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Oxford’s Continued Descent into Green Hell

by Ben Pile
1 January 2025 7:00 AM

Oxfordshire’s green lunatics are at it again. The fuss has only just died down since the County Council’s experiment with Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and the so-called ’15 minute city’ agenda drew worldwide attention. Now, the ambitious council has, according to the Oxford Mail, become “the first local authority in the U.K.” to commit “to go beyond [the] Net Zero target”, which it will achieve on behalf of its 750,000 population “by removing carbon emissions from the atmosphere”.

According to the council itself, it had taken “specialist advice” from one Prof. Steve Smith, who is “Arnell Associate Professor of Greenhouse Gas Removal” at the University of Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and Environment. This should strike us as odd, for several reasons.


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Tags: 15 Minute CitiesCarbon captureClimate AlarmismGreen BlobLTNsNet ZeroOxfordOxford City CouncilOxford County CouncilOxford University

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52 Comments
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Lockdown Sceptic
Lockdown Sceptic
4 months ago

Oxfordshire’s Net Zero Lunacy 

The same people who say that naturally occurring gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, are pollution are more than happy to inject experimental medications into the population.

I’m sure Oxfordshire Council is 100% behind putting Bovaer in cattle feed.  

Last edited 4 months ago by Lockdown Sceptic
35
0
Hardliner
Hardliner
4 months ago
Reply to  Lockdown Sceptic

Not only that, Oxford hosted at least 1 if not 2 of the original covid vaccine factories

16
0
Grim Ace
Grim Ace
4 months ago
Reply to  Lockdown Sceptic

Utter scum. They only exist because they can force money out of us. We need a GGovernment undoers. Cancel huge amounts of legislation including anything to do with climate change communism

18
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
4 months ago
Reply to  Grim Ace

Seconded.

4
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
4 months ago
Reply to  Grim Ace

A mass refusal to pay Council Tax, since they seem to be well looked after by UK100 & C40 Cities etc. It can’t be just Bill in N012, it has to be enough people to make them stop and think.

2
0
EUbrainwashing
EUbrainwashing
4 months ago
Reply to  Grim Ace

Belief in the legitimacy and the utility of ‘the state’ is an indoctrinated cult (and I mean each word precisely). Indeed the very notion that ‘the state’ is an indispensable necessarily is an entirely false concept intentionally invented and propagated by ‘the state’ to justify its own existence.

1
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
4 months ago

Oxford residents voted the council in. Now they can live with the consequences. Tough isn’t it?

15
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jsampson45
jsampson45
4 months ago
Reply to  soundofreason

According to the article only a minority voted. In any case, democracy allows choice of people, not policy, unless the candidates disagree about policy. But there is not much value in choosing people unless one knows them. The only point of democracy is that no-one can expect to be in power for life.

4
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huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
4 months ago
Reply to  soundofreason

Check out UK 100. The list of Councils signed up to this nonsense is staggering. My local council, Oldham is signed up and this is the first I have ever heard of UK 100. None of the Uniparty have ever mentioned this outfit in any campaigning. No mention from the council hierarchy.

Local elections are exceedingly corrupt, possibly even more so than the Nationals and what promises are made prior to the election bear no relation to what is going on behind the scenes. All a bloody farce. Our council cannot even get last year’s accounts signed off.

6
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mike r
mike r
4 months ago
Reply to  soundofreason

“Oxford residents” includes a well indoctrinated student population, that does not have to live with the consequences of this stupidity.

7
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Ron Smith
Ron Smith
4 months ago
Reply to  mike r

They might do with food shortages, they can slum it with the rest of us.

1
0
RTSC
RTSC
4 months ago
Reply to  soundofreason

True. But there wasn’t an Opposition to the Green Tyranny on offer, so a majority just sat on their hands.

Why anyone chooses to live there is beyond me.

2
0
The Real Engineer
The Real Engineer
4 months ago
Reply to  RTSC

It could be that these policies have reduced property values (which were ridiculous anyway). Moving thus very expensive so a captive city?

