At the weekend I attended the Battle of Ideas Festival in London. It is a fascinating event, with interesting debates taking place across a wide variety of topics like free speech, culture wars, the economy, education and women’s freedom.
I was there primarily for the energy discussions. Unfortunately, I missed the book launch on nuclear power on the Saturday, but I did attend the two energy debates that took place in the scientific dilemmas section on Sunday.
First up was a lunchtime debate entitled “Is nuclear the future of energy… again?” Unfortunately, the speaker who was supposed to speak for this position had some sort of transportation nightmare and could not attend. I did not catch the name of the man who replaced her, but he did put up a valiant effort considering he was drafted in at the last minute. Speaking against the idea of a nuclear renaissance was Robert Reid, policy development officer for the Alba Party who was in mourning for the late Alec Salmond. We can therefore forgive him somewhat for advancing the hoary old chestnut that offshore wind is cheap: he claimed £41/MWh without citing any sources. Of course, the existing CfD funded offshore wind farms have cost us over £150/MWh so far this financial year and the new projects awarded in AR6 will cost us over £82/MWh in today’s money, more than twice Robert’s claim. Emma Bateman, who is an environmental campaigner and founding member of Together Against Sizewell C, unsurprisingly spoke against the idea of nuclear power and made some spurious claims about safety that if nuclear power were a person would have resulted in the libel lawyers being called on Monday morning. The gist of her substantive argument was that nuclear is too expensive and takes too long so we should therefore spend more on wind and solar.
In the ensuing debate, I managed to correct Robert Reid’s ‘facts’ and make the point that if your primary concern is the environment, then you should be an advocate of nuclear power because it has the smallest overall environmental footprint of all energy sources because it doesn’t take up much land and has very low mineral intensity. I also made the point about the chocolate teapot fallacy. Arguing for wind and solar in place of nuclear power is akin to arguing in favour of chocolate teapots because you cannot wait for a ceramic one. No matter how many chocolate teapots you buy, you can never make tea; just like no matter how many wind turbines and solar panels you install you can never run a modern economy on intermittent electricity.
The physics of nuclear power are far superior to any other energy source because of its extremely high energy return on energy invested, meaning we get far more energy out than we expend building the power plants, and the output is reliable. There are even designs on the drawing board and beginning to be built that will allow nuclear power plants to follow fluctuations in demand. The barriers to nuclear power are all political: the West over-regulates nuclear power and it is unsurprising that it takes so long because of all the paperwork that must be produced before a new reactor can be built. We can fix man-made political and regulatory problems, but mere mortals cannot change the faulty physics of intermittent renewables, just like you can never make tea in a chocolate teapot.
We would be far better off committing to a significant nuclear power programme so we can deliver reliable electricity. If we fix the regulations, invest in rebuilding the skills base and supply chains and choose the right reactor design, we can even have cheap, reliable energy with only a small impact on the environment. This is what the French did in the 1970s and 1980s and now they produce around 70% of their electricity from nuclear.
The next debate was on the “Great British Energy Crisis”. It was encouraging to see that three of the five panellists are subscribers to this Substack (you know who you are and thank you). Two of the speakers, James Woudhuysen and Lord David Frost both made eloquent attacks on Net Zero and its consequences. Professor Michaela Kendall who is the U.K. Hydrogen Champion for Mission Innovation suggested we needed more facts to inform the debate on energy, but managed to skirt around the fact that the Government agreed contracts for green hydrogen at £241/MWh, which is about seven times the current cost of U.K. natural gas, which in turn costs more than five times U.S. gas.
Dr. Shahrar Ali is a former spokesperson for the Green Party who has recently won a discrimination court case against the Greens because they sacked him for his gender critical beliefs. It is a shame Dr. Ali cannot apply his critical thinking skills to Net Zero. The gist of his argument was the world is warming, it is going to be a catastrophe, it is all our fault, so build more windmills.
