…and by “room” I mean space, or area, not a room inside a building.
The first problem with Britishland is that it’s tiny — I mean, the entire United Kingdom can pretty much fit inside Oregon. The other problem is that (outside the cities) British countryside is unspeakably gorgeous. The third problem is that when (say) a political party screws up, the effect on the population as a whole can be nigh-catastrophic.
Here in Murka, by way of contrast, you can build a 2,500-acre solar- or wind farm with 600-ft turbines in, say, West Texas or anywhere in Nebraska and the chances are that unless you put it next to an interstate or similar, nobody’s even going to know it’s there. So when the solar panels are destroyed by a lightning strike or the wind turbines get blown over, it’s the proverbial tree falling over in a forest — nobody notices.
The problem is that in Britishland, 2,500 acres is a big deal, and anything you build there (e.g. those 600-ft turbines) will not only be visible, but the chances are that they will, in the words of Jeremy Clarkson’s county planning commission, spoil an Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty. And still on Clarkson’s farm, remember how the local council gives him a hard time on his farm of only 1,000 acres — less than half of one of those solar/wind farms as mentioned above. How much more trouble would said councils kick up over so large an intrusion?
Well, not much, as it turns out. Why?
The new Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero didn’t waste any time in announcing his approval of a solar farm on the Cambridgeshire and Suffolk border covering 1,000 hectares or nearly 2,500 acres. This £600million development, Miliband said, was ‘crucial to achieving Net Zero’ and would provide ‘an abundant source of cleaner, cheaper energy on the mission towards 2030’. This is just one project out of many across the farmland and moors of Britain.
Miliband is also planning the imposition of wind turbines up to 200 metres (656ft) in height, again ignoring the wishes of local residents and their potential harm to the countryside. For example, there are plans to site 65 turbines of 200 metres on 2,300 hectares of Walshaw Moor, in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. Campaigners against the scheme believe it will be damaging to bird life, such as skylarks and curlews, and increase the risk of flooding. Up to 10,000 tons of concrete will be needed to support these turbines at their base, together with quarried material for 22 miles of access roads. The unsightly structures will be visible for miles in a beloved part of the country. These developments include the construction of a network of transmission pylons across the countryside.
Not to be outdone by Ed Miliband, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has decided that part of the green belt should be relabelled grey to help build a target of 1.5million homes in five years. And while Rayner thinks some green belt land is ugly, she has dropped the need for aesthetically pleasing buildings. She protests that she isn’t going to build unsightly houses yet she is dismissive of the concept of beauty, commenting that ‘beautiful’ means nothing really, but ‘one thing to one person and another thing to another’.
Remember that of all the terminally-destroyed habitats in the world (e.g. the Aral Sea in the former U.S.S.R.), pretty much all of them are to be found in socialist- or formerly-socialist countries.
Nothing, it appears, gives a Stalinist (e.g. the aforementioned Rayner) greater pleasure than to screw up the environment — whether it’s to fulfill the latest Glorious Five-Year Plan or, as above, Net Zero (a nominally eco-sensitive initiative). After all, as Rayner admits, beauty is just a bourgeois concept, after all.
I am amazed that the average British voter cannot see (or refuses to see) that all the great socialist dreams are never actually in pursuit of their stated goals (improve the lot of the peasants/proletariat, or “save” the environment), but are rather simply a nostrum for oppressing and controlling people’s lives. But whatever, the Brits voted these foul Stalinists into power, and now they’re going to reap the whirlwind of the consequences.
Ordinarily in a situation like this, I’d just ask Pontius to hand over the basin; but the fact is that I’m truly saddened by what’s going to happen to one of the most beautiful countrysides on Earth, a countryside that I’ve visited often and love — love a lot more than the British governing class, to start off with.
“the entire United Kingdom can pretty much fit inside Oregon.”
Is that a threat? Oregon would kill them without hesitation.
In geostrategic terms, Oregon is 4/5 extremely conservative and heavily armed. Nobody ever goes to Portland, Salem or Eugene any more.
Politically, the I-5 corridor belongs to another state, the State of Socialism, Disarray, and Confusion.
In the clear light of day, I deem the tone of my comment to be needlessly antagonistic. Sorry ’bout that. Maybe I’m a little touchy because Oregon politics is so screwed up.
It’s true about the guns, though. If you want to live in a place where open carry is common and where the official policy of law enforcement is “you’re on your own, we’re all at home asleep”, check out Josephine County.
Or just about anyplace in NV outside of Clark County.
Two words for Britain and, hell, include Ireland, too … theme park.
With any luck Labour will be a one-term government.
I know fuel is expensive in the UK but a couple of well placed gallons of kerosene could stymie the project.
It’s long past time for GB to take up the American tradition of dumping tea, tar and feathers etc. It’s long overdue in this country as well
Now you know why virtually every BBC and European television series where folks travel countryside have a gaggle of windmills spinning in the background. Just like killer transies and stabber ragheads, the People Who Know Better Than YOU have been normalizing those stupid windmills.
Here in the Peoples Republic of Taxachusettes the Greenies are already feeling the heat from the consequences of their latest boondoggle. After years of intense effort, the Vineyard Wind project has installed 10 of the projected 45 wind turbines. (The pervious 100 turbine Cape Wind Project succumbed to strong NIMBY pressure from the locals.) Earlier this summer the beaches of Martha’s Vineyard were closed in on order to cleanup the debris from the failure of just one of the massive blades ( that were supposed to be failure proof) Turns out that shattered Fiberglass is very sharp and floats and combines well with beach sand. The “beautiful People” that summer on the Island ( Including now “The One Barry O”) are not happy.
“…all the great socialist dreams are never…in pursuit of their stated goals…”
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We operate a small organic teaching farm near the outskirts of Eugene Oregon.
Running with the dogs at sunrise, I carry bags to collect redeemable cans and bottles.
.
I am constantly amazed by soda and beer drinkers and their loss of a dime redemption for each container they discard without turning it in.
.
And I got to thinking.
What if.
What if the big bureaucrats push to recycle these has nothing to do with SavingTheEnvironment©, but instead, has everything to do with hoping none of the containers gets redeemed so they can keep the deposit.
The redemption rate is highly dependent on the amount of the deposit. for States that have a 10 cent deposit it hovers around 60% but rises to ~ 80% for 10 cent deposits. My deposit return rate is much higher since I live near the NH border ( No Deposit ) So I can buy in NH and Return in Mass. The SKU is the same so the Barcode readers happily return the nickel I didn’t give the state.
https://www.reloopplatform.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Fact-Sheet-Performance-3May2021.pdf
The redemption rate is highly dependent on the amount of the deposit. for States that have a 5 cent deposit it hovers around 60% but rises to ~ 80% for 10 cent deposits. My deposit return rate is much higher since I live near the NH border ( No Deposit ) So I can buy in NH and Return in Mass. The SKU is the same so the Barcode readers happily return the nickel I didn’t give the state.
https://www.reloopplatform.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Fact-Sheet-Performance-3May2021.pdf
And when the whole enterprise turns to shit, I presume they’ll have room for this–
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pieces-of-wind-turbine-blades-are-buried-in-the-casper-news-photo/1222855002
A few years back, my oldest son took me along on a sojourn to the hunting camp owned and operated by his employer (Rogers-O’brien Construction, Dallas, TX) for the benefit of employees. I don’t but recall the exact location now, but about a three hour drive W-NW from Dallas. The country north of the camp was flat farm land populated by wind turbines, the towers being about 200 ft. high. The closest turbine to the camp was about a mile away. At night, the entire northern horizon was populated by tower-top randomly winking red navigation lights. The effect was positively Orwellian.