0
0
Jack the dog
Jack the dog
4 months ago

It has seemed to me for a long time that what is needed to improve local democracy is for council leaders and especially those in charge of finance, to host quarterly public meetings at which residents are allowed to ask questions and the council guys must justify their actions, their policies and crucially, their budgets, salaries and bonuses to the people who actually have to pay them.

These could be pretty lively affairs and ideally, unpleasant for tossers like Oxford city council.

At present they disport themselves like Poundshop Ceausescu’s with no proper accountability.

This has to change.

Last edited 4 months ago by Hardliner
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John Bentley
John Bentley
4 months ago

It’s the same here in Nottingham. The Council invested heavily in ‘Green Power’ but it ended up incurring losses of more than £40M. The idea that these clowns who can’t even repair potholes can some how change the weather (or is it Climate, I lose track) is preposterous. However we have a lot more suffering to go through…. one of my good friends voted Green but was apoplectic when his daily car journey was increased by 20mins each way because of the imposition of an overnight, unconsulted LTN. But he still votes Green and he refuses to see the linkage.

21
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jenkida
jenkida
4 months ago

Smith has never had a job in the energy business, so has zero hands-on experience of carbon capture but is an academic who lives in the academic bubble of zero reality. How people like this are given professorships indicates how low the standards in UK universities have fallen and how such grifters can pull the wool over the eyes of even less qualified councillors and their ilk.

16
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Hardliner
Hardliner
4 months ago

Oxfordshire residents get bombarded by surveys like this, below, which OCC then ignore the results of. Please complete it, takes two minutes and a mass ‘none of the above‘ response might make them sit up. In this survey, OCC are seeking to use ANPR enforcement to raise revenue (from fines) to replace income they’ve lost through raising business rates too high, and making parking unfriendly, decimating town centres like Abingdon. Good retailers, and many jobs, have moved out of Oxford as a direct result of OCC’s traffic policies. Instead, OCC seek to sting motorists yet again, whilst making small towns look like prison camps with cameras and confusing signs everywhere

Luckily, OCC’s previous virtual signal – 20mph signs everywhere – seems to be widely ignored by drivers, and unenforced. It has been suggested that the little round ‘20’ disks are easily removed, and are just about the size of a pothole [of which there are of course thousands]

https://letstalk.oxfordshire.gov.uk/countywide_anpr2024

Last edited 4 months ago by Hardliner
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Arum
Arum
4 months ago
Reply to  Hardliner

20mph limits are widely ignored where I live too, and the city council is currently ‘consulting’ on partial reversion to 30mph – just as it removed the cycle lanes on main arteries that cost tens of thousands of pounds to install. Our council, like so many others up and down the land, is completely incompetent and virtually bankrupt.

8
0
Gezza England
Gezza England
4 months ago
Reply to  Arum

Surrey County Council like wasting our money on traffic dogma with no basis in fact. The Statement of Reasons for the proposed reduction from 40mph to 30mph outside my house was complete bollocks including a claim that it reduce pollution and CO2. I asked them how they would be measuring this and had they taken readings already to refer back to. No, of course not. So has it made any difference. No. Some younger drivers still squeal through the series of bends just as before. Nobody checks the speed. Even the Neighbourhood Speed Watch has not taken place since before covid and of course as I found out doing 50mph past them – you can do 60mph there and still slow down safely to my house – you just get a letter to from Surrey Police to put in the bin.

1
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Ron Smith
Ron Smith
4 months ago
Reply to  Arum

They are all strangling the life out of car drivers like a slow boiling frog. Often people who are asked about 20mph like it in their area, but not anywhere else. Here in Wales, I don’t remember being consulted about it, but they take your money anyway.

1
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
4 months ago
Reply to  Hardliner

Assuming that survey is just for Oxford residents to fill in, otherwise I would. I think Hitler never exploited the word ‘Consultation’ like they do today.

1
0
Hardliner
Hardliner
4 months ago
Reply to  Ron Smith

As I recall it can also be filled in by visitors, and when it asks for a postcode, just say OX1 or something

2
0
Adethefade
Adethefade
4 months ago

So what happens at the city’s boundary: are there 30,000ft perspex barriers stopping illegal immigration of CO2 from outside?

