As any level-headed sceptic knows, a great deal of climate change activism is about posturing and virtue-signalling. No surprise then that part of an Amazonian rainforest has been obliterated to accommodate the upcoming COP30 summit. The BBC has the story (so it must be true):
A new four-lane highway cutting through tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest is being built for the COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém.
It aims to ease traffic to the city, which will host more than 50,000 people – including world leaders – at the conference in November.
The state government touts the highway’s “sustainable” credentials, but some locals and conservationists are outraged at the environmental impact.
The Amazon plays a vital role in absorbing carbon for the world and providing biodiversity, and many say this deforestation contradicts the very purpose of a climate summit.
Along the partially built road, lush rainforest towers on either side – a reminder of what was once there. Logs are piled high in the cleared land which stretches more than 13km (eight miles) through the rainforest into Belém.
Diggers and machines carve through the forest floor, paving over wetland to surface the road which will cut through a protected area.
Berry harvests have been destroyed with no compensation to the farmers. Wildlife has been disrupted too:
The road leaves two disconnected areas of protected forest. Scientists are concerned it will fragment the ecosystem and disrupt the movement of wildlife.
Prof Silvia Sardinha is a wildlife vet and researcher at a university animal hospital that overlooks the site of the new highway.
She and her team rehabilitate wild animals with injuries, predominantly caused by humans or vehicles.
Once healed, they release them back into the wild – something she says will be harder if there is a highway on their doorstep:
“From the moment of deforestation, there is a loss.
“We are going to lose an area to release these animals back into the wild, the natural environment of these species,” she said.
“Land animals will no longer be able to cross to the other side too, reducing the areas where they can live and breed.”
Needless to say, the underlying reason for this gratuitous destruction is political self-interest:
The Brazilian President and Environment Minister say this will be a historic summit because it is “a COP in the Amazon, not a COP about the Amazon”.
The President says the meeting will provide an opportunity to focus on the needs of the Amazon, show the forest to the world, and present what the federal Government has done to protect it.
Worth reading in full.
Meanwhile back in Britain, Britain’s eco-warrior Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, the tireless advocate of Net Zero at any price, is putting his money where his mouth is with his own brand of virtue-signalling.
According to the Telegraph, Mr Miliband has installed a heat pump in his north London home.
In 2023 his house was awarded an Energy Performance Certificate of grade D. A year later, with a heat pump installed:
The green heating system lowered the home’s carbon emission from 12 tonnes to 4.5 tonnes, but the property’s energy rating only rose to a C grade as a result.
Chris Norris, of the National Residential Landlords Association, said he was unsurprised a heat pump had “little impact” on Mr Miliband’s EPC.
He said: “At present, the metrics used are focused on cost of heating, and gas is significantly cheaper per unit than electricity.
“It is perfectly possible, as things stand, for an EPC score to deteriorate if switching from gas to electricity as the primary heating fuel. Changing this is one of the policies being consulted on by the Government.”
It seems two companies were involved in assessing the properly. Bizarrely:
Furthermore, the recorded floorspace of Mr Miliband’s property was assessed as being 252 square metres – 30 square metres less than had been recorded in the previous assessment only a year before.
There’s an explanation:
The assessor responsible for the new grade is a former hypnotherapist who retrained to be an assessor five years ago. He told the Telegraph that the training took “only around a week” to complete.
He said: “A lot of the time it’s low-paid – estate agents just use you. We’re the lowest of the low, really. EPCs don’t have a very good reputation.”
Dr Toby Gledhill, who led a PhD study into the flaws in EPCs, said of the Energy Minister’s assessments: “The floor area has shrunk quite substantially, by more than 10% between these two EPCs which are only a year apart.
“The smaller floor area means a reduced volume of space to heat, which leads to greater economy and this is reflected in the improved energy rating of the more recent EPC.”
In other words, the new EPC achieved a (slightly) higher grade because of the reduced heating requirements, not because of the heat pump.
The solution would appear to be simple: shut off as many rooms as possible in your home and see your EPC skyrocket. Then you can open them up again after the inspector has gone and save yourself the cost of a heat pump.
Or perhaps the Government could employ more hypnotherapists to encourage people to install more heat pumps?
Also worth reading in full.
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I start to read articles like this and find my anger levels at Global Hypocrisy rising to dangerous levels.
Unbelievable.
‘Kill Gaia to save her!’
‘We need to massacre the trees but sequestering Co2 is one of our great challenges!’
Making yet another road for yet another chinwag for the criminal, corrupt elites and billionaires, who fly in on their private jets, are driven to the confab in their private limousines, who will eat the caviar and steaks, and then lecture the sheeple on how we are killing little Gaia.
Climate Con. Fuelled by money, greed and criminal hypocrisy.
Yes I hear Runways are part of the clearance involved, to make was for all the private jets.
Do as a I say not as I do in the rainforest. Meanwhile back in Blighty, C is E is D is C is E.
Upon this noddy classification, bestowed by assessors armed with iPads and a week’s training, shell out thousands on refurbishment to rent out a property from 2030 onwards.
Much cheaper to give the assessor a backhander instead.
It’s alright when they do it.
Was that the house which the Miliband boys inherited from their Marxist father using an IHT avoidance technique?
There is only one word for it: hypocrisy.
During the dark days of the coronavirus lockdowns, we were encouraged to do everything online, through virtual meetings, from business, to education, to family gatherings, to saying goodbye to a dying relative.
A virtual COP would be the perfect opportunity for those who lecture us about reducing our carbon footprints to set a good example, doing everything from their desks and preventing all that international travel.
But, no, they can’t give up all the luxuries they want us to do without.
It’s just another COPout.
Heady parties with loads of prostitutes just don’t work very well online.
It’s their actions, not what they say that exposes them for what they are.
“The Amazon plays a vital role in absorbing carbon for the world and providing biodiversity…”
No it doesn’t!
That’s another lie by Eco-loonies, grifters, fraudsters and charlatans.
And… Plants do not absorb “carbon” which is a solid – such as soot.
ALL plant life has a role in absorbing carbon dioxide, which it then converts into carbon to build its cellular structures.
An area the size of the USA has greened noticeably around deserts and in arid areas, and certainly generally elsewhere but less noticeable.
Without the Amazon the rest of the World’s plants would carry on absorbing carbon dioxide and grow faster and bigger given that there would be more available those gobbled greedy South American trees wouldn’t be gobbling it up.
Insane , Insane , Insane , Insane , Insane … on & on & on the
Circus goes !!!
The SCAM on full display. But still the Eco Nutters and the brainwashed will try to justify it.
Save the planet and destroy it at the same time?—-Where is Greta Thingberg, Greenpeace, The “Friends” of the Earth, Extinction Super Glue Morons and all the rest? Where is the UN and Guterres? Where is David bloody Attenborough? Where is the King? Where is Di Caprio? Where is Ed Miliband and his Net Zero Banjo—–Total Charlatans. Can the phony planet savers not see how totally absurd they are?
They know it’s nuts; we know it’s nuts; they know we know it’s nuts; that’s why they do it.
Won’t there be a lot less scammers there next time now that the US government and its agencies will not be sending anyone?