver.

“What are the problems that face us either locally and internationally. Are those not the things we should be concentrating on?” he asked.

“HIV, lack of clean water, which kills millions of people in third world countries, lack of education.

“A fraction of the money we are currently spending on climate change could actually eradicate those three problems alone, a fraction of it.

“I think as a society we sometimes need to get some of these things in perspective and when I listen to some of the rubbish that is spoken by some of my colleagues in the Assembly it amuses me at times and other times it angers me.”

Despite his views on CO2, Mr Wilson said he does not intend to backtrack on commitments made by his predecessor at the Department of the Environment, Arlene Foster, to make the Stormont estate carbon neutral.

He said while he wasn’t worried about reducing CO2 output, he said the policy would help to cut fuels bills.

“I don’t couch those actions in terms of reducing Co2 emissions,” he said. “I don’t care about Co2 emissions to be quite truthful because I don’t think it’s all that important but what I do believe is, and perhaps this is where there can be some convergence, as far as using fuel more efficiently that is good for our economy; that makes us more competitive. If we can save in schools hundreds of thousands on fuel that’s more money being put for books or classroom assistants.

“So yes there are things we can do. If you want to express it terms of carbon neutral, I just express it terms of making the place more efficient, less wasteful and hopefully that will release money to do the proper things that we should be doing.”


__________________________________________________________

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7878399.stm


The BBC has been promoting the view that Sammy Wilson's views are at fault and out of line with UK govs policies.

The call from the green party to remove him from office is appalling and obviously they want to remove his valid viewpoints from media exposure.

It illustrates perfectly the police state mentality that is
slowly enveloping our society - think our way or you will be removed!