8
0
Hardliner
Hardliner
4 months ago
Reply to  Adethefade

100000 feet – they reach up to space. As soon as they are complete, Oxonians will either suffocate, or lose their atmosphere and be clamouring to be let out of the only door. Tee Hee….

8
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
4 months ago
Reply to  Adethefade

My thoughts exactly. When I read this garbage I had visions of a huge perspex funnel surrounding the whole of the Oxford council district and this funnel stretched all the way to heaven in order to ensure that the people of Oxford could enjoy their Nut Zero climate.

Beyond Bonkers.

7
0
Marque1
Marque1
4 months ago
Reply to  Adethefade

Just posted similar. I should have read on.

2
0
Albert
Albert
4 months ago

Taxation without representation springs to mind
Vote these people OUT or withhold council tax payments until they do what they are paid for.
Same applies for all underperforming councils.

6
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
4 months ago
Reply to  Albert

A staggered refusal to pay might be the answer.

Let’s say that small local districts agreed to withhold one months council tax and each month another district took up the campaign. This would involve only ten districts. Imagine the carnage in Town Hall offices. The staff would not be able to cope. This would cause absolute bedlam.

3
0
Gezza England
Gezza England
4 months ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Yes, many things only work due to mass compliance. Mass non-compliance would cause complete chaos. Looking forward to the farmers testing blockading food depots soon. Tony the Liar did introduce legislation to stop a future fuel depot blockade but not sure if that could be used on the farmers.

3
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
4 months ago
Reply to  Gezza England

One think i been doing since I only have a courtyard and not that much earth to grow stuff, Whenever I go to the supermarket, I always pick up a 4 pack of beaked beans. Building up quite a stash for whatever is coming.

0
0
Hester
Hester
4 months ago

Arrogance and flagrant waste of other people’s money. The only way to stop them is to cut off the supply, if sufficient Oxford citizens withheld Council tax then the council would fall or have to focus on serving the citizen rather than back scratching their mates.
If people continue to pay then things will only get worse,

9
0
Hardliner
Hardliner
4 months ago
Reply to  Hester

Hang on. You’re talking about a serious number of lefties and libdems in Oxfordshire… A graceful mix of town, gown, spires and rolling countryside, and a fertile breeding ground for the dis-graceful entitled/guilty cult, who will happily swap their VW Golf for an electric Polestar

Last edited 4 months ago by Hardliner
7
0
Albert
Albert
4 months ago
Reply to  Hester

The only way forward stop paying the piper!

6
0
kev
kev
4 months ago

Okay, lets assume (unrealistically), that is actually feasible to actually extract “excess” CO2 from the atmosphere over the entire Oxfordshire county area.

Its a (trace) gas, mixed among the other gases in the atmosphere.

How would they plan to stop the excess CO2 from neighbouring counties mixing with the atmospheric gas over the hallowed Oxfordshire county land mass?

Idiots! Totally Braindead imbeciles.

We know they know, none of this is even remotely feasible, we also know they can never break ranks from the insanity of the narrative.

7
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
4 months ago
Reply to  kev

“feasible to actually extract “excess” CO2 from the atmosphere”

Surely the Council wonks would be able to tell us what the correct level of CO2 in the atmosphere should be? Presumably they already know the figure. Why can’t they tell us?

3
0
Grim Ace
Grim Ace
4 months ago

I think the British people have become thick. They really deserve the coming economic, social, cultural and crime apocalypse that is coming. When the wealthy twats, who vote green and Illiberal Undemocrats, finally have burglars and rapists at their doors most days of the week, they may finally wake up. By then it’ll be too late and we’ll have routine violence and mayhem. The only solution then will be forming self defence groups. But at least there’ll be no rules, so we can avenge ourselves at will.

Last edited 4 months ago by Grim Ace
10
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
4 months ago
Reply to  Grim Ace

Reminds me of The Purge.

1
0
NeilParkin
NeilParkin
4 months ago

Solving problems that don’t exist will always be easier than solving problems that do. You don’t have to do that grubby stuff like confronting reality.