I managed to take him to task in the ensuing debate by pointing out that even if you believe CO2 causes warming, then it is a big leap to conclude that building windmills will change the weather. This is the so-called mitigation strategy that can only work if 1) CO2 is the only climate control knob (we know this to be untrue from paleo-climate records) and 2) everyone else follows the strategy (you only need to look at charts of global greenhouse gas emissions to see this is also untrue). A far better strategy is one of adaptation which has the advantages of being cheaper and will work regardless of the actions of others and regardless of the causes of global warming. The mitigation strategy we are pursuing is one of unilateral economic impoverishment and the Net Zero “cure” is far worse than the alleged climate change “disease”.
It is encouraging that my intervention drew an enthusiastic round of applause which is testament to the growing scepticism about Net Zero among the general public. It appears to me that cracks are appearing in the cosy green consensus in Westminster and if we get our arguments right, we can win this debate.
All in all, the Battle of Ideas is a thoroughly enjoyable event and I highly recommend everyone to attend next year, whatever your beliefs. It is only through free and open debate that we can get to the truth.
David Turver writes the Eigen Values Substack, where this article first appeared.
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The oddest thing about Welby is his mixture of nihilism and atheism.
His true faith is Globalism.
So Catholic Peter Harris wants to replace Welby with a Catholic woman Helen Ann-Hartley, one of many Catholics subverting the Protestant Church of England, to drag everyone back into worshipping the Impostor Goddess of the Fake Virgin Birth and her Stolen Child, instead of Almighty God.
We know from the New Testament what St. Paul’s view of women preachers was, but modern politics easily sweeps that aside.
“Bishop” Helen Ann-Hartley and her fellow Bishop Martyn Snow were criticised by Reverend Dr. Thomas Woolford for promoting the church blessing of Sodomite Marriage, sodomy being the reason God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, for which the practice of sodomy was named. “Sodomy” is a very useful English word for unnatural sexual relations between males with males, females with females, and humans with animals. No need for all the confusing and ridiculous labels like LBGTQ-whatever, when the one English word “Sodomy” suffices for all.
Well I’ve no time for the organised church of any and all persuasion.
They’re nothing but parasites, sucking at the teat of the poor, living in palaces decorated with the greatest works of art and preaching poverty.
Here’s the Marxist Pope praying before his new Vatican Nativity Set, featuring Stolen Baby E-zus lying on a MUSLIM PALESTINIAN SCARF!
Vatican Nativity Scene Features Baby Jesus on Palestinian Scarf
My god what a horror show.
Shame!
What am appalling bell-end he is.
Not called Justin for nothing.
I do think the name ‘Justin Isobel End’ does have a certain refined ring to it.
Let’s hope that whoever becomes his successor understand the following: Past injustices can’t be remedied by committing present-day injustices. The duty of the church is to its congregations and to the cultural heritage which is part of itself. It’s not to people who nowadays demand money for something which never even affected, let alone harmed them. Sins of dead people and what – if anything – is to be done about them belong to realm of God and not man. So, take care of your present-day duties, that is, don’t be so injust to punish, if only indirectly, church members of today for supposed sins of people who died long before their birth. Let God deal with what is rightfully his own and tell the reparation spongers to go pester someone else for spare millions.
The photographer clearly caught up with him at the weekend.
Basically, yet another entitled, out of touch, member of the establishment, blinded by his own vanity but still considers himself to be some form of egalitarian expert.
If Hartley is raised to the Canterbury See,
That will be the end of the CofE!
As a practicing Christian. For some time I’ve thought of Welby as Satan’s acolyte.
I wonder why so many old Etonians – that most Establishment of Establishment educational institutions in the UK – seem to be implementing a mission to destroy the public’s respect for ALL our ancient governmental Institutions?
When you look at the list of those who are responsible for the clusterfcuk the UK has become, it is noticeable how many went to that school.
A loathsome character. He probably feels misunderstood and unfairly treated. Let him crawl under a rock.
Welby is just the current symbol behind the fact that religions and their institutions are the problem. Whoever replaces him, more abuses will occur and we’ll be reading about them in the future & how those in charge chose to protect the organisation’s survival and reputation over the safety and well being of the public.
Just like mosques.
I did say religions.