11
0
klf
klf
4 months ago

A deeply corrupted system.

the councillor for Wallingford surely assumes too much about the competences of a county council and his own mandate to tackle it. It’s true that he, as the Green Party candidate, won a healthy 58% of the vote, but he did so on a turnout of just 43%

And therein lies the problem. For whatever reasons, people are not motivated enough to vote for councillors who challenge these crackpot ideas (assuming there are such candidates). I guess that people have not suffered enough yet.

7
0
Gezza England
Gezza England
4 months ago
Reply to  klf

The problem is having the options to vote for somebody else. My district council – due to be scrapped by Ranting Rayner in her reduction of local democracy plans – the Tory scum were being paid to support a ‘garden village’. This translates into a small town of 4500 houses the same size as the council town. They lost power as the residents stepped up and got rid of them. And we have kept them out of power since.

2
0
klf
klf
4 months ago
Reply to  Gezza England

They lost power as the residents stepped up and got rid of them

Good.

 ‘garden village’. This translates into a small town of 4500 houses

More like a garden city!

2
0
James.M
James.M
4 months ago

The only solution to this groupthink is to purge the demos of the woke virus. No easy or quick to solutions to that one unfortunately. Maybe someone can invent a vaccine and put it in the water supply? Oops, that’s what they are doing to us already but for the opposite reason; sorry I forgot.

5
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
4 months ago

“Pulling CO2 out of the air may just be a waste of money.”

Correction:

Pulling CO2 out of the air is an extremely dangerous waste of money.

10
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
4 months ago

“which asks local councils pledge to ”

With a bit of a bunce thrown in, nudge nudge, wink wink!

2
0
Cotfordtags
Cotfordtags
4 months ago

Here’s an idea. Plants need food, in other words CO2, so if these idiots are going to starve plants and reduce the availability of vegetables, let’s ban the supply of vegetables into Oxford. That’ll upset the vegan bastards and quickly make them realise carbon dioxide is actually essential for life and is currently supplying more vegetables than before.

6
0
Marque1
Marque1
4 months ago

Will they commit to building an airtight barrier around Oxfordshire to prevent CO2 migration from other parts of the UK.

6
0
sskinner
sskinner
4 months ago

“According to Professor Smith’s profile at SSEE, he joined the school “from the U.K. Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) where he co-led the Climate Science Team and played a role in the legislation of the U.K.’s Net Zero target”.”

In other words he hasn’t done anything that is useful. He is not a wealth producer but a wealth extractor.

Last edited 4 months ago by sskinner
4
0
Pete Sutton
Pete Sutton
4 months ago

I wonder how many Oxford voters are academic colleagues of Prof Smith (of Smith School)?

3
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
4 months ago

It has gone downhill so much perhaps the saddest decline in all of England and there are thousands of contenders. They have done such a good job of destroying the spirit of the place. This was accomplished long ago in the mid 1990s. Nothing can withstand the demands of the system but most are too frightened to contemplate this.

3
0
shankar
shankar
4 months ago

As Voters we get governments we deserve. One has to assume all the voters who did not at the local election must be content with the direction of travel!

2
0
MadWolf303
MadWolf303
4 months ago

Why do these fool Nut Zero loons, think that removing all Co2 here, will effect the weather here, while the US, India, China, South America, Malyasia, Indonesia etc, do jack……

1
0
The Real Engineer
The Real Engineer
4 months ago

This Professor of CO2 removal should then be able to describe a commercially viable large scale method of CO2 removal with zero GHG or CO2 generation. I personally challenge him to do so, live in a interview on TV with me. He needs to exactly describe the energy usage, source, method of extraction, overall efficiency, plant life, disposal of any by-products and the exact cost per tonne removed and the plant cost to within say £1000. He also needs to tell how many staff are required. Then the question of who pays as presumably this will cause a severe reduction of costs elsewhere in the economy. As I am a Chartered Engineer with many years experience of many of these things, and a first degree in Materials Technology, he may well find this impossible. He should be Publicly vilified for his lack of knowledge, and his PhD in whatever withdrawn on the basis it is simply incorrect. Interesting idea I think!

0
